Pretend for us you just moved to Finland please....

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niceguy40
Posts: 85
Joined: Sun May 31, 2015 4:00 am

Pretend for us you just moved to Finland please....

Post by niceguy40 » Tue Aug 15, 2017 11:14 am

Hello, could someone local pretend for some of us considering moving there this scenario. So you've decided to move to Finland. You arrive off the plane in Helsinki.

How much should you have packed and brought along?
Should you have an apartment already rented or how difficult would it be to find an apartment when you arrive?
What do you recommend for transportation? A transit pass?
Will someone arriving from a different country need a local drivers license to register a car? or can they use their foreign license?
What Cel phone providers are cheapest to sign up for?
How do I hook up my utilities if I just rented an apartment? Or is everything typically included?
What bank is best to sign up at?

what else can you tell people on what to do the moment you arrive??? Let us know all you can pretending you were arriving there to live. What would you do, first, second, third, etc etc etc....

thanks.



Pretend for us you just moved to Finland please....

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sky2
Posts: 177
Joined: Tue Dec 16, 2014 7:40 pm

Re: Pretend for us you just moved to Finland please....

Post by sky2 » Tue Aug 15, 2017 8:16 pm

niceguy40 wrote:Hello, could someone local pretend for some of us considering moving there this scenario. So you've decided to move to Finland. You arrive off the plane in Helsinki.

How much should you have packed and brought along?
Should you have an apartment already rented or how difficult would it be to find an apartment when you arrive?
What do you recommend for transportation? A transit pass?
Will someone arriving from a different country need a local drivers license to register a car? or can they use their foreign license?
What Cel phone providers are cheapest to sign up for?
How do I hook up my utilities if I just rented an apartment? Or is everything typically included?
What bank is best to sign up at?

what else can you tell people on what to do the moment you arrive??? Let us know all you can pretending you were arriving there to live. What would you do, first, second, third, etc etc etc....

thanks.
First things first, how could you even think of coming without arranging any accommodation?

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wolf80
Posts: 474
Joined: Tue Jan 17, 2012 12:43 pm
Location: Helsinki

Re: Pretend for us you just moved to Finland please....

Post by wolf80 » Tue Aug 15, 2017 8:33 pm

niceguy40 wrote:Hello, could someone local pretend for some of us considering moving there this scenario. So you've decided to move to Finland. You arrive off the plane in Helsinki.

How much should you have packed and brought along?
Should you have an apartment already rented or how difficult would it be to find an apartment when you arrive?
What do you recommend for transportation? A transit pass?
Will someone arriving from a different country need a local drivers license to register a car? or can they use their foreign license?
What Cel phone providers are cheapest to sign up for?
How do I hook up my utilities if I just rented an apartment? Or is everything typically included?
What bank is best to sign up at?

what else can you tell people on what to do the moment you arrive??? Let us know all you can pretending you were arriving there to live. What would you do, first, second, third, etc etc etc....

thanks.
1. All of these questions have been anwered in detail on this forum. Use the search function!! (or simply go throw the first 5-10 pages of threads in the 'Moving to Finland' section)

2. Considering your other posts I can only assume that you have no plans yet to really come to Finland. You are still completely ignoring everybody's advice (that you will not be able to find a job or integrate into Finnish culture without speaking the language, that you cannot live in abondoned buildings or rent cheap office space to live in it, etc), while adding little details to your escape-from-reality-plan. Why are you wasting people's time on this forum?

israelrt
Posts: 15
Joined: Sun Aug 07, 2016 8:44 am

Re: Pretend for us you just moved to Finland please....

Post by israelrt » Wed Aug 16, 2017 4:40 am

This is like watching a slow motion train crash.
Fascinating in a grim sort of way...

Chaapa
Posts: 31
Joined: Mon Aug 10, 2015 4:43 am

Re: Pretend for us you just moved to Finland please....

