How I got my first residence permit in Finland in 2019
I have gone through the entire procedure of obtaining a residence permit in Finland and I want to share with you
useful information. When
I was looking for similar information - I found only forums about Russians in Finland and inaccurate answers.
I hope this article will be useful for those who
want to reunite with their soulmate in the land of a thousand lakes.
How it started
My husband and I met back in Russia, a couple of years before my final move to Finland.
When I found out that he works and lives in Finland, it became for me
an unexpected and, one might even say, sad surprise at that time.
After all, I did not plan to leave anywhere and wanted to live next to my own
my parents are in my hometown, and even more so I have not traveled and my level
knowledge of English left much to be desired.
There was no time to go to courses either, so I had to study
online on various services: subscribed for a year on
Puzzle English -
they have the most interesting newsletter, hung up on
Lingva Leo
,
EnglishDom.
I can't say that I've already learned the language, but now I'm trying to watch
TV series in the original with subtitles, which I was afraid to do before.
Why didn't my future husband tell me in advance that I was living abroad
I'll tell you in one of the following articles, but for now let's get back to the story with the view.
We started visiting each other on weekends, and I also visited him in Finland on a visa during your vacation. He lived and worked in different cities. The farthest city was a small town Rauma , to which it took about 12 hours to get from St. Petersburg by buses with a transfer to Helsinki.
To say that it was very tiring for me after a five-day working week -
it's nothing to say. Spend 24 hours on the road over the weekend, do not sleep at night
- it was a nightmare.
But still we went to each other in turn and sometimes bought a ticket to
Allegro
, which allowed you to get from Helsinki to St. Petersburg in just 3.5 hours.
But train tickets even in the second class are not cheap and therefore often
I had to go to
luxexpress,
and then from 2018 on
Ecolines.
It helped me a lot that my future husband, even before we met, often
traveled from Finland
to Russia and therefore already knew the best options to get there
to Tampere and
before Helsinki,
but I also contributed, for example
The life hack with a mug was invented by me.
On a visa, I could stay in Finland for only 90 days in half a year and then
you can't really walk around, because besides Finland, you want to go on vacation together.
When I left the office, with the support of my husband, I was able to visit him more often and
to spend even more time with him, at that time he moved from
Helsinki to Espoo.
It has become longer to drive from the center, but I really liked the nature surrounding the city.
During the year and a half of my life in Espoo, I have walked the Hannika nature trail several times with pleasure and walked even more often
along the sea to Villa Rulludd.
Name change and new documents
Soon we entered into an official marriage and it was time to change the documents, because I took his last name. This paperwork has forced me to be outside Finland for two or three months and her husband I had to come to me on weekends « in a double shift ».
After changing all Russian documents, it's time to change your passport and visa.
The passport was issued to me for more than a month in 2018, for reasons that I do not understand.
As explained in the unified document center, the FSB has been checking something for a long time.
At the visa center of Finland, I sent a request for cancellation of a visa with an old surname
and applied for a new visa. Since my husband had a permanent residence permit
in Finland, I was exempted from paying the visa fee (35 euros) and I only paid
service fee (more than 20 euros).
By the way, in my case (if my husband has a permanent residence permit) it is possible to get
the visa is completely free at the Consulate General of Finland, but it was possible to get there
sign up only via the internet
and the robot did not want to choose my candidacy for a whole month, after which it was accepted
the decision to go to the Visa Center of Finland.
After obtaining a visa for a new surname, which was given to me for two years, I could
to be with her husband again for 90 days in each half-year.
You may ask why I need a visa, why didn't I immediately apply for a Finnish residence permit? I will answer:
the decision on a Finnish residence permit is taken on average from 1 to 7 months, and with a long
consideration, my husband and I would not be able to live together for a long time, so I first did
a visa to be able to live with him for at least a limited time, and after receiving it
I immediately applied for a residence permit.
Gifts
While we lived in different countries, it often turned out that
valentine's day
,
March 8th
and even my birthday fell on the days when he was at work.
To my joy, and for the very first time also to my great surprise
he found a way out on the Internet and began ordering flowers online.
Communicate with couriers who can't always do it the first time
finding an apartment is sometimes entertaining, but generally positive
emotions far outweigh all the little difficulties.
I asked what services he used, it was not possible to get full information,
but I know for sure that at least a couple of times there were
Букет Питер
Further reading:
Next step after obtaining permit
to find out what documents you need to submit to the Consulate General of Finland to obtain your first residence permit
here