Marriage on visitor visa

[funnyman]

Hi,

My status: Non EU citizen

We are planning to marry in finland and then i will go back from where i come from and then get a visa for my fiancee based on the marriage certificate. I have a few questions, i appreciate any answers.

Q1 : How long does it take to marry in Finland (simple civil marriage), i heard/read from somewhere that one has to be in finland for 3 weeks before marriage or they take upto 3 weeks to issue a marriage certificate, is that true?

Q2 Will it result in me being blacklisted in the good or bad books of finnish immigration authority, will it mean that i can/will have problems if i apply for residence permit to finland based on marriage? Anyone knows of any such case?

Q3 Is bank statement sufficient to get a residence permit to finland in future ( my fiancee will be moving out of finland after marriage and if in future when we decide to come to finland then she will be without a job initially so we wont be able to show that she can support me through her job) ?

thanks

[Hank W.]

Writing without any authority, I've just come up with these by the famous 'Stetson Method' , vulgarily called 'pulled from the hat':

Q1: 5 minutes; it is a paper to sign w/o ceremonies. Though the prerequisite is that you have the 'prohibitions of marriage' tested. This is helped if you bring any and all papers (current) from an authority registering this stuff stating you're not married. Basically an affidavit is enough, but this process does take the weeks you have been told. Before you come your gf needs to go to the magistrate and ask and ask and get in writing and ask what you need.

Q2: I wouldn't see a reason why. Basically they'll give you a hard time if you come here as a tourist-marry - and then try to stay. "Going home" is what they expect you to do...

Q3: Basically in this case she is a 'returning immigrant' and its not AFAIK been a problem if you firstly have been de jure married (and in Finland) and de facto lived abroad together. Basically what the hard time they give is to battle against these 'paper marriages' ( seen Gerard Depardieu in 'Green Card'?). I don't see any problem in that, have you seen the UVI pages on the residence permits?

P.S. and you get a commendation of making a veryeasy-to-answer question with the basics covered. Nothing is as frustrating as to try to milk the details out of some obscure post. I don't think you'll have too much hard time from the bureucracy if you can tackle them with such an approach

[funnyman]

Thanks Hank.

3 weeks waiting for marriage is a lot, i was hoping that my information is wrong since population of country is very small and cohabitation is more common compared to marriage.

[Hank W.]

Well, there is a "cooling off" period and then the bureaucracy of figuring out you're not related, previously married etc. etc. I think the law states a week, but as you say you are a funnyman your funny foreign papers need to be checked out too.

..don't know if cohabiatation is so common because it takes 3 weeks to get married tho

[Mikie]

Having looked into this matter as well.... if you have your g/f contact them beforehand, and get all of the paperwork done as requested, its only a one week process. You have your interview, providing all of the information proving you were never married prior, they check this information, then one week later you get married at the previously scheduled time. Its quite a bit simpler than the US process.

[Nathan Lillie]

It can actually take longer than a week because of the requirement for a certficate saying you are not married in your home country. For the US, this is just paying money and swearing you aren't married at the embassy. However, because you need an appointment to do this, which you can only make by phone and they only answer their phones on the first Tuesdays of alternate months between 9:00 and 9:15, and for some reason the phone is always busy then, this actually turned out to be the most difficult part of the process for me. It took me three weeks to get this done.

I imagine other countries might be more efficient. The State Department guy who witnessed my affidavit looked like he would rather have been engaging in hand-to-hand combat with Al Queda terrorists. Rountine services for US citizens are a pretty low priority.

The Finnish end also took 3 weeks, but that was because somebody messed up. Normally it is a one week waiting period, while they "investigate" (i.e. while it sits on some clerks desk waiting for a stamp)

I got into Finland with no trouble travelling with my mother who thought it her business to always inform everyone in earshot that I was about to get married. So the immigration officials definitely knew the purpose of my visit.

I had a residence permit based on cohabitation with lots of bank statements and proof of employment in process when I came. Nobody asked about it at immigration, and I didn't volunteer any information.

I wasn't able to get a residence permit based on proof of a 3 year cohabitation and proof I had a US employer willing to pay me while I lived in Finland. At least, I waited 5 months and nothing happened. So I sent them the marriage certificate and two weeks later they notified me that I had the permit. So cohabitation doesn't seem to count for much. Or maybe it just takes 5 1/2 months for the papers to clear.

[Caroline]

I imagine other countries might be more efficient. The State Department guy who witnessed my affidavit looked like he would rather have been engaging in hand-to-hand combat with Al Queda terrorists. Rountine services for US citizens are a pretty low priority.

I think it depends on who you deal with, it is not a reflection of the embassy itself. It took me one time of waiting on hold for about 25 minutes to get my appointment, and the lady who witnessed my declaration was a very sweet "auntie-type" who congratulated me on my engagement.

It seems that all embassies/governments are annoying to deal with in their own way; if they made things too easy, they wouldn't have any proof that you really want what you're after