Visa advice for a Chinese citizen please.

[jopnnyoneye]

I am a UK national and passport holder who is currently working in China.
When this project is finished (anytime this month), i am being asked to go to another one in Finland for a duration of approximately 9-10 months.
I have a Chinese partner who holds Chinese citizenship and a Chinese passport. She wishes to join me in Finland or the duration of my stay if possible and we hope to take the opportunity whilst we are in Europe, to visit other Schengen territory countries and also (with a seperate visa of course), the UK.
During our time in Finland, she would not be working or studying, just there as a temporary visitor for the 9-10 month period.
The way that i read the visa issuing process is that she will have to first apply for a 90 day tourist visa, use that, wait a further 90 days to comply with the one visa every 180 days rule and then apply again, which means that she will have to return to China for at least 90 days in between and we are trying hard to avoid this if possible.
My questions are these.
Has anyone been in a similar situation and managed to get a multi entry, 12 month visa issued and if so, do you have any advice on how to better apply for it, ie - providing certain supporting letters, information, etc, ?
Has anyone any connection with the Chinese community in Helsinki, who i'm pretty sure would know how to successfully apply for such a visa in China ? If so, would it be possible to put me in touch so that she could speak to them on the subject ?
Any advice would be much appreciated.
Many thanks,
John.

[Upphew]

I am a UK national and passport holder who is currently working in China.
When this project is finished (anytime this month), i am being asked to go to another one in Finland for a duration of approximately 9-10 months.
I have a Chinese partner who holds Chinese citizenship and a Chinese passport. She wishes to join me in Finland or the duration of my stay if possible and we hope to take the opportunity whilst we are in Europe, to visit other Schengen territory countries and also (with a seperate visa of course), the UK.
During our time in Finland, she would not be working or studying, just there as a temporary visitor for the 9-10 month period.
The way that i read the visa issuing process is that she will have to first apply for a 90 day tourist visa, use that, wait a further 90 days to comply with the one visa every 180 days rule and then apply again, which means that she will have to return to China for at least 90 days in between and we are trying hard to avoid this if possible.
My questions are these.
Has anyone been in a similar situation and managed to get a multi entry, 12 month visa issued and if so, do you have any advice on how to better apply for it, ie - providing certain supporting letters, information, etc, ?
Has anyone any connection with the Chinese community in Helsinki, who i'm pretty sure would know how to successfully apply for such a visa in China ? If so, would it be possible to put me in touch so that she could speak to them on the subject ?
Any advice would be much appreciated.
Many thanks,
John.

http://www.poliisi.fi/licences_and_perm ... _residence

[betelgeuse]

When this project is finished (anytime this month), i am being asked to go to another one in Finland for a duration of approximately 9-10 months.
I have a Chinese partner who holds Chinese citizenship and a Chinese passport. She wishes to join me in Finland or the duration of my stay if possible and we hope to take the opportunity whilst we are in Europe, to visit other Schengen territory countries and also (with a seperate visa of course), the UK.

http://www.poliisi.fi/licences_and_perm ... _residence

To do the registration you need to be married or have proof of cohabitation for two years.

[Rip]

To best of my understanding there is no visa that allows you to stay more than that 90 days within a 180 day period (inside Schengen, 90 days in Finland + additional time in UK with another visa would be possible). If you need more, and you do not qualify for the EU citizen spouse registration (mentioned above) and you're not ready to get married in order to have that, you could try to get a local residence permit, but frankly I think that is both uncertain and slow.

[jopnnyoneye]

Thanks for all you advice so far.
We have lived together for over two years, but exactly how would we prove that ?
Our current apartment rental agreement is in her name, as are all utilities as they are all in Chinese and she understands them, whereas i don't. There are no joint name agreements, household bills or bank accounts from our current location, nor from our last 5 years ago.
I will look at the application form closely when i get the time and see exactly what they might require and decide how to approach it from there.
Thanks again all.

[betelgeuse]

We have lived together for over two years, but exactly how would we prove that ?
Our current apartment rental agreement is in her name, as are all utilities as they are all in Chinese and she understands them, whereas i don't. There are no joint name agreements, household bills or bank accounts from our current location, nor from our last 5 years ago.

I would ask the Finnish embassy in China:

http://www.finland.cn/public/default.as ... ntentlan=2

[jopnnyoneye]

I have already contacted the Finland Visa Application Centre in Shanghai, who more or less replied with the official line on 90 day Shengen visas, however they did say that we could approach the Finnish Consulate in Shanghai and try for a C visa with multiple entry, so i will try contacting them direct and see what they say.
It would obviously be better to visit personally, but we are currently situated out in the country about 100kms outside Chongqing, which is 1700 kms, or a two hour + flight away and we just have not got the time to do it at the moment. Perhaps i will squeeze a visit in at the end of the project here, we'll see.
Thanks again all.
John.