I recently finished the first part of the visa application process for my wife's marriage visa for the USA. We drove up to Tokyo recently and took care of the first step which basically establishes me as the sponsor and initiates the necessary background checks.

If you are just starting the process, or doing it again after many years, the first thing you should know is that you WILL have to go to Tokyo and drop it off in person. The US citizen, or the person who will be the sponsor is required to be there when the paperwork is dropped off. The person who is applying to receive the visa does not really need to be there the first time although I think the interviewer makes a note of whether both parties came.

The forms you'll need are on the Embassy web site, (here is a link to the necessary documents for the I-130 Petition) and I suggest you take a close look at that list (print it out, study it, look at it every once in a while). All of the forms I needed for the process were available online as interactive PDFs. You can fill them out with the Adobe PDF Reader, but I don’t think that the free version of Adobe Reader allows you to save the documents.

My advice is to use the Foxit Reader which is a free program for viewing PDFs and will allow you to save the documents you fill out (thus making it easier to make corrections later).

Here's some advice about getting together and filling out the forms you need:

• I had no trouble with the I-130 form, but it seems that other people did. When I went to turn in my paperwork, there was someone at the window talking to the interviewer saying, "I looked at it for like five minutes and had no idea what you guys wanted." My advice: Look at it for 10 minutes, 20 minutes, or more if you have to.
• When you have the forms done, make two copies of everything. You will really only need to have one copy of everything, but this is not time to take chances.
• Bring blanks of all of the forms you fill out. At worst, and if they're not too busy, you may be given the chance to remake it.
• Use the online interactive forms that the Embassy has. You can type all the information in.
• When in doubt, fill out the form more than once. By this I mean, if there’s a place where you are not sure whose name is supposed to be written, why not use the interactive form to make two versions of the form?
• If you are willing to spend the money, you can query the embassy by phone or email, but they charge about $18 per query.
• If you have children, bring information on the children. My children have American citizenship, but I was glad that I brought their passports, birth certificates, and photocopies with me for the initial petitioning. You will never regret having too much information with you.
• Also, if you have children, leave them at home if possible. There's no rule about it, but the whole process may go much more smoothly and cheaply if you don't have to drag kids with you through downtown Tokyo and then make them wait in a waiting room while you do some of the most important paperwork of your life.
• You can do the Japanese to English translations yourself. Between you and your partner, I'm sure you can figure out how to translate the information on the necessary pages. In my case, we needed to translate the Japanese marriage certificate, and my wife's registry form. Most of it is information you've provided, so it's not really that hard. A quick internet search will turn up a lot of amateur translations from which you can pick and choose the English terminology you feel works best.
• If you look at the list of necessary documents, you'll see two optional forms listed at the end, the DS-230 part II and the I-864 Affidavit of Support. In our case we provided the DS-230 part II (unsigned), but did not have the I-864.
• I was told to be sure to have some proof of having filed my taxes at my next interview, but that it is not always required.
• The only part of the documentation that stumped me was whose name and information should be written in the bottom half of MY G-325 Biographical Information form. In the end my G-325 had only my (the U.S. citizen) information from top to bottom. My wife's only had hers. Other than this the paperwork for me was self-explanatory. As I mentioned above, if you are confused about something, just make a few versions of each document and print them out just in case (this is actually what I did with the G-325).

Once you have all the documents, you may want to invest in a binder (maybe the kind with the plastic sleeves you can put papers in). This saved us a lot of time and energy we would have spent trying to sift through tons of paperwork if we had brought it all in an envelope.

If your interview is at two o'clock, you may want to arrive a bit before, but not too much. The gates will not be opened until a little before two, and you'll have to wait outside until they are ready for applicants to enter. (It mentions this on the embassy's web site and asks that you come dressed appropriately for the weather.)

Before going in, you'll be put through a metal detector, the same as if you were going through airport security. You'll be asked to leave cameras and cell phones at the front desk, but you can bring your bad and other things with you inside.

Once you're in, you'll get a number and start organizing your documents while you wait to be called. Once called, you can submit your documentation and any minor problems will be ironed out. They were very nice to us when we went and answered a few basic question we had. Then we went back to wait some more.

Once you're called up to the window a second time, there will be a short interview during which you'll be asked about your relationship with the person applying for the visa, and informed a little bit more about the process. If your petition is accepted, you'll be told you have to wait about three weeks while your information is processed and the sponsor's information is checked out by authorities in the United States. If this goes well, you'll receive a letter within a month detailing what other documentation will be necessary before the final interview.

We were advised to take a look at the embassy homepage again and begin gathering the necessary paperwork as soon as possible in order to speed up the process. Here is a link to the information you are going to be required to gather between the I-130 petitioning and the final visa interview: Immigration Visa Checklist.

Lastly, I would like to note that if you are approved for the visa, the family is expected to move within six months, so please time it well.

Getting the paperwork together can be a stressful process, but if you live in the Kansai area or another part of Japan, this can also be a great excuse for a married couple to live it up in Tokyo as well, and have a nice lunch at the Sizzler in Odaiba, stroll around Harajuku and have a great date in Tokyo. There are lots of western restaurants including the Odaiba Sizzler (which has some high quality food and a great atmosphere), and a Red Lobster. (Odaiba is a good, affordable place to park if you choose to go up by car, one meal for about 5,000 yen will get you four hours of parking for free in some of the parking lots.)

I hope this was a little helpful. Feel free to ask in the comments section, but please remember I'm no expert, I'm just someone who's going through this right now.