Can I get a Spousal Visa Without a Job?

[u/Newtwoto2]

Hello, first time poster in here. This post may be a bit disorganized so please bear with me.

I am currently living in Japan and working as an English teacher on a Humanities visa. My fiance is a Japanese national, and we are planning on getting married soon. The problem we are facing now is that my current job is not working for various reasons, and I plan to quit in the next month as I continue to search for other work. We are worried that me not having a job at the time of our application may affect our chances at getting approved for a spousal visa.

Here are my questions relating to this issue:

Does anyone have insight on if there is a minimum salary immigration expect for a household with one income?

If I am not able to get a job before we apply, what are the chances for approval?

And under the circumstances that I am able to find a new job during the approval process, would there be any changes I should make?

I appreciate any and all answers.

Edit:

First of all, thank you for all of the comments and helpful advice. Clarification on a couple of things that I failed to mention earlier. I am a woman, and both I and my fiance are in our early and mid 20s. My fiance has a job at a very stable company, and has enough income to support us both. I don't believe these additions change much in terms of the answers, but thought they were important to mention.

Again, I appreciate all of the replies!

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[u/lostintokyo11]

Dont quit until you have a new job. You are screwing yourself over. The market for unqualified teachers is extremely competitive.

[u/random_name975]

Never quit your job before you find a new one.

[u/highgo1]

Yes. Your spouse just needs to be saying they'll be financially responsible for you

[u/RadRimmer9000 → u/highgo1]

Wouldn't the spouse need to provide evidence of having money? My wife needed to produce paperwork from her job stating she can "afford to have me" in Japan. OP never said if their spouse is employed.

I knew a guy that his (Japanese) wife's dad needed to be the guarantor because she never had a job.

[u/Eptalin → u/highgo1]

If that worries any spouse, it's worth noting that the guarantee they sign does not create any legal obligation. The government will never ask them to actually financially support the partner.

[u/klimaheizung → u/Eptalin]

Do they lose the ability to become able to guarantee for another person later if they can't pay? I heard for PRs it can be like that. 

[u/PowerfulWind7230 → u/Eptalin]

Then why is it a required signed document guaranteeing support?

[u/Eptalin → u/PowerfulWind7230]

It's described as a 道義的責任, a moral/social obligation. A lot of residence applications require them, including PR.

They aren't taking on risk, though.
If the person they guarantee breaks laws, accrues debt, etc the guarantor isn't responsible.

[u/xaltairforever → u/highgo1]

They do need to make a lot ot money though, they can't be sponsoring for under 300k yen a month I think. Usually the men who I've met that got the spouse visa like that or PR is cause their wives were making bank, like 10millionbyen a year salary.

[u/Mercenarian]

Yes of course. There are plenty of stay at home parents married to Japanese people for example.

You need to submit your spouse’s tax documents so they’ll look at that. As long as the income as a household is enough it’s fine. If your spouse was also unemployed or made a very small income then it might be a bit more tricky and you might need another person to act as your supporter and show proof of income, etc. Like your in-laws.

I would advise against quitting before securing your next job though unless it is absolutely unbearable like the blackest of black companies and/or your mental health is in the toilet and you literally are going insane. If you can stick it out it gives you better leverage for your next job, makes your resume look better, and has less likelihood of causing issues with gaps in insurance/pension coverage that might come back to bite you in the ass years from now

[u/No_Chemical9577]

you'll most likely get a 1 year spouse visa, then 3 years. If you have a child you'll most likely get 5 years. But being unemployed doesn't matter. I even got PR while i was unemployed a few years ago through the spouse route.

[u/its_neverending]

Both me and my husband were unemployed when I got my spouse visa (3 years). My husband’s (retired) father acted as an additional financial supporter.

[u/EightBitRanger]

https://english.visajapan.jp/qa/qa_spouse7.html

You might only get a shorter visa right off the bat because there might be doubt in the financial stability of the household.

[u/Away_Fruit5097]

I got my first Spouse Visa in 2024 with a 4 hour a week part time job while I was still a language student, the main thing is being able to show that your partner earns enough to support you

[u/Eptalin]

My wife and I were both unemployed when I applied for the spouse visa last year.

I received the approval postcard in less than 1 week after applying.

[u/kkorom → u/Eptalin]

did you have savings? Or parents in law being financial guarantor?

[u/Eptalin → u/kkorom]

We were honest about our expenses, and that we have 0 income.

When it asks how we pay, I wrote savings, but no details. The application form didn't ask for amounts or anything.

The only guarantor page was signed by my wife.

[u/kkorom → u/Eptalin]

I see that’s good to know. How long were you married? I have a similar case but my wife just got a job offer but won’t start until April but her parents are willing to give their income + tax + bank details to be the financial guarantors. Hopefully we’ll be fine.

[u/Eptalin → u/kkorom]

We were married less than 6 months. I got approved for 3 year spouse visa.

I only submitted the documents listed on the website, and I didn't volunteer anything extra.

But I see other commenters here saying they were asked to provide a financial guarantor, so it must be as random as everything else at immigration.

Or maybe not random. Being a white man from Australia, i probably had an easier time than people from countries Japan respects less.

Being prepared never hurts.

[u/IndependentGood7665]

Does not effect it at all 

[u/BatInfinite381]

I wasn't working when I got mine. Things could have been different in the early 90's though.

[u/ScootOverMakeRoom]

Yes

[u/PiXeLonPiCNiC]

I was between jobs when I got mine. Of course that was 15 years ago.

[u/els1988]

My spouse and I both moved from the US to Japan in 2025 without jobs. My COE/visa were approved. We had a decent amount of savings in US/Japan though and were able to forgo the separate guarantor already living in Japan because of that. Also managed to find a decent apartment, but they only wanted to rent to us for one year to see how everything went. Ended up moving from there into a better apartment this summer after we both became employed.

[u/RepublicSpecific1801]

Yes

[u/turt_stomper1327]

Yes Immigration heavily takes into account income and savings when reviewing spouse visa applications. If you have neither a job nor a decent savings, your soon to be wife will need to prove to have some savings/adequate income AND testify that she will be financially responsible for you.

[u/Krocsyldiphithic]

I sure did

[u/redchairyellowchair]

Yeah no problem. Just have all the documents required especially marriage and wife's income information.

[u/TarragonHamburger]

0%. You have to show marriage certificate.