Married Aliens: What about my gaijin spouse’s Japanese visa during long stays overseas?
MARRIED ALIEN: I want your advice on a a Visa related matter. My wife would be going to the university in the US for her Phd next month. She is French and has a Dependent Visa (based on my Engineer Visa as a French engineer) for Japan til 2009. She will be coming to Japan once every six months or so whenever there is a short/long break at the university. Now my question is:
1) Does she have to surrender her Gaijin card at the imiigration when she goes to the US?
2) Does she have to get a tourist Visa everytime she travels to Tokyo to meet me or can she maintain her dependent Visa status even as she studied in the US?
TARO: If she’s going to the university in the USA under a student visa on a French passport but entering Japan under a Dependent Visa, both the US and Japan passport control officiers might give her the anal probe or worse. However, she should be able to get away with it.
MARRIED ALIEN: Thanks a lot for your advice. I had the HR Manager of my office at IBM Japan send an email to the Tokyo immigration bureau inquiring about this issue and they replied back saying that this is not a problem. Basically they said that as long as the J-Visa period is effective for my wife and the Re-entry permit is valid, she can come back and forth between Japan and the US as many times as she likes.
TARO: Well gr-r-reat! :D I would have thought that Japan would be more picky about spouse visa.
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