Moving away for 1 year. Effect on 4 year permit?

[justaguy]

Hey everyone.

I'm moving to another European country for 1 year but I'm currently waiting for my 4 year permit. If I go for a year, will my 4 year permit be terminated, or will there be any sort of negative effect on it at all?
It's only 1 quarter of the entire time the permit is valid for and the move is not permanent.

Do you have any advice for me at all, what I should say or do etc.

Thanks a lot!

[Upphew]

http://www.migri.fi/working_in_finland/ ... the_permit

[Rip]

If you decide sometime to apply for Finnish citizen ship moving out from here for over a year will reset the continuous residence period. I'm not sure how exactly they interpret the similar condition when one is applying a permanent residence permit.

[justaguy]

I'll only be gone for a year. Absolutely no longer. The page says that I don't have anything to worry about if it's under 2 years. So you're saying that I'd have to start all over again after this 4 year permit (with a 1 year) just because I left for about 12 months? That sounds ridiculous. Not everyone can live here for 5 consecutive years without ever needing to go somewhere else. I'm not even leaving the EU.

[Adrian42]

If you decide sometime to apply for Finnish citizen ship moving out from here for over a year will reset the continuous residence period. I'm not sure how exactly they interpret the similar condition when one is applying a permanent residence permit.

From http://www.migri.fi/services/faq/reside ... rmit_types question 10:

Your residence in Finland need not have been completely without interruption before you can obtain a permanent residence permit. Your residence will be considered uninterrupted if you have resided in Finland at least half of the validity period of you residence permit.

[justaguy]

That's what I thought. That under 2 years and I had nothing to worry about, and that I could also always take the extra precaution of notifying that I would be back in a year.

[Rip]

If you decide sometime to apply for Finnish citizen ship moving out from here for over a year will reset the continuous residence period. I'm not sure how exactly they interpret the similar condition when one is applying a permanent residence permit.

From http://www.migri.fi/services/faq/reside ... rmit_types question 10:

Your residence in Finland need not have been completely without interruption before you can obtain a permanent residence permit. Your residence will be considered uninterrupted if you have resided in Finland at least half of the validity period of you residence permit.

I was aware of the "at least half" clause which is in the law, but if that is all to it then why do they make a reference to "normal vacation and other trips" at all?

[Adrian42]

If you decide sometime to apply for Finnish citizen ship moving out from here for over a year will reset the continuous residence period. I'm not sure how exactly they interpret the similar condition when one is applying a permanent residence permit.

From http://www.migri.fi/services/faq/reside ... rmit_types question 10:

Your residence in Finland need not have been completely without interruption before you can obtain a permanent residence permit. Your residence will be considered uninterrupted if you have resided in Finland at least half of the validity period of you residence permit.

I was aware of the "at least half" clause which is in the law, but if that is all to it then why do they make a reference to "normal vacation and other trips" at all?

That's a completely different situation:
A vacation does not interrupt the residence in Finland.

[Rip]

That's a completely different situation:
A vacation does not interrupt the residence in Finland.

Not even a vacation lasting two years or more or taking up half of the time your residence permit?
My point was, that I could not understand the need for vacation reference if you're allowed to be out of the country for two years during a four year period anyway.

[sy]

My understanding is that you have to live in Finland for 4 years all together in order to get the PR.

So let's say that you have the A-type permit for 1 year, then the second A-type permit for 4 years. And during the 4 years of the second A-type permit you have lived outside Finland for 2 years and back to Finland again. At the end of the second A-type permit, even though your residence in Finland is considered uninterrupted, but your residence time in Finland is actually only 3 years. You have to apply for the A-type permit again, and only after 4 years of residence in Finland with A-type permit you can apply for the PR.

And if you are sent abroad by a Finnish employer, then that period is regarded as living in Finland.

[justaguy]

That's 2 years. I'm only going for 1. Apparently it will maybe change my needed time from 4 years to 6 for PR/Citizenship but that's a risk I'm willing to take.

[sy]

That's 2 years. I'm only going for 1. Apparently it will maybe change my needed time from 4 years to 6 for PR/Citizenship but that's a risk I'm willing to take.

It doesn't change the required residence time for PR or citizenship. It's not the length of the residence permit(s) that counts for the requirement, but the residence time under such residence permits. In addition, how to regard residence as continuous residence are different for PR and for citizenship application.

As mentioned earlier in the thread, your residence permit (fixed term or permanent) won't be canceled if you stay outside Finland for less than 2 years.

For PR application, the continuous residence is not interrupted if you stay at least half of the permit time in Finland. So for the 4-year permit, you can stay outside Finland for less than (but not equal or longer than) 2 years, so that your continuous residence is not interrupted. It's not clear how to classify a one-month vacation abroad, or a over six-month vacation for PR application. But in your case, if you already have a one-year A-permit, then a 4-year A-permit, and you stay outside Finland for 1 year during the 4-year A-permit period, then at the end of the 4-year A-permit you can apply for PR since you have resided in Finland all together 4 years under A-permit.

But for the citizenship application, if you have stayed outside Finland for longer than one year, then you can't use the continuous residence rule, but the accumulated residence rule. But if you have stayed outside Finland for over six month but no longer than one year, your continuous period of residence is not interrupted, but the the period of absence is not counted as continuous residential time. So for you on the safer side, you'd better stay outside Finland at most one day less than one year, so that you can use the continuous residence rule.

[justaguy]

Thanks ever so much for making sense of everything. Let me know if you're ever around Oulu. I'll buy you a coffee.

Thanks to everyone else too.