Family Ties Residence Permit Extension

[firefish]

Hello everyone,

I came to Finland in 2012 for my master's degree and I got 1 year student residence permit twice. After that I got registered partnership with a Finnish citizen and got a 1 year family-ties residence permit. I applied for the extension of the family-ties residence permit at the end of February and my previous residence permit expired in April.

I called the Pasila police in April and they said that its not in the queue anymore, that its being processed and it will probably take couple weeks. However, when I called today they said that my application is still in the queue and it will take another 3 months to decide.

I was wondering if they gave me wrong information at some point or if an application can really turn from processing back to the queue. Does anyone know? I have a flight ticket to Germany next week and then another flight to Italy and then to my home country from Italy but I suppose I can not use any of these flights anymore and I don't have any other choice than waiting in Finland or my home country for the residence permit.

I also read that it is possible to travel within EU with my partner without any residence permit or travel visa. Does anyone have any experience with this? Does it apply to same sex couples even if the country doesn't recognize same-sex partnership like Italy? Lastly, is it possible me to go to my home country (Turkey) and apply for a tourist visa to a EU country while I have residence permit application in Finland? Does it interrupt the process?

Thanks for your answers

[rinso]

I called the Pasila police in April and they said that its not in the queue anymore, that its being processed and it will probably take couple weeks. However, when I called today they said that my application is still in the queue and it will take another 3 months to decide.

Somebody made a mistake or was not interested enough to look it up/frustrated and just gave an answer.
When they tell you phoning doesn't speed up the process, they do it for a reason.

I also read that it is possible to travel within EU with my partner without any residence permit or travel visa.

Within Schengen area they don't check your passport. But airlines do. And no visa or RP means no flight.

is it possible me to go to my home country (Turkey) and apply for a tourist visa to a EU country while I have residence permit application in Finland? Does it interrupt the process?

Don't confuse the drones. Parallel applications crashes the system.

[liliacea]

Lastly, is it possible me to go to my home country (Turkey) and apply for a tourist visa to a EU country while I have residence permit application in Finland? Does it interrupt the process?

As far as I can understand from Finnish Immigration Service's website, you have to wait in Finland if you submitted your application in Finland. So I suppose you wouldn't be able to go back to Turkey to apply for a visa.

But, to answer the other part of your question, the residence permit application and the visa application do not "interrupt" each other - at least that's what happened in my experience. I guess it is because the residence permit applications are handled by Finnish Immigration Service (if you apply abroad), and the visa application are handled by the Finnish Embassy in your home country.

So I first applied for a visa (to Finland) in Turkey, and I got my passport back with the visa sticker in 10 days or so (the process was surprisingly fast! - And mind you, I reside in Istanbul, and they were sending my passport from Ankara, where the embassy is.) So, all of this took place in January.

Then, in March (the 18th, to be specific) I applied for my first residence permit based on family ties (married to a Finnish citizen.) - Btw. I applied in Turkey.

I travelled to Finland (from Turkey) three times when my RP application was still being processed. And I encountered no problems. During passport check they would ask me if I have a residence permit (since my surname is Finnish), and I would reply that I applied and I am waiting for it. So that caused no problems for me during the passport check, or in terms of my entry to Finland in general.

2 days ago my husband got the letter that a positive decision was made last week. So now I'm just waiting for them to print the card and send it to the Finnish Embassy in Ankara and finally, for the embassy to send it here. (Again, I am VERY surprised about how fast the decision was made. I thought I would wait for at least three months for the decision, given that Turkey is a "suspicious" country.)

But in my case, I applied for the visa first and then for the RP, so the order of the things are a bit different than in your story. But basically no, the two processes did not interrupt each other, at least in my case.

[Upphew]

(Again, I am VERY surprised about how fast the decision was made. I thought I would wait for at least three months for the decision, given that Turkey is a "suspicious" country.)

I would put Turkey to less suspicious country, more than USA or down under, but less than a lot of other countries. Just based on the fact that Turkey is part of EU customs union: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_U ... toms_Union

edit. fixed wording