Hi everyone,
I’m currently a student in Japan, my residence card has the information from my Spain passport. I’ve set up my phone number and bank account using this identity. However, I’m planning to switch to a Canadian Working Holiday visa next year (thankfully extended to 2 years!).
Here’s the problem: my Canadian passport has a different name than my Spain one. I’m concerned about how this might affect my ability to maintain my current phone number and bank account. I’d prefer not to have to start everything over again.
Does anyone have experience or advice on how to handle this transition smoothly? Specifically:
.- Is it possible to keep my current phone number and bank account under my new visa, even though the names differ?
.-If not, are there any tips to make this process as painless as possible?
Are there any potential issues with Japanese authorities or banks regarding different names on the documents?
Any advice or insight would be greatly appreciated! Thank you so much in advance!
by pseudo_r
1 comment
Just so we’re clear here, you cannot change your status to a working holiday while you’re in Japan. So you’re going to have to leave Japan and inform immigration that you’re not coming back so that they punch a hole in your residence card and effectively end your life in Japan. Then you’ll have to establish residency in Canada. You can expect this to take several months. Then you can apply for the working holiday visa and come back to Japan. So plan to be out of Japan for at least 6 months and maybe a year.
When you come back you’ll have a different name and a different nationality. That is going to make picking up any of these existing accounts extremely difficult if not impossible.
My advice would be to visit immigration as soon as possible and shift your identity while you’re still a legal resident. Details on how to update your residence card are here: https://www.moj.go.jp/isa/applications/procedures/nyuukokukanri10_00009.html?hl=en
Get everything moved over to the Canadian name and passport number now, and hope that when you do eventually make it back you’re able to reactivate everything. Good luck!