Please let me clarify what should I do. I finally submitted a divorce papers (離婚届) yesterday. I wanted to keep my current name so I wanted to submit also a document called 離婚の際に称していた氏を称する届. Because I work under my current family name and I built a little career on this, got some awards, certifications, diplomas etc. Changing it would be hard for me and I to be honest I got used to it.
A very nice clerk in city office told me I don't need to submit anything because I'm a foreigner. I will keep my current married name unless I change it by myself in embassy or in my country. She said this procedure refers only to Japanese residents with Koseki.
But I'm not sure. I found a lot of information in English that submitting this document is necessary. In 3 months my family name will be automatically converted and I can loose my permanent residency, I can be penalized etc. Chat gpt told me the same. Japanese pages refers to Japanese couples and it's understandable there's nothing about foreigners.
If you have any experience please tell me if it's really true. Clerk was sure about that but I'm anxious af.
by Comfortable-Soup4895