Family VISA

Marriage

Your spouse and/or child(ren) can stay with Spouse/family visa.
For a spouse outside Japan, Certificate of Eligibility (COE) needs to be obtained.
For a spouse whose residence in Japan, change of visa need to be applied.

For both cases, marriage need to be done priori to Visa application.
Japanese government does not issue fianc? visa. So by the time of spouse visa application,
you need to prove you and your spouse are legally married.

VISAs concerning marriage
Spouse, etc. of a Japanese national (Examples: spouse of a Japanese national, biological child of a Japanese national)
Spouse, etc. of a permanent resident (Examples: spouse of a permanent resident, biological child of a permanent resident)

List of Necessary Documents

Check at Immigration Bureau/Ministry of Laws

Divorce

When a foreign national gets divorce, his/her spouse visa get lost. However you have a possibility to stay in Japan as long as conditions bellow are satisfied.

  • Have child → Long-term resident visa
  • Married over five years → permanent residence visa

However the possibility of getting these visa highly depends on personal situation.
Please consult before you apply.

Adaption

To adapted child (up to about 18 years old), Long-term resident visa can be issued.
In other words, you cannot invite adapted child over 18 years old under long-term resident visa. This is the same for biological child over 18years old.

In addition, adaption procedure between child of foreign spouses and Japanese spouse does not automatically mean child of foreign spouses get a Japanese nationality nor resident visa. You must go through the naturalization process or visa application process separately in order to take Japanese nationality or visa status.

Adaption process is;

In Japan, governing law of adaption is either national law of the adopted child or one of the adoptive parents.
For a case of the nationality of adoptive parent is different, national law of the adopted child is always applied. It means, for example, if the national law of adapted child requires the consent of relatives, i.e. uncles, other children, these requirements need to be met.

For international adaption, you need follow requirements by multiple national laws of different countries. These procedure are highly complicated as you can easily imagine.