Overstayed in Finland while married, need some advice <3

[GWolf2012]

As far as I know, if you are legally married to an UE citizen you can always enter at least to the country of your wife/husband.

Such "As far as I know" advice from clueless people on the internet has already brought many people into serious trouble.

I don't see too many problems about your case, what I see is only too much laziness about bureaucracy stuff from you and your husband.

We are talking about a person who has 90 days visa free stay in the Schengen area and overstayed that by 8 months. That is a huge problem.

The relevant legal questions are how that affects:
- future visa-free entry to the Schengen area and
- visa decisions and
- RP decisions

And we haven't even started talking about the legal status of her "freelance work" - I doubt the Finnish government knows about that, and I don't think the Finnish police would be amused if it ever heard about it.

I'm an UE citizen (italian) and my wife is non-UE citizen, so when I said "as far as I know" i'm talking about that there are ue rules that protect the bound generated by the marriage.
You are right when you say that her overstay is a huge problem, and if she wasn't married probably she will blacklisted for long time from UE.
But her marriage will permit her to ask again a visa, if the embassy doesn't want to, she can save money and hire a lawyer.

[rinso]

As far as I know, if you are legally married to an UE citizen you can always enter at least to the country of your wife/husband.

This is way to optimistic. A marriage license is not a paper that is accepted for border control. You need a visa or a residence permit (or come from a visa free country). Your passport/visa/residence permit will grant you entry. But with a overstay remark in the passport it is a simple bureaucratic no at the border. (You are probably not even allowed to board the plane).

I didn't write that with a marriage paper you can enter inside Finland.
I write that if a person is legally married with an UE citizen you can go to the embassy and they will issue a visa (or at least find what to do to get one).

You wrote "can always enter", not "visa/RP cannot be denied".
(which b.t.w. is not true either. we have seen resent examples of denied applications here)

[Adrian42]

But if I were in her position, I think I would settle the fine before I applied for a RP, on whatever grounds.

I fully agree with you that she should settle the fine as quickly as possible.

[Adrian42]

As far as I know, if you are legally married to an UE citizen you can always enter at least to the country of your wife/husband.

Such "As far as I know" advice from clueless people on the internet has already brought many people into serious trouble.

I don't see too many problems about your case, what I see is only too much laziness about bureaucracy stuff from you and your husband.

We are talking about a person who has 90 days visa free stay in the Schengen area and overstayed that by 8 months. That is a huge problem.

The relevant legal questions are how that affects:
- future visa-free entry to the Schengen area and
- visa decisions and
- RP decisions

And we haven't even started talking about the legal status of her "freelance work" - I doubt the Finnish government knows about that, and I don't think the Finnish police would be amused if it ever heard about it.

I'm an UE citizen (italian) and my wife is non-UE citizen, so when I said "as far as I know" i'm talking about that there are ue rules that protect the bound generated by the marriage.
You are right when you say that her overstay is a huge problem, and if she wasn't married probably she will blacklisted for long time from UE.
But her marriage will permit her to ask again a visa, if the embassy doesn't want to, she can save money and hire a lawyer.

All these rights to be with your spouse have limits, especially since abuse of that is unfortunately quite common.

Even your right as a non-Finnish EU citizen to live and work in Finland is not unlimited, and even you could be expelled from Finland if you committed serious crimes.

You are right that the spouse of someone living in Finland usually gets an RP, and that is also the case in your relationship.

Assume a non-EU citizen committed serious crimes in Finland, would spend a few years in Finnish jails, and then be deported to his home country. He would usually not get a Finnish RP if he married a Finnish woman soon after that.

8 months visa overstay is somewhere between these two cases, and for assessing how bad it is considered in practice she needs a lawyer.

[Rip]

Problem overstaying the Schengen also is, immigration is where you land at first, and they will look in the computer and won't be amused neccessarily - so it will be a hassle.

I'd go bit further and say there is some chance it might unofficially be even before that. While as far as I know the pre-screening of passengers on Atlantic flights isn't even nearly reciprocal, if the airline flying her would have any idea - the stamp in her passport or if they did some other pre-screening (database search that looks for known terrorists makes also checks against people currently forbidden to enter Schengen area - that her papers had a problem, she could be prevented even boarding the plane in USA. If so, the people at the checking desk would be even less likely consider any mitigating factors than the border guards at the Frankfurt International.

I'd also want to repeat that if you're short of money, then it makes even less sense to come here without residence permit (even without any previous negative history). If you have a residence permit on your arrival you can straight way register yourself both at maistraatti and KELA, have a national health insurance coverage from the day of your arrival, same rights to social benefits as a citizen (without work history) would have, right to work and considerably less hassle with banks etc than if you'd only apply your permit here and perhaps spend next six months waiting it to be processed.

[AldenG]

Sorry Adrian, and no offense intended, but in this case you're the "some guy on the Internet" who lacks credibility next to a writer like daryl.

If you'd taken the trouble to review his work here, you'd have realized this yourself.

[Pursuivant]

I can understand on some level - with the visa waiver programme that one might get confused over the issue regarding extension especially when married. But its going to throw a spanner in the works, so going to the embassy an applying for a RP is the way to avoid any further trouble getting in or out.

BTW - EU rules only apply to EU citizens moving from one EU country to another - it specifically says in the law that Finns aren't EU citizens

[Rosamunda]

IIRC daryl has worked as a translator for various ministries and also the immigration office. I think he might be a lawyer (or at least have had legal training) since he mentioned representing several immigrants who had been denied RPs. Also, if I remember correctly, he also set up a union for language teachers which implies he had a strong knowledge of labour relations, employment law and foreigners working in Finland.

His posts were always very, very detailed. THough I guess some of them might be out of date now since the laws (and / or the interpretation of the laws) change.

[Adrian42]

Sorry Adrian, and no offense intended, but in this case you're the "some guy on the Internet" who lacks credibility next to a writer like daryl.

If you'd taken the trouble to review his work here, you'd have realized this yourself.

The same could be said of Pursuivant, who has shown that he usually knows pretty well what he writes about.

Pursuivant definitely has much credibility in everything he says for me, but still I would not take his word as replacement for the opinion of a lawyer when it really matters.

IIRC daryl has worked as a translator for various ministries and also the immigration office. I think he might be a lawyer (or at least have had legal training) since he mentioned representing several immigrants who had been denied RPs. Also, if I remember correctly, he also set up a union for language teachers which implies he had a strong knowledge of labour relations, employment law and foreigners working in Finland.

"I think he might be a lawyer (or at least have had legal training) ... Also, if I remember correctly" - you couldn't have proven more clearly what I was talking about.

Plus the OP even failed to read the information correctly back when her situation was common and easy (before her 90 days were over). Now her situation is much more complicated and every detail might matter.

[cors187]

I think you need to find someone in finland who could give you an indication of the damage, eg Finnish immigration lawyer.
Then you dont have to rely on doubt in the future when you take things more serious.
I think the fine is not a problem if you pay it and whatever interest is on the fine.You could even skype call the fines and payments number in finland(whatever it is) and give your details.I garantee you can track down your fine, they love to keep records.

Personally i don't think its the governments best interest to keep you and your husband separated by bureaucracy and legislation.So time and money heals those wounds.

[cors187]

Finnish immigration law firms are up to date on all cases and ruling and can tell you if some contest received positive results.
Standard disclaimer-