Apply for a family ties visa or get a work visa and switch later on?

[jpfi1192]

Hi everyone,

Thank you for all the replies.This was all very helpful (but slightly overwhelming!).

To clear up some of the points raised, my partner did live in Finland briefly (2 years or so) when she was very young. She also lived for 6 months in Germany before she came to Japan (albeit, that was before meeting me). She never worked full-time in Sweden (only summer jobs), as she earned her degree and got her first full-time job in Japan.

I was finally able to find someone from the embassy who turned out to be helpful. They advised me that it would be better to apply for a residence permit based on specialist work. One of the points they touched on was that in conventional cases, the Finnish spouse or cohabiting partner would already be in Finland at the time of the application.

Perhaps the work based RP would be the easier route, all things considered. We are also considering scheduling a consultation with an immigration lawyer.