Jean-Marc Desperrier wrote:
> Declan Murphy wrote:
> 
>> And in the case of a spouse visa, since it is issued on the premise 
>> that the holder is married to and living with a Japanese national, an 
>> extended absence would result in the eventual termination of the visa 
>> - the only exceptions being where the Japanese spouse was also absent 
>> for the same/similar period.
> 
> What would happen in the reverse situation ? Foreign spouse living in 
> Japon, but japanese spouse outside. I know that's strange, but I have 
> met some people who I thought might have been tempted to do something 
> like that.

My understanding is that the reverse situation would be treated no 
differently. One aspect of (one of) my jobs involves working as a visa 
proxy for the Immigration Bureau - collecting and preparing the 
documentation for the certificate of eligibility. Part of the gig 
involves attending briefings at the Nagoya bureau, this kind of thing 
comes up frequently because there are a small but growing number of 
cases of shonky marriages for visa purposes.

> What you say sounds similar to a mariage invalidation because the spouse 
> do not live together, in fact something like that can happen in my own 
> country but only during the first year of mariage.
> 
> Or the mariage is still perfectly valid, but the immigration will 
> systematically refuse spouse visa ?

They will usually give the benefit of the doubt to the couple, but to be 
honest, to some extent their decision invariably is influenced almost 
entirely by their perception of what is proper for certain nationalities 
and the gender of the spouse. Quite a few spouse visas are refused. I am 
still a bit surprised.

> Would they do that in any case where they have strong reason to suspect 
> the spouse do not live together ? What would they say when confronted to 
> someone like Alexandra David-Neel ?

Ahh, but that was a different era, when there really was freedom of 
movement (as long as you had gold or gold convertible currency at 
least). None of this silly visa and passport nonsense. And besides, her 
Philippe was a gaigin, so the example wouldn't cut much mustard as far 
at Immigration Bureau version 2.004 is concerned.

-- 
"Oh don't give me none more of that Old Janx Spirit/ No, don't you give 
me none more of that Old Janx Spirit/ For my head will fly, my tongue 
will lie, my eyes will fry and I may die/ Won't you pour me one more of 
that sinful Old Janx Spirit"