General Advice needed on move to Japan...

yeah im trying - japanese is sooo hard to learn as you probabley know...

if im completely honest i'd pretty much take any job to make living in japan possible...

ideally i'd like to do something i know, but if that can't happen then i don't really mind

so , the tokyo immigration office emailed back about my question. Got the longest email ever back.

however - it didnt answer all my questions...

a few being,..

do we have to get certificate of eligibility issued in japan or can we do it from here?
can we do it now but not apply for JP passport/citizenship for 18months or so?
If she applies now, and cert is only valid for X amount of time, so she gets citizenship this year say , do we have to move there immediatly from NZ?

dpes anyone have more info on Cert of Eligibility ??

Thanks in advance

Jodznsez said:

so , the tokyo immigration office emailed back about my question. Got the longest email ever back.

however - it didnt answer all my questions...

a few being,..

do we have to get certificate of eligibility issued in japan or can we do it from here?
can we do it now but not apply for JP passport/citizenship for 18months or so?
If she applies now, and cert is only valid for X amount of time, so she gets citizenship this year say , do we have to move there immediatly from NZ?

dpes anyone have more info on Cert of Eligibility ??

Thanks in advance

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I think you should consider the process step by step.
Is your wife eligible for Japanese chitizenship?
If yes, then next step is for you to get spouse visa.
But if no, then you have to plan about visa for each first.

Have you checked out this web page by MOFA?
http://www.mofa.go.jp/j_info/visit/visa/03.html
It explains about visa and c.o.e. It clearly states:

The Certificate of Eligibility has the advantage of reducing the time required to obtain a visa and complete immigration procedures

Click to expand...

So before worrying about the validity of coe, you should check and decide what visa you're going to apply first.

Also

Foreigners can apply for a visa without such a certificate at an embassy or consulate in the case of long-term stays also. But if the purpose of the stay is work, the application documents might be forwarded to a regional immigration authority in Japan for screening. In this case applicants are advised to leave plenty of time for their application to be processed.

Click to expand...

I found more info at another site:
http://www.sarkaroffice.com/coe.html

Validity of Certificate of Eligibility
The certificate of eligibility is valid for 3 months from the date of issue and within the validity a visa should be obtained and landing in Japan should be done.

Click to expand...

I'm sure you can find a lot more information by using google...

Ive read that MOFA site a few times, it baffles me.

Yes wife is eligible as daughter of JP passport holder, our reply from tokyo said it.
Spouse is for me i thought a husband?

I'm finding it hard to grasp as most english pages seem translated and the translations are generally poor !! haahaa

so cert is valid for 3 months and in that time the citizen ship app has to be in the system i guess. Still do i need to get cert for wife in JP or not!??

The whole point of having her citizenship recognized is that with citizenship she is entirely free of any of that visa/coe crap....and that it removes the degree barrier from you and lets you slide in on a spouse visa. Go ahead and get the citizenship thing taken care of now; it will be good until the day she dies. Once all that is straightened out then you can wait until a few months before a planned move to handle your side of the process. But with you being a spouse of a citizen and all it all boils down to more of a bureaucratic formality than a "Gee, I hope they approve this" nail-biting sort of proposition.

With citizenship Japan has no basis for keeping your wife out. Remember, "Home is the place that when you go there, they have to let you in."

sweet...so basically get it all sorted for her asap and sort me later - we're not planning to go over there for at least 2 years from now,

That's it in a nutshell. Get her bit taken care of and you're golden....at least as far as getting in the door is concerned.