Well Sy thank you for spotting that vp is already here..he/she does indicate either status is possible but not 100% clear..e.g."jump down from my palm tree and come to Finland"sy wrote:I think you all read vp's question wrong. If you read carefully, you can see that vp is now in Finland. What he/she needs from a lawyer is how to secure a "better" residence permit status.
My opinion is, you do need a lawyer or at least someone familiar with immigration laws to help you to prepare your application: to indicate clearly your demand, to gather relevant documents to support your claim, to cite indisputably the applicable law paragraphs. In case of rejection, then you definitely need a lawyer to represent you in the appeal court.
I was not aware that the Finnish imigration system employed a "caste" system for vetting imigrants and deciding on status.
However, that is not relevant ..simple facts are that we, ., do not believe that there are lawyers in Finland that specialise in immigration, or who would take on a client requiring/needing help to obtain better residents status.
However, I did post a link to a group of International Lawyers who might have amongst their members someone who might help vp.
Here is the link again.
http://www.forum-legal.com/ilaf/