My husband is Japanese and I’m currently on a 5-year spouse visa. I’ve lived in Japan (on and off) since 2012, we have four children here, and I’m considering applying for permanent residency before that fee increase in October. Bro we are rushing lol.
We’re trying to figure out whether it makes sense to apply now or wait a few years because of one issue in my husband’s tax history.
So he has generally paid his taxes, pension, and health insurance, but in 2025 there was a period when his resident tax switched from being automatically deducted from his salary (特別徴収) to him having to pay it himself (普通徴収).
He missed one of the resident tax payment deadlines and received a 督促状. He then paid it, so there is no outstanding tax now, but obviously the payment was made after the original deadline.
There’s also one older year when his income was very low and he was non-taxable. He didn’t file a 確定申告 because he believed his income was below the amount requiring one. We’re going to confirm with the tax office/city hall whether he actually had any filing obligation and what certificate we need for that year, but we really doubt it. Also he said he’s worried to even ask ‘cause if it’s true he owes, he can’t afford to pay that right now. As far as we currently understand, there was no unpaid tax for that year.
The thing we’re mainly worried about is the 2025 late resident tax payment and 督促状 ‘cause the PR document checklist asks for the most recent three years of resident tax records and, where applicable, proof that payments were made on time. So this late payment would fall within the period Immigration reviews if I apply now.
My husband thinks we should wait about three years so the late payment is outside the standard three-year document period and he can build three clean years of stable employment and automatic payroll deductions. I’m wondering if that’s really necessary?
I get that nobody on reddit can predict whether immigration will approve an individual application. I’m mainly interested in actual experiences, especially recent applications via the Japanese spouse route.
If you were in this situation, would you apply and explain the single late payment, or wait until you had a completely clean three-year tax record?
EDIT: Just to be clear, there is currently no unpaid resident tax. The concern is that one payment was made after its deadline and a 督促状 had already been issued.
