Is it possible to have dual residence permits?

[chacona]

Hi,

I'm American and have a fixed term 4 year Finnish residence permit, expiring in April. After which I will most likely get permanent residency here.

However, my wife and I are planning on moving to the UK in January, though I will spend 50% of my time here in Finland. My question is, from Finland's point of view, is it ok to have a Finnish residency permit while having a UK one at the same time? As I will be going back and forth, essentially living in 2 places, I would need to have a valid permit for each. Is that possible in Finnish law?

Thanks!

[rinso]

I don't think so. Either you live in Finland and visit UK, or the other way around. The country where you spend more than 50% of your time is considered your residence.

[Pursuivant]

You didn't elaborate on if your wife is Finnish/EU or not. As long as you don't have the "long-term EU permit" things can get a bit complicated. If your wife is EU, then UK is piece of cake for her. I get the drift that your work demands your travelling - that then again depends what your work is - who the company is and where its located. As UK is out of the Schengen you'll be hitting teh immigration in both ends (and with cheap flights somewhere else than Finnish/UK border) so you will confuse the hell out of border guards if you goof up. UK is not in Schengen they got their own rules of "leave to remain" which you should look into.

If I was you, I'd not "move" officially out of Finland before you get your long-term permit, given that you will be shuttling back and forth.

[chacona]

Thanks for the feedback. To clarify, my wife is Finnish and we've been married for a while, so you're right, for her it's not a problem to move to the UK. And the company I work for is Finnish, though they will naturally have to pay me through a UK-based firm that pays salaries for countries based abroad.

The idea I originally had was to get both my UK and Finnish visas - the UK before I leave and then a permanent residence visa for Finland once I'm able in April. I figured I could travel freely back and forth as long as I had the two, though not sure if this is legal and/or even possible. Any suggestions?

[Rip]

Is your wife employed in UK? If so then she should be able to register easily and you as well as her family member.

In your situation I would do my best to keep the Finnish residence permit valid, easiest of course would be if you had done your language studies and could get citizenship.
Consider questions and answers 9 and 10 this page: http://213.138.145.18/netcomm/content.a ... guage=EN#9

[Kutittaa]

I thought that if you were to get permanent residency as you stated that you would try for, then naturally this would not be a problem for you at all. Permanent residency = permanent residency with no problem of losing your status if you must live/work overseas for 50% of your year.

Are you talking about moving before getting permanent residency or after it? Or is it really the same even with PR? as opposed to a 4 year continuous-permit.

The idea I originally had was to get both my UK and Finnish visas - the UK before I leave and then a permanent residence visa for Finland once I'm able in April. I figured I could travel freely back and forth as long as I had the two, though not sure if this is legal and/or even possible. Any suggestions?

I would have thought this would be fine, provided that you wait long enough to get the PR.

[Rip]

Permanent residency = permanent residency with no problem of losing your status if you must live/work overseas for 50% of your year.

Check the link I posted above. "Permanent" means it does not need to be renewed (as a consequence you also don't need to worry about grounds for renewing it). It may still be cancelled, also for the simple reason that the authorities think you have moved permanently out of Finland.