Hope you all had a fantastic summer vacation. As for myself I had a stressful vacation.

When summer vacation was approaching, I was already planning to go to somewhere, however, once I looked up passport, I was shocked!!! I discovered my spouse visa was expired for 2 months. So, right away my family and I went to the immigration office to explain the situation and the officer directed us to discuss the matter at ” voluntary appearance” (V.A.) office. And that was how my stressful summer vacation started.

Since I know this was a very serious matter,so I conducted some research, trying to understand what would be the worst case scenario, and how other foreigners might went through with the same or similar situation like my case. I was very thankful to those people who shared their experiences and very fortunately they all received their spouse visas eventually.

Here is my case and I think it would be worthwhile to share this with other foreigners, not to encourage you by saying “don’t worry if you forget to renew it, you are still fine”. I am sure we never wish to violate the law intentionally but sometimes things just does not fall into place. Therefore, in case you forget to renew your spouse visa like me,hopefully the below information would ease your stress on renewing an expired spouse visa.

My family ( including my husband and my son) all appeared at the Immigration office at 9:00am and I had two apology letters prepared in advance, written both in English and Japanese. Just to show that I have genuinely forgotten to renew my visa and I was very regretful.

I was given a choice to go through the deportation procedure in which granting a special visa to continue my stay MAYBE permitted or deportation for a year and may apply the visa again after a year. We decided to go through the deportation process. The Immigration Inspector of Ministry of Justice will determine whether my case will fall under the departure order, or whether I have a valid and legitimate reason to obtain a special visa to stay in Japan.

So, on the same day at the V.A. office my husband and I had a one on one interview conducted separately. The officer asked many questions about our living situation and all the details. Next was obtaining finger prints and explaining that I will not be arrested because I appeared at the immigration office voluntarily. However, if the police stopped me in the street and asking for a check up, I may get arrested, because I do not possess a valid visa, in other words I no longer have the legal rights to stay. This really makes me felt frustrating and terrible.

So, after the interviews, I was told not to leave or go anywhere and “always” answer the call from the V.A. office, and submit all the necessary documents within 2 weeks (by mail, I personally recommend a registered mail, so no more excuses of not getting to them on time and safe.) I had all the documents prepared and submitted asap and about a week later I received a call from the V.A. office asking to be appeared at the V.A. office.

Finally they granted me a 3 year spouse visa ( again). And I was asked to stay in a room with the TV on for 2-3 hrs. Then I was released and back to normal lifestyle. I did not receive a new stamp on my passport, instead I received a new residence card, I no longer required to obtain a stamp on my passport stating my spouse is being granted and valid within 3 years.

The residence card allows the traveler to travel within a year (but you must return back to Japan within a year). And the best thing about this residence card is that the expiry date is exactly the same as the visa, that means I will never make the same mistake again where the Gaijin card is still valid until another 2 more months but the spouse visa was already expired 2 months ago on my passport – _- !

One card, one expiry date and single re-entry/ multiple entries are all contained in the new residence card, simple and easy!!!