Trying to find a answer...This is not a stupid question!!

[baronleopold]

Hei hei.

I moved to Finland in November 2008 from Australia. I have went from working holiday visa to residences B and a couple of months ago I married my long term gf and after alot of poo shoving up a mighty hill I have the residences A Permit. I have also worked 7months in Ilmajoki, I now live in Tampere and recently got a job starting soon... Ok I will cut to the problem now..

My dream is to get into Pori for physiotherapy. I study as much as possible for this with the secondry subject being international business. I have applied and all that fairly easy and meet all requirements to get in.

The problem is...Today I went to the imigration office at mol to show my newly recieved kela card and amongst other things the helpful and polite woman told me was that I would not be allegeable to get Govt support during my studies if I so happen to get in..She said something along the lines of that due to finding work before all the paper work went through I wont get to sign the 'Integration papers' I have to say this sounds strange? I plan to stay in Finland many years..I will be working in the spring/summer full time, for the past 6months I have been unemployed and for the last 2 with no money or any support from anyone but my wifes meagre study money. I am not trying to sound like a charity case here! It has taken forever to get things in order for them to even think about giving me anything and now they don't have to because I found work..I would like to still work in my job during the weekends for wages..But Travelling from pori to tampere for 10hours or so a week will not leave me with enough cash to live properly..I feel kind of left out of the system loop as my 'Integration' has been stalled from working full time or in the future to study (I hope)

Does anyone out there have any idea about this? Have they ever seen anyone in my situation find some category to fall into the get study benefits?

It seems I am in a place not many people get into here..I am not a refuge, full time qualified professional, student visa-student, or EU citizen..It is getting quite un-nerving to be honest!

Thanks for reading such a long text..Have a good one!

[filecore]

I'm afraid I can't really help, except to tell you to beware of Kela. I was once sent by them to the (at the time) newly-integrated Immigration Office in Malmi for a non-existent form which the police civilian worker told me hadn't been given out for years. Cue a trip back to the same Kela, where the woman I had spoken to had long since gone home, and her replacement told me that "Oh, you're right, you don't need that form - I have no idea why you were told to get it." Yeah, thanks for wasting a whole working day, one hour of travel time, and three hours in the queue at Malmi for absolutely no reason whatsoever. My advice would always to go back and double-check with another person, if what you've been told sounds 'odd'.

And I'm an EU citizen, so I got the easy treatment...

The only other advice I could give you is enjoy Tampere! I lived there for a year, and no matter what other crap is happening in your life, you're living in easily the most beautiful, vibrant city in Finland. It has its own charm, personality and style, and has all of the benefits (shops, services, transport hub) of Helsinki but with a distinct 'centre' and a small-town feel to it. Plus, it has what I feel is possibly the best pub in anywhere I've been in Finland: Pikilinna, on Tammelan puistotie, directly opposite Tammelantori (if you find the 24 hour sausage stand, it's on the other side - just on the right of the park, in the far corner, as you're looking from the sausage stand). I spent many a happy night in that place

[baronleopold]

I get the same feeling here, I get told many vague different things. Finns out on the street think I am wasting there tax money doing nothing at home when I get nothing and try to find work..People think the system gives everything to outsiders I think the lack of information most get on this about how hard it truely is for people is somewhat missing. The system is messy currently, yet no one seems to construct any media attention or appeals to be heard? I am not trying to sound crazy here..But some people COME TO FINLAND not to steal of the system. But to live and enjoy the country. So why cannot these people get straight answers? I feel like I am at odds with the government here..Eventhough most Finns I meet are smart, honest great people. I always get this bad taste leaving a govt office..One again I say to those Finns out there I am not being a bastard here and hating you! The system is just confusing me..

[interleukin]

So why cannot these people get straight answers?

Finns do not get straight (or necessarily correct) answers from KELA on the first try either. So it is nothing personal, they are like this for everyone.

[Rip]

With your family ties permit, you should apply for the regular student aid (from KELA), like regular Finnish students would. It is not very large compared to some of the other financial handouts but it is something. It is also tied to your income, so if you work a lot in spring and summer time the amount can be reduced and will eventually go to zero. http://www.kela.fi/in/internet/english. ... enDocument

[rinso]

couple of months ago I married my long term gf and after alot of poo shoving up a mighty hill I have the residences A Permit

As far as I know the Kela grant for students only applies for people who lived in Finland for more than two years on a non-student, non-working holiday visa.
From your post I understand that your clock just started ticking.

[sammy]

My advice:

Check what the KELA pages say about financial aid to foreign students... and then contact the KELA Centre for Student Financial Aid directly:

Phone services and email addresses

For those studying in Finland
- phone service in Finnish 020 692 209, from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m.
- phone service in Swedish 020 692 229, from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m.
- opintotuki@kela.fi

It's possible that the KELA people at your local office (or at the immigration office!) may not exactly be experts when it comes to these particular issues.

If you ask me, it appears that in addition to having been granted permanent residence in Finland you a) have a job, b) you also have family ties here (spouse) and c) your primary purpose for being in Finland is not studying - return to exhibits a and b... and based on these it's sort of hard to see why you would not be granted the KELA student aid, if you get a study placement. (The two-year rule someone mentioned is, IIRC, a thing of the past. At least there's no sign of the two-year requirement in the page above.) But eventually you can't ask me, you must ask those who deal with the student grants

(Or perhaps you weren't asking them about the KELA student grant in the first place?)

While it's easy to bash KELA & immigration officials -they can drop some awful clangers every now and then- it's also true that you should not perhaps expect immigration officials to know all the details of KELA student aid for foreigners, but should rather turn to the Centre for Student Financial Aid instead. The other side of this coin is of course that if -and because- the immigration officials do not actually deal with study grants, they maybe shouldn't be too hasty to give "official advice" on the subject.

[filecore]

couple of months ago I married my long term gf and after alot of poo shoving up a mighty hill I have the residences A Permit

As far as I know the Kela grant for students only applies for people who lived in Finland for more than two years on a non-student, non-working holiday visa.
From your post I understand that your clock just started ticking.

This is not true, at least not for EU citizens, and I think it applies to everyone. When I first moved permanently to Finland, I took up studies at the University of Tampere. I was in the process of getting my residence permit, and I had lived in the country only for a few months by this point, but I had received the right to study from a Finnish educational institution, which meant that I was elligible for KELA student support. I suspect that this is the case regardless of where you're from, if you have been accepted onto a course at a polytechnic or university.

[baronleopold]

Or perhaps you weren't asking them about the KELA student grant in the first place?

I did ask those words. She put me under the impression that to get anywhere in this place I needed to sign a 'integration agreement' that I have to go through her for everything before going to kela. She was the member in charge for foreigners in the kela office so I would assume she would know more then the others and she stated she had lots of UAS people ask her the same questions.

I just think still the probability of her responding to a person in my situation is low compared to her being bombarded by student visa wielding folks who are poor because they ignorantly came to Finland expecting everything to be cheap and the roads to be pathed in prosperity and gold

Thank you all for this information. My wife and I will contact those offices and try to work this out. The sooner I find out the sooner I will have the inspiration to keep hitting that anatomy book to study without this problem being in the back of my head the whole time!

[Linza]

I think she might mean, you cannot get help as a recent immigrant. Heaps of my classmates are getting student aid money, and they were born elsewhere and married Finns.

I think perhaps you should bring your wife in with you, to translate more accurately and ask the right questions. Also, Finnish women have a way of staring down their public officials until they get what they want, so... definitely helpful.