Willy Nilly Moving?

[jamie_designer]

daryl Thanks for your input, may I inquire as to what realm of employment you are in? You seem to have a great grasp of the law and your reply was very well phrased. It was also the most entertaining thing I have read today. I do see your point very clearly.

The countries involved in offering these visa-exemption arrangements are doing us a great service by offering this much at least. I can see that it would be harmful to myself as well as others to abuse this act of kindness between countries. I won't be doing anything willy nilly.

I have seen you ask people on here what are the real reasons they want to come to immigrate to Finland. For me it is a women. I have been in a serious relationship with a Finnish women for some time now. She is studying law in school and she has worked hard to get in there. So there she will be for the next 4 years studying. I do want want to be 6482 km away from my girlfriend for the next 4 years.

In her heart I know how much being finnish and living there means to her and I believe we both could be very happy there. So I would like to come and be the best damn immigrent I can be and help the country by working hard. * This does not mean I would be happy to pay the taxes :'( but love will make a man do strange things. So that there is my connection to finland.

Do you believe that having this connection is grounds to offer me a work permit only after landing in finland as a tourist? or do you believe it is my duty to return home and go about the work permit some other way? or do you have some other belief entirely.

[Hank W.]

It doesn't got to do with "belief", they don't count HBS as a valid excuse necessarily However on your visit here, you have far better chances to find an employer wanting you desperately enough. And getting the residence permit doing it "by the book" is always easier than waiting 4 months to get a "no" (again, read that "stupid UVI decision" -thread.)

[daryl]

daryl Thanks for your input, may I inquire as to what realm of employment you are in? You seem to have a great grasp of the law and your reply was very well phrased. It was also the most entertaining thing I have read today. I do see your point very clearly.

I translate Finnish-English for a living. The kind of stuff most Finns can't read into the kind of stuff most English speakers can't read. I've been told I'm rather good at it.

The legal stuff comes from several years of NGO activity and a mind that works in a strange way.

The countries involved in offering these visa-exemption arrangements are doing us a great service by offering this much at least. I can see that it would be harmful to myself as well as others to abuse this act of kindness between countries. I won't be doing anything willy nilly.

Hah! Doing us a great service by removing travel obstacles to their tourism industries and business communities. We are picking up the crumbs that fall from the table.

I have seen you ask people on here what are the real reasons they want to come to immigrate to Finland. For me it is a woman. I have been in a serious relationship with a Finnish woman for some time now. She is studying law in school and she has worked hard to get in there. So there she will be for the next 4 years studying. I do want want to be 6482 km away from my girlfriend for the next 4 years.

In her heart I know how much being finnish and living there means to her and I believe we both could be very happy there. So I would like to come and be the best damn immigrent I can be and help the country by working hard. * This does not mean I would be happy to pay the taxes :'( but love will make a man do strange things. So that there is my connection to finland.

Do you believe that having this connection is grounds to offer me a work permit only after landing in finland as a tourist? or do you believe it is my duty to return home and go about the work permit some other way? or do you have some other belief entirely.

The question "why do you really want to come to Finland?" is not one that I ask out of idle curiosity. The answer really matters when giving advice and trying to help people to negotiate the immigration system.

In one case back in the early 90s I helped to design an application and argued three levels of appeal over a period of two years before finally discovering why the immigrant wanted to live in Finland. The extended pursuit of immigration clearance on the wrong grounds created the impression that this applicant had no real reason for coming to Finland, with the result that he was eventually deported, even though there was a solid basis for allowing him to stay (the extent to which officials will offer alternative interpretations of obvious facts can be quite extraordinary under such circumstances). Only after the European Court of Human Rights had examined the case and ruled on some of the salient facts did the immigration authority relent and agree to grant permission for the immigrant to return to Finland. He is still here.

With nearly two decades of experience in this field, I am convinced that honesty is the best policy for the prospective immigrant. Your application for immigration clearance should explain your real motives for choosing Finland and not another country, and it should cover the bases in terms of how you intend to support yourself, where you intend to live and so on. The system is designed to be a series of pigeonholes into which applicants are slotted, but experience clearly indicates that an element of overall discretion also applies that enables at least some applicants to be admitted, even though they do not fall clearly into any particular pigeonhole.

Your case is far from unique. Many immigrants have come to Finland for precisely this reason: in order to join partners who are completing their education. Look through student housing lists and you will find a good many couples of this kind. The usual story is that the couple's relationship is only just beginning and that the foreign partner has at least tentative job offers that suggest some prospects of finding work. The foreign partner is highly motivated and has already begun learning the Finnish language, etc. etc.

Unless you intend to marry in haste, then the point to lodge the application is before you come to Finland. Even if you do marry in haste, do not expect your application to be processed in haste.

I can translate this response into legalese if your girlfriend needs to understand it in this way. Immigration law and practice are a specialist discipline but the basic concepts are fairly straightforward and once she appreciates the relevant criteria, then she will be able to design your application strategy to fit the facts of your individual case.

daryl