Good grief, where to begin? I'll start with I'm from the USA

Kenneth Young · Post by **Kenneth Young** » Sun Apr 27, 2014 2:34 pm

Hello...I am from the USA, a citizen, and have been in Finland since September of 2013. I am still awaiting my residence permit which was submitted in early December, 2013. I was initially told it would likely be processed by February of this year. But, when I showed initiative to inquire about my status in mid-February, I was then told it would be another 5-6 months wait.

While awaiting immigration services decision on my residence permit, I am staying busy by continuing my education online.

My first question to this forum: Is there an immigration assistance liaison or office for US citizens who have relocated to Finland and who are having lengthy waits on their immigration process?

Also, if there are any who wish to comment or point me in good directions, please feel free to contact me here. I am finding the cost of living, the language barrier and social customs a bit of a challenge but I am up for it. Compared to where I am from, I find the pace of life here very relaxing so my main wish is to adapt to the culture.

Many thanks and greetings!
Kenneth Young

**Sponsor:**

Pursuivant · Post by **Pursuivant** » Sun Apr 27, 2014 8:32 pm

Thats a bit of a long wait. So, what was your "reason"? If it was something confusing the drones, that explains the duration. You know the time dilation effect - applying in the US it would probably have taken 5 weeks instead of months...

betelgeuse · Post by **betelgeuse** » Sun Apr 27, 2014 9:13 pm

Kenneth Young wrote:Hello...I am from the USA, a citizen, and have been in Finland since September of 2013. I am still awaiting my residence permit which was submitted in early December, 2013. I was initially told it would likely be processed by February of this year. But, when I showed initiative to inquire about my status in mid-February, I was then told it would be another 5-6 months wait.

Long processing times are not uncommon as can be seen from the published statistics:

http://www.migri.fi/asiointi/kasittelya ... ittelyajat

I really wish they would make migri work faster.

Kenneth Young wrote: My first question to this forum: Is there an immigration assistance liaison or office for US citizens who have relocated to Finland and who are having lengthy waits on their immigration process?

For anything specific to US citizens, you should enquire from your embassy. However, only migri can influence their own processing times so I doubt there is anything useful.

jamerci · Post by **jamerci** » Thu May 15, 2014 10:07 pm

Mine took only about 3 months, but that was just over 2 years ago. They had a decision ready for me by the time my automatic 90 day visitor's period expired. I am married to a wonderful Finnish guy, so my situation is different. A friend of his (Finnish citizen) married a woman from Kenya last year while he was visiting her country. She waited well over 7 months for her permit and could not even visit her new husband until after she got it. I was at least allowed to apply for mine from here in Finland. They changed the law less than 2 weeks after we put in our papers.

As to a liaison, there is none. The US Embassy will help in a lot of situations, but will not interfere or even attempt to help with obtaining a residence permit. All you can do is wait, smile.. and hope they get to you. The average processing time was about 240 days when we looked just about 6 months ago.

Hang in there - enjoy the brief spring before a wonderful summer, and stay busy. The time will fly!

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