If a foreigner with a spouse visa gets divorced in Japan, he or she cannot, in principle, live in Japan.
However, if certain conditions are met, a "long-term resident" status may be granted to continue living in Japan even after divorce. This application to change to a long-term resident after divorce is not a legally stipulated residence status, but is a special permission granted as a "humanitarian consideration,'' and the Immigration Bureau does not publicize the screening criteria.
One client divorced her Japanese husband because she could no longer tolerate domestic violence, but after her post-divorce visa application was rejected, she came to us for advice. The visa she was given was a 31-day departure visa, so we had to reapply quickly. We prepared her visa application in a short period of time, and she was granted a long-term resident visa to continue living in Japan.

All of our client's families, whose applications for refugee status had been rejected and who only had visas for a short period of time to leave Japan, successfully had their visas changed. The father of the family obtained a business manager visa, while the mother and children obtained dependent visas.

When they came to our office for consultation, their condition was serious as follows.

・Company establishment registration has not been completed
・The office was not found.
・There was no evidence of how the capital was prepared.
・Insufficient concept of business plan

Due to the serious situation described above, we completed all preparations in a short period of time and had the immigration office accept the visa application. The Immigration Bureau requested additional documents and explanations, but we responded perfectly to all of them. As a result, the entire family was able to successfully get visas and be able to continue living in Japan.

Our office has experience supporting a wide range of businesses, from individual businesses to large publicly traded corporations. Additionally, the lawyers in our office have extensive experience and cover all types of work visa applications in Japan.

A company came to our office to discuss hiring a plant maintenance engineer for nuclear power plants and thermal power plants. We investigated all applicable cases, but there was no record of anyone being able to obtain an engineer visa (rather than a technical intern trainee) as a plant engineer under the jurisdiction of the Tokyo Immigration Bureau. Other agencies may refuse, saying they have no prior experience of obtaining permission. However, we will attempt any case in which we see a prospect of approval, even if there has been no success in the past. We carefully explained to the Immigration Bureau the specialized nature of plant engineer work, and we were the first company in the jurisdiction of the Tokyo Immigration Bureau to successfully obtain a visa for a plant maintenance engineer.

There are many cases where Filipinos have problems applying for marriage and divorce visas. Clients who come to our office for consultation have a variety of problems, such as those who have been divorced many times, or those who are pregnant with a child from someone other than their husband (the person they had an affair with).

The most difficult case we have handled is a remarriage case between Filipinos who did not go through the divorce procedures in their home country. This was a case where we requested another famous legal office (one of the most famous offices in Japan for visa support for Filipinos), but the application was rejected.

They requested us as their last chance in Japan. We have four Filipino staff members and have overwhelming expertise and strength that other legal offices cannot match when it comes to visa applications for Filipinos. As a result, we used our unique legal interpretation to persuade the immigration authorities in their case, and they succeeded in obtaining spouse visas.

The standards for applying for permanent residence in Japan have become very strict in recent years. Our office has a team that specializes in permanent residence applications, and they are well versed in immigration laws and immigration screening standards. We have supported foreigners' permanent residence applications for various visa types, including work visas, spouse visas, long-term resident visas, and highly skilled professional visas.

Among them, there were some that were more difficult. One of these cases is a case where the person was not in Japan for a long period of time. In this case, the applicant spent 10 months of the year in his home country due to unavoidable circumstances. This did not meet immigration standards and would probably have been refused even if the client went to another legal firm.

However, as we are familiar with immigration screening standards, we did not miss the chance to approve his application for permanent residence. We told him that he had a chance to get permission, and we accepted his application for permanent residence. We carefully explained his situation to the immigration authorities, and he was granted permanent resident status.

Generally speaking, the older the child, the more difficult the visa application becomes, and it is not particularly easy to apply for a COE for children over the age of 16. Immigration authorities take into account many factors when deciding whether or not to permit. This includes not only the legal relationship between parents and children living in Japan, the biological parent-child relationship, but also the income of dependents, past support records, future support plans in Japan, etc.

This client had never been to Japan until he was 17 years old, and had several problems, including:

・There was a delay in submitting the birth certificate.
・The mother did not declare the child's existence to the immigration authorities when she arrived in Japan.
・Mother(supporter)'s income was not stable.
・Why did they decide to bring their children to Japan now. (Immigration officials actually asked for additional explanations.)

We resolved all of the above issues and our client was issued a COE just before the child turned 18.

In general, it is difficult for couples with a large age difference to apply for a spousal visa. This is because the Immigration Bureau is always on the lookout for fake marriages, and if the age difference is extremely large, they will doubt the authenticity of the marriage. Although the age difference between this client and his wife was more than 20 years, we understood that their marriage was based on true love, so we accepted the request after explaining that it was not an easy request.

Immigration officials asked for additional explanations and documentation, and the application was not as simple as it had first appeared. However, we carefully explained the circumstances of the applicant couple to the immigration authorities, and in the end, the applicant succeeded in obtaining a spouse visa.

This case was one of the most difficult in the history of our office. They had very serious problems. They came to our office with their visas still valid, but there was no legal visa available for them, so they had no choice but to go into overstay status.

・Their families have a history of being deported in the past for illegally overstaying, and this is their second overstay.
・Parents were not eligible to obtain any status of residence.
・Parents were suspected of making false applications in the past.
・Immigration officials told them, "99% of you will not be granted a visa, so go back to your home country now."

But they trusted us and left us their last chance. We used our unique legal interpretation and legal skills to prepare documents for the applicant's family. Although the immigration examination took a long time, the entire family succeeded in obtaining visas to live in Japan.

*This case is featured on the Immigration Bureau's website as a rare case in which special permission for stay was granted.