Hello
I'm an Indian and have been living in Finland for more than 5 years. Initially I had a residence permit becasue of my studies. Last year I got married and my permit was changed to A class. It expired in October this year so I applied for the next permit. They told that there were two options, one is to get a sticker on passport (valid for five years), as it was the case before and as it is usually done, and other is that I can get a residence card, valid for five years and it will cost me only 40 euros. I opted for the residence card. Now I have recieved that card, its name is " residence card of a family member of a union citizen". Card looks like something very simple,almost no security features and just like a student card. There is nothing written about right to work etc, only it's written that the holder of the card has a right to enter Finland with a valid passport. Now i have my Indian passport and this card. I know it shouldn't be any problem to travel within schengen or Eu area but just wondering how it would be to travel out of Europe? If i travel back to my home, will it be fine for them to let me fly back to Finland? How they can confirm if it's a real card or just a bogus piece of paper? Will this sucpicion not cause a problem? Will this card satisfy their immigration procedures? I remeber when I travelled to Finland first time through Dubai, in Dubai they asked from me many questions even thougj I had a valid passport and a proper visa sticker.
I have plans to visit India soon and also have plans to travel to some other places out of EU, so please tell if you have any experience or if you have any comments and suggestions.
My main concern is that the card doesn't look like the sticker on the passport. Nothing about issuance authority, no stamp or bar code, no hologram. There is just my picture, name, nationality and validity period of the card.