Quick question on permanent residency

[Suitengu]

EU citizen, in Finland for close to 4 years, got a degree from a local UAS and a job. I initially moved here to study, but ended up staying indefinitely. Registration with the police was the only thing required of me in the beginning. I know that you can apply for permanent residency and citizenship after 4 and 5 years respectively. Since the 4 year period is almost up, I was thinking about making my relationship with Finland a tad more official.

My questions are therefore the following:

1) Do 4 years of studies count as the full 4 years towards both the permanent permit and the citizenship?

2) What is the right procedure for the permanent permit application? The multiple different print and online forms on suomi.fi, migri and poliisi are a bit confusing.

Would appreciate any tips.

[Adrian42]

You cannot apply for permanent residency if your registration was based on studies. However, those years will count as half for citizenship, i.e. 4 years will be considered 2 so you will need 3 more years with a registration of a continuous nature (e.g. work) to apply for citizenship.

That's completely wrong, what you describe applies only to non-EU citizens.

But the OP is EU citizen.

After 5 years of living in Finland (even if these were 5 years of studies) he is entitled to register his Permanent Right of Residence.

For citizenship, time EU citizens spend as students in Finland also counts fully.

[Adrian42]

EU citizen, in Finland for close to 4 years, got a degree from a local UAS and a job. I initially moved here to study, but ended up staying indefinitely. Registration with the police was the only thing required of me in the beginning. I know that you can apply for permanent residency and citizenship after 4 and 5 years respectively. Since the 4 year period is almost up, I was thinking about making my relationship with Finland a tad more official.

Which 4 year period is almost up?

Permanent Right of Residence is after 5 years.

Citizenship also takes 5 years, with a Finnish spouse 4 years.

My questions are therefore the following:

1) Do 4 years of studies count as the full 4 years towards both the permanent permit and the citizenship?

Yes.

But note that counting begins from the date when you registered your Right of Residence in Finland, not from the date you moved.

2) What is the right procedure for the permanent permit application? The multiple different print and online forms on suomi.fi, migri and poliisi are a bit confusing.

Migri describes the rules for Residence Permits for non-EU citizens and for citizenship.

The police describe the rules for EU citizens registering their Permanent Right of Residence in Finland.

[Suitengu]

One more year to go then. Thanks for the help!