Spouses of Finnish citizens: How long did you wait for an extension of residence permit result?

[diegamel]

Hi all,

My spouse is waiting for 1st extension of residence permit (family ties/Finnish citizen), and we applied in early January. So far it is still waiting to be processed in EnterFinland, at the first step.

I wanted to ask for a small gallup -- how long did you all wait for your extension result (note: not first RP but extension)?

Everyone I know that I have asked, got it rather quick (1-2 months), but since my spouse has waited for it for over 3 months now, I started to get a little frustrated. Migri just keeps saying the same thing: there is a lot of traffic right now, so it is waiting to be processed.

We were originally asked for additional information within 2 days of applying in January, and we provided it immediately. After that, nothing.

I am wondering does anyone know how the system works -- how can some extensions be approved really quickly, while others wait for who knows how many months? What is the logic? Is it arbitrary? When I spoke to them on the phone, they admitted that they have "several different queues". I have no idea what that means.

Having lived abroad myself in several countries, and having dealt with many kinds of immigration policies, I am quite puzzled by Migri's secrecy and not providing clear criteria for fast completion of an application. It seems to me that foreign spouses of Finnish citizens are not in a very good position, which I find odd. Being a "hostage" and not being able to travel for 1-9 months during the application process feels a bit nutty as well.

What do you think?

[tavastia]

It took like 2.5 month's for my wife. It was for permanent residence but on family ties.

[heretostay]

You can travel if you are from a visa free country or if you get a visa.

https://migri.fi/en/faq-residence-permits#Travelling

[Upphew]

When I spoke to them on the phone, they admitted that they have "several different queues". I have no idea what that means.

Think Citymarket or Prisma. They have also several different queues. It works just like that. You get assigned to one that seems the shortest and then it get some stuff that has bad barcode or missing documents and the queue stalls.