Applied for Finnish Citizenship in Dec 2012, still waiting !

canonguy · Post by **canonguy** » Thu Mar 20, 2014 9:48 am

Hello,

I applied for citizenship in December 2012, that's 15 months ago, and I am still waiting for the decision, which is very unusual. Friends around me got their in 6 months time.
Migri contacted me in Jan 2013 and asked about my original degree certificate, and then in August 2013 my local police station asked for my rental agreement, which I also sent right away.
I wonder if anyone else has experienced such a long waiting time? I sent an email early this weeek to the same email address they used to ask information, inquiring about what's the progress with my application and when shall I expect a decision, but never got a reply.

Thanks for your answers.

**Sponsor:**

canonguy · Post by **canonguy** » Fri Mar 21, 2014 3:23 am

I called migri about 4 months ago, they said application is under process and they cannot comment further. Recently sent an email but no reply.

betelgeuse · Post by **betelgeuse** » Fri Mar 21, 2014 11:48 am

canonguy wrote:I called migri about 4 months ago, they said application is under process and they cannot comment further. Recently sent an email but no reply.

http://www.finlex.fi/fi/laki/ajantasa/2 ... 0434#L5P23

Finnish law requires them to give you an estimate for when they make a decision. I would get in contact with them and reference Hallintolaki 23§ in order to get them to give you an estimate.

canonguy · Post by **canonguy** » Fri Mar 21, 2014 7:13 pm

When I sent an email today to migri@migri.fi, this is what I got;

'Thank you for your message. To enable quick decision-making and, in that way, high-quality customer service we do not reply to e-mail enquiries other than by way of this automatic message.......'

not impressed by the 'high-quality customer service' they are referring to

betelgeuse · Post by **betelgeuse** » Fri Mar 21, 2014 7:36 pm

canonguy wrote:When I sent an email today to migri@migri.fi, this is what I got;

'Thank you for your message. To enable quick decision-making and, in that way, high-quality customer service we do not reply to e-mail enquiries other than by way of this automatic message.......'

not impressed by the 'high-quality customer service' they are referring to

You should consider filling the form here to make the state ombudsman investigate:

http://www.oikeusasiamies.fi/Resource.p ... /index.htx

The Administrative Procedure Act also requires them to give answers to questions:

http://www.finlex.fi/fi/laki/ajantasa/2 ... 30434#L2P8

canonguy · Post by **canonguy** » Fri Mar 21, 2014 9:49 pm

Thanks betelgeuse, I'll read through those links and try to figure something out.

I wonder if anyone knows about 'maximum processing time limit'? - someone told me it's 18 months, but couldn't find anything on migri website.

betelgeuse · Post by **betelgeuse** » Sat Mar 22, 2014 9:14 am

FloydFin wrote:Simply wait and quit making a fuss. The fact they're asking you for documents means your application isn't as straight forward as others, its also an indication that they're processing it and it's not in the queue. Some of us had to wait 2 years and even more in some cases! You can write all the emails you want and make complaints to the ombudsman but you'll still get squat, the delay is very reasonable. Plus since you're applying for citizenship, it means you're well established in Finland so what difference does it make?!

The delay is not reasonable and goes against section 21 of the Finnish constitution. There is nothing in the process that would require 2 years. I am annoyed that we do not staff our agencies in order the fulfill the promise of not having undue delay. For example there are the EU elections coming up and if the OP currently has a non EU citizenship they will not be able to vote because Migri has been setting on the application for ages.

betelgeuse · Post by **betelgeuse** » Sun Mar 23, 2014 12:55 am

FloydFin wrote:
betelgeuse wrote: The delay is not reasonable and goes against section 21 of the Finnish constitution.

Everyone has the right to have his or her case dealt with appropriately and without undue delay
Undue as in unwarranted and in cases where the delay is warranted due to the need of further investigation then the delay is justified.

What kind of investigation takes more than a year to see if the requirements for citizenship are satisfied?

Alex.Sm · Post by **Alex.Sm** » Sun Mar 23, 2014 8:25 pm

I also applied in December 2012, but I got the decision in April 2013 after ~4 months. No questions asked and no extra documents needed. I don't know what is your situation but you should follow the advice betelgeuse gave to you.

Honest · Post by **Honest** » Mon Mar 24, 2014 7:23 am

I don't know your situation but according to my knowledge processing times for people who don't hold any passport are considerably longer. They were more than two years some time ago.

canonguy · Post by **canonguy** » Tue Mar 25, 2014 10:56 am

According to my understanding, after submission of application, local police makes general inquiries and forwards the application to migri, since migri contacted me in January 2013, that means they had my application by then at their desk. After migri makes their decision, they send it back to local police station for final checks and they make the final decision and hand it over to the applicant. Since, local police contacted my in August asking rental contract for my apartment, I believe they might have gotten my application back in August, and making further inquiries. Correct me if I am wrong.

Another question is, does anyone know if there is a 'maximum processing time limit' for citizenship application? I searched everywhere but couldn't find anything.

betelgeuse · Post by **betelgeuse** » Tue Mar 25, 2014 11:27 am

canonguy wrote: Another question is, does anyone know if there is a 'maximum processing time limit' for citizenship application? I searched everywhere but couldn't find anything.

The Nationality Act has no maximum processing time limit.

betelgeuse · Post by **betelgeuse** » Wed Mar 26, 2014 6:32 pm

FloydFin wrote: The investigation could for example be a background check requiring enquries from other countries or possibly something else, no one knows, its a black box. Anyway, as mentioned before, there's nothing much the OP can do except wait.

It is not a totally black box. The operation of the box is controlled by Finnish laws. I agree there's nothing the OP can do to the make migri work faster for his case. To me it seems they needed more paper work and then moved the application to an end of a queue. However the points still stand that Migri should respect the law on giving estimates and advice. If they are waiting for something from abroad they should tell the applicant that. I recommended writing about the experience to the state ombudsman in order to make the process better for all future applicants.

onkko · Post by **onkko** » Wed Mar 26, 2014 7:03 pm

canonguy wrote:According to my understanding, after submission of application, local police makes general inquiries and forwards the application to migri, since migri contacted me in January 2013, that means they had my application by then at their desk. After migri makes their decision, they send it back to local police station for final checks and they make the final decision and hand it over to the applicant. Since, local police contacted my in August asking rental contract for my apartment, I believe they might have gotten my application back in August, and making further inquiries. Correct me if I am wrong.

Another question is, does anyone know if there is a 'maximum processing time limit' for citizenship application? I searched everywhere but couldn't find anything.

There is no maximum time.

Seems your application has been stopped by SUPO/CIA/KGB/SÄPO/You name it or there is something other fishy.
Could also be that they lost your application but i doubt that.
Man in suits will contact you soon

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