Citizenship and the early application 'trick'

[Beep_Boop]

In this forum, and in other places, there has been many speculations regarding a perfectly legal 'trick' one can perform with their application:
If you fulfill your residence period requirement on 1.11.2016, then you can apply for citizenship some time like 4 months before that (1.7.2016). Since the eligibility is assessed on the day the processing your application starts, you can hope that the requirements are fulfilled by the time the processing starts. Of course, there's no guarantee they wouldn't start the processing earlier, but it's unlikely.

That's all fine. In fact, some people here have told they did exactly that. They applied after 3 years and 8 months of being in Finland *, and their application was accepted. Well.. turns out there's a price for this.

Today, I went with a friend of mine to submit her early citizenship application (she needs help with her wheelchair). She's been here 3 years and 10 months. The lady at the counter accepted the application, took copies of the original documents, and gave her a receipt. Right at the end of the whole process, the lady tells her

Keep in mind that you don't fulfill the requirements at this moment, so I made the preliminary decision that your application is incomplete, and thus it goes to the incomplete applications queue

This essentially means that my friend's attempt to get her citizenship 2 months earlier had actually result in her application being stretched probably 3-4 months. Live and learn.

* Don't get riled up. This 4 year thing is a completely separate matter.

[sky2]

I think at the time of submission of application, the office receiving the documents asks some questions and makes her initial assessment right away and that can influence the decision.

[Haroun]

I applied when I had only about 3.6 years of resident period. The lady in the police noticed and told that your resident period is not fulfilled but still you have the right to submit the application. One cannot compare with my case because I applied with alien's passport, however I got the decision about 9 months after submitting the application.

[Beep_Boop]

I applied when I had only about 3.6 years of resident period. The lady in the police noticed and told that your resident period is not fulfilled but still you have the right to submit the application. One cannot compare with my case because I applied with alien's passport, however I got the decision about 9 months after submitting the application.

I know you're not intentionally doing it, but you're being misleading.
You forgot to mention that your employer has requested an exceptional expedition because they made the case that getting citizenship is somehow important to fulfill your work duties. Otherwise, your case would have stayed in processing for 6-7 more months due to alien passport alone.

Also, I'm not sure if I remember correctly, but weren't you a refugee or stateless? Migri says they try process those applications even faster

We will try to process your application faster if

- you have refugee status
- you have been granted a