kmboll wrote:
I'm coming from the US and applying for residency based on cohabitation. We meet all of the requirements so hopefully it won't be a problem.
Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear...
If I had 5 euros for every time I've heard such optimism about the Finnish immigration system...
kmboll wrote: Selling my stuff would be much harder once I'm in Finland and we have to come now because my gf's visa is up. Ideally we would have been able to apply before moving and wait for a decision, but that just wasn't possible in our situation.
OK - Now I have a clearer idea of what you were saying in the first post about plane tickets and six weeks.
You are going to file your application after arriving. You are not simply hoping to get a decision before you leave.
kmboll wrote: Hopefully it doesn't come back to bite us. I can stay in Finland as long as the application is processing so 6 weeks shouldn't be a problem (although I didn't understand the 6 weeks because I can stay for 3 months as a visitor)
There is some slightly dangerous confusion here. You will not be entering Finland "as a visitor", but with the intention of staying permanently. The visa exemption agreement between Finland and the USA does not cover such cases. If you arrive in Finland on a direct flight from outside of the Schengen States and are then confronted by a Finnish border guard, what will you state as the purpose of your stay in Finland? Please bear in mind that it is a criminal offence to give false information to a public authority.
Please especially note the important distinction between the terms "visa" (permission for a short, temporary stay, e.g. for business or tourism) and "residence permit" (permission to stay for a longer period or indefinitely).
To answer the question that I posed above, if you are challenged by a Finnish border guard, then you should state the truth about your arrival, and if necessary allow the border guard to see the application papers that you have already prepared. You will then be allowed to enter Finland, as this clearly falls within the discretion of the border guard and is bureaucratically a great deal easier than trying to turn you back.
kmboll wrote:
Intensive course - Daryl, you are the first person that has told me NOT to take as many classes I can! I guess if nothing else it will give me somewhere that I have to be 3 days/week and give me something to do for the first month. And like sammy said, I can always quit if my brain explodes.
There are two points here:
1. Value for money in language learning, and
2. The demotivating effect of inept formal instruction
If you have enough money for 40 lessons, then you will learn far more by spreading those lessons over 10 weeks than by taking them all in one week. So-called "intensive" language courses only really make any sense at all when they occur in countries where the target language is not widely used and where there is some reason for haste. Such a course makes some sense if you take it stateside because you are preparing for some important business event in Finland, especially if a wealthy employer is footing the bill.
Never underestimate the capacity of an inept instructor to damage your ability and motivation to learn. I can virtually guarantee, for example, that your intensive course instructor will entirely ignore the global phonetic features of the Finnish language (i.e. the natural "rhythm" of the language), even though this is an absolutely essential aspect of learning spoken Finnish and the ideal point to tackle this is at the begining. That is just for starters. Many instructors begin by telling their students how difficult the language is. This is simply rubbish (how can the instructor know this about each and every student?), but the myth persists.
kmboll wrote:Job - I am a mechanical engineer, are there trade unions for engineers? I don't believe that we have them here in the US for engineers. Here unions seem to be mainly reserved for more manual labor jobs.
There are unions for just about every kind of employee in Finland. Four out of every five employees belong to a union. The right union for you will depend on your qualifications and on the kind of work that you do. Hank was sort of hinting at this with his remark about MSc and Bsc engineers.
In any case, I advised you to check with the union that is active in the industry of any employer offering you a job. The union should at least be able to advise you whether this employer has a good reputation, and perhaps put you in touch with a contact at the firm. This gives you an important headstart.
daryl
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