My wife and I have begun the process of formally relocating to Japan with intent to live there full time, but are having a little trouble in terms of figuring out which visa would be best to pursue.
With the Digital Nomad Visa being fairly new, short, and unable to be extended, I feel as if taking that route may lead to a plethora of headaches. Especially considering you need at least five years of Japanese residency to begin the naturalization process, and having to leave the country every six months just to reapply seems unnecessarily complicated.
And while I feel as if I am one of the rare cases in which I'd actually be considered for an Artist Visa (Established and financially independent freelance artist working on culturally relevant material), I do know through research that these are not issued very often and are much harder to obtain.
The main concerns I have can be broken down like this:
- For those living in Japan under the Digital Nomad Visa, just how interruptive is it to repeatedly go through the application process?
- Since the Japanese naturalization process requires five years of living in Japan, does leaving the country to reapply for a new Digital Nomad Visa every six months reset this? And if so, how can that be avoided?
- If there's some other sort of Visa I haven't learned about that would be better suited to my scenario.
This is all a bit confusing as a self-employed artist without any ties to a Japanese company that could serve as a sponsor, and is only exacerbated by the fact that my wife would be coming with me as an unemployed dependent. And I want to make sure that I won't ultimately encounter a scenario that would require us to leave the country as we have many pets we'll be taking with us that require regular care.
Thanks in advance for your help!
by Dj_no_style