Post by Chaapa » Sun Aug 20, 2017 4:27 pm

First of all congratulations on getting your documentation in order! I remember when you were asking about how to do that on this forum. Many people never get farther than that. You followed through and got it done. Great!

If I recall you believed that you might be a Finnish citizen by birth and were going to claim that citizenship. I assume that’s what you did and now have a Finnish social security card and maybe a passport?

I moved to Finland in May. I had Finnish citizenship and passport when I arrived. Let me share with you what I learned. Please be aware that your experience could be totally different.

You can find apartments to rent all over Finland on vuokraovi.com. I don’t know how difficult it is to actually rent an apartment from outside Finland but each listing has a place to ask questions. You can go directly to the rental agencies and ask. You can read the website in English. I suggest you try this at least. It turns out that I was able to buy an apartment so I have no experience with renting. In buying the apartment I learned that I first needed to have a Finnish bank account. I had to travel to Finland before my actual move to open that bank account.

I use Osuuspankki. Others I know use Nordea and like it. Banking in Finland is done by appointment. I found that I needed to call them in advance and book an appointment with their English speaking representative. I never would have done that at a US bank so it might be new to you as well. Getting a bank account is an important first step. it is much more important in Finland than in the USA. You need to do that pretty early in the game. Once you have an account you need to figure out how to fund it. You haven’t asked about jobs so I assume you’ll be bringing some money with you?? If so, transferring dollars to euros is an education in itself. I don’t want to get into it here. You can PM me if you want.

While I own my apartment, I pay a hoitovastike, roughly translated to maintenance fee. This is probably included in rent. It covers heat, trash, basic wifi, basic tv and other things. Water is added onto this bill. The only thing I need to set up extra was electricity. I used google to find an electricity provider in Tampere, where I live, and signed a contract online. I had no idea what I was doing but it wasn’t important. The power was on when I arrived in Finland. It turns out that there is a lot of competition in this industry and it’s easy to change providers later if you want to.

Cell phone service is totally different from the US. There you sign on with a provider and use one of their phones. Here you can buy whatever phone you want. You won’t be able to get a contract when you first arrive but it’s no big deal. You buy a SIM card at R-kioski and slip it into your phone and you’re good to go. Prepaid plans are great here. I use DNA and get unlimited data and talking for a reasonable cost. I top it off once a month, or so. Data is cheap in Finland. You’ll want to get that set up right away so you have access to information.

As I mentioned I live in Tampere. The bus service here is excellent!! A monthly or annual pass is
very reasonable. We are living intentionally car-free here. When we need a car— for visiting distant relatives, or for doing a big shopping, for example, we rent it. it has been easy to rent cars and my Massachusetts driving license is good for a year from the date of arrival. I don’t know anything about registering a car here.

One of the first things you’ll want to do is register at Maistraatti to get residence in your municipality. After that you can go to KELA. it took two months to get a KELA card after applying for it. You may want to register at TE as a job-seeker. They have been known to provide some new immigrants with free language classes. I was told I couldn’t get free classes because I’m a citizen. I’m regarded as a returnee although I have never lived in Finland before this year. You’ll probably want to take Finnish classes—even if you have to pay for them. In Tampere and Helsinki they are plentiful. it’s an excellent way to get out and meet people and learn a little about what is going on around you.

As for what to bring…don’t bring very much. I used an international shipping company to bring some things and a lot of what I brought, especially kitchen items, don’t really work here. My cookware is too big and doesn’t fit well into cupboards and drawers. It would have been cheaper to replace most of the stuff with new stuff in Finland. There is an active market in used stuff as well.

I know this has been long. I’m sorry for that. I wish you the best in your move. Good luck!
Last edited by Chaapa on Sun Aug 20, 2017 9:43 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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theelephantmum
Posts: 15
Joined: Sat Jul 22, 2017 7:25 pm
Location: Espoo
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Re: Pretend for us you just moved to Finland please....

Post by theelephantmum » Sun Aug 20, 2017 8:25 pm

niceguy40 wrote: How much should you have packed and brought along?
I would say it depends. We had a lot of things delivered later and I regret that. In many cases it's less expensive to buy everything here. You also have to consider there's an extremely lively second-hand market here, so you can furnish a house completely for very little amount. So I could even advise you to just bring your luggages along.
Some useful places/websites for second-hand buying:
http://www.huuto.net, http://www.tori.fi << unfortunately you'll need to search in Finnish
https://kontti.punainenristi.fi/tavaratalot << great for furniture and all small house items
https://www.kierratyskeskus.fi/myymalat_ja_palvelut << same
niceguy40 wrote: Should you have an apartment already rented or how difficult would it be to find an apartment when you arrive?
I strongly advise you NOT to rent an apartment beforehand unless you have very official channels to do so. There are well-know scams in place. It is, however, quite difficult to find an apartment in the Helsinki area, it could easily take few months. Let me add that if you don't have a job here, it's close to impossible. Landlords have usually a lot of potential tenants to choose from and they'd never choose one without a job. If you have an occupation, you should be alright. If you don't, one idea could be, at least temporarily, to rent a furnished apartment, ex. Forenom.
niceguy40 wrote: What do you recommend for transportation? A transit pass?
Having a car is extremely expensive in Finland: yearly taxes, insurance, yearly compulsory check-ups, parking. I strongly recommend public transportation, which is great here. You can buy a travel card at HSL offices (hsl.fi). The card covers all means of transportations: tram, metro, city trains, buses. Depending on how often you plan to travel, you can either charge money or validity time. One important thing: if you don't have residence in Finland, validity time will cost you double. So you may wanna consider charging a short period at first, until you have your papers sorted out.
niceguy40 wrote: Will someone arriving from a different country need a local drivers license to register a car? or can they use their foreign license?
If you are a EU citizen, you're fine with your driving license. Otherwise I'm not sure, I cannot help on this. I'm also not sure if you can circulate with another country's plate.
niceguy40 wrote: What Cel phone providers are cheapest to sign up for?
There's no much difference, however you need a minimum time of residing in Finland to get a phone plan - few months, I don't know exactly. To my knowledge DNA is the only provider who sells rechargeble SIM cards.
niceguy40 wrote: How do I hook up my utilities if I just rented an apartment? Or is everything typically included?
It depends. Usually the kitchen is there, including the fridge.
niceguy40 wrote: What bank is best to sign up at?
Again not much difference IMO. I guess only Nordea has decent English services, but many other are getting there.
niceguy40 wrote:what else can you tell people on what to do the moment you arrive??? Let us know all you can pretending you were arriving there to live. What would you do, first, second, third, etc etc etc....
thanks.
I strongly recommend you to read around this website: http://www.infopankki.fi/
In general, the common path is:
1. Go to immigration police to get registered (EU citizens as well): http://www.migri.fi/contact_information
2. After you have registered, go to Maistraatti to get a social security number. http://www.maistraatti.fi/yhteystiedot
3. Apply for a Kela card (healthcare coverage): http://www.kela.fi
4. Open a bank account, get phone plan, etc.

Take into account that A LOT of things will require that you have a social security number, including renting an apartment in the private market. It's absolutely necessary you get that AS SOON AS POSSIBLE. You may have to fight for step 1. Police tend not to guarantee residence permits to people without a job. If you a have a job, no problems, but otherwise you may need to prove you have sufficient savings to live on your own.
Good luck!
:sun: My blog on parenting, adoption & living in Finland >> theelephantmum.wordpress.com :sun:
Instagram: @theelephantmum

doadeer
Posts: 11
Joined: Fri Aug 13, 2010 3:39 pm

Re: Pretend for us you just moved to Finland please....

Post by doadeer » Wed Aug 23, 2017 2:16 pm

You can rent from airbnb short term while u sort out yr more permanent accommodation.prices r ok if u don't need to be in central place. For that u can be a tourist too n rent so ids can come later.


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