sapporo.myfastforum.org

jeremyc · Joined: 05 Mar 2007 Posts: 10 Location: Sapporo

Very easy to get despite Japan being pretty much monocultural.
4000 yen plus a tax stamp, 1 page application and 3 year renewals.

Plus you get the added advantage of having a Japanese wife, hehe.
The bank's are still reluctant to offer you a bank loan unless you have a permanent residency visa, anything that needs to be renewed or says temporary on it, basically forget it unless you have a huge deposit and you are mortgaging a property. You might get lucky with credit card companies that charge very high interest as their prerequisites only require you to be over 18 and have a steady job.

Although looking at Shinsei Bank website there is no mention of credit card applications on the english website but the japanese website does. So its my guess, if you cant speak/read/write Japanese, dont bother with us.

Admin · Posted: Fri Jun 08, 2007 10:31 pm Post subject: thanks for that...

The spouse visa sounds like it's no better than my current working visa...
But what about premanent residency ?

I assume if you have a spouse visa, you're probably only a step or two away from permanent residency ?

How long do you need to live in Japan on a spouse visa before gaining permanent residency ?

And finally, for those people without Japanese husbands or wives, but who wish to get a spouse visa - does the department of immigration issue applicants with spouses or is it strictly B.Y.O ?

jeremyc · Joined: 05 Mar 2007 Posts: 10 Location: Sapporo

you say the spouse visa is no better than the visa you have now...
the spouse visa has no restrictions whatsoever for the visa holder regarding working/living rights, but it still is a temporary visa, so i guess it has the same restrictions as your visa, as it is also temporary.

you will need to have some sort of temporary visa for a few years before applying for permanent residency, but i hear gaining permanent residency is not so easy, you still need someone to act as a guarantor in the application process, ie someone who can vouch for you and say you are a good boy...

i think its about 3 years before you can apply for PR.
its much easier to gain a visa here than it is in Australia. and much less expensive. whatever visa you have now and whichever visa you obtain in the future, bear in mind you will always be a foreigner here. even if you have a PR visa it wont stop some insitutions holding a 'grudge' against you and not providing you with a service.