Residence permit or Working permit?

tista · Post by **tista** » Tue Aug 14, 2012 12:13 pm

Hello everyone,

I will move to Finland in one week and apply there for residence permit with family ties. I have a finnish wife and we have a small son. At the same time it is possible that i get a job offer when i arrive there. I have an interview with a company. What i wanted to ask is, how would it be better and faster for me? to apply residence permit with family ties or to apply working permit with work contract ? or is it possible apply residence permit and also include work contract to documents so that maybe they keep process faster?

I dont want to lose this job opportunity because of the long process of getting residence...

thanks

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Logic · Post by **Logic** » Tue Aug 14, 2012 12:37 pm

There's no fast process, they both take their time. If you apply for a family ties permit you become under the mercy of your spouse. If you apply for a work permit you become under the mercy of your employer.

Rip · Post by **Rip** » Tue Aug 14, 2012 12:45 pm

Logic wrote:There's no fast process, they both take their time.

At least earlier ( a few years ago) one could ask for getting an expedited handling. Applying based on family ties, but asking if they can speed up the process because you have written job offer available might work. There is no guarantee though.

tista · Post by **tista** » Tue Aug 14, 2012 6:25 pm

let`s say i got work permit and after working some time i lost my work. can i use then the benefits because i am spouse of a finn or i have to apply again for a residence permit for family ties or how it goes?

what i am wondering is if i got work permit, would it be a disadvantage for me in the future..

rinso · Post by **rinso** » Tue Aug 14, 2012 7:25 pm

Marriage RP is more flexible than a work based RP when it comes to extention (unless the marriage breaks up).
If you come from a non suspect country a marriage RP should be no problem.

Rip · Post by **Rip** » Tue Aug 14, 2012 9:00 pm

tista wrote:let`s say i got work permit and after working some time i lost my work. can i use then the benefits because i am spouse of a finn or i have to apply again for a residence permit for family ties or how it goes?

I would expect you would keep your existing permit, but would then need to change the reason at extension time. However, unless you have a "permanent" contract or fixed term one with at least two years of duration, you'll likely won't get KELA coverage in the first place if you apply for a work based permit.

Work permit would also possibly be only a "B" permit and getting one would be subject to labour market consideration by the local unemployment office.

I repeat, apply as a family member, but if you have job ready try to use that for making the process speedier.

tista · Post by **tista** » Tue Aug 14, 2012 9:19 pm

thanks a lot for advices.
i will apply as family member as Rip advised.

Logic · Post by **Logic** » Tue Aug 14, 2012 10:15 pm

Rip wrote:However, unless you have a "permanent" contract or fixed term one with at least two years of duration, you'll likely won't get KELA coverage in the first place if you apply for a work based permit.

Work related B permits are covered by Kela. The kela card in this case will have an end date on the back.

Rip · Post by **Rip** » Tue Aug 14, 2012 10:31 pm

Logic wrote: Work related B permits are covered by Kela. The kela card in this case will have an end date on the back.

There is no requirement for a minimum length of the contract?

Logic · Post by **Logic** » Tue Aug 14, 2012 10:35 pm

Not really no. So if your contract is one month, you get one month coverage with dates corresponding to the ones in the contract and everytime the contract is renewed, a new coverage needs to be applied for and a new card needs to be issued. This goes on until the permit is changed to A.

Rip · Post by **Rip** » Wed Aug 15, 2012 10:54 pm

Logic wrote:Not really no. So if your contract is one month, you get one month coverage with dates corresponding to the ones in the contract and everytime the contract is renewed, a new coverage needs to be applied for and a new card needs to be issued. This goes on until the permit is changed to A.

This is based on direct enough experience (with non-EU immigration)? I am feeling confused as what you state above does not match my reading of the law, KELA webpage (the last couple of lines), and while don't have link here, I felt sure the opposite was the experience by some poster(s) here too.

Pursuivant · Post by **Pursuivant** » Wed Aug 15, 2012 11:08 pm

Rip wrote: This is based on direct enough experience (with non-EU immigration)?

With even EU immigration.

Logic · Post by **Logic** » Wed Aug 15, 2012 11:20 pm

It's based on personal experience and was in 2003. I remember at the time the lady at Kela told me that it wasn't possible before but then they changed it.

Rip · Post by **Rip** » Wed Aug 15, 2012 11:34 pm

Logic wrote:It's based on personal experience and was in 2003.

But the part of the law I am referring to (as is the KELA webpage) is from 2005.

Logic · Post by **Logic** » Thu Aug 16, 2012 12:51 am

It seems that the two year requirement has been in place since the original law was issued in 1993. The only change in (1573/1993) §3-a point 4 point was in 2011 which added the blue card part. So I don't know on what basis they made the decision, if the letter they sent was still around I could've found out.

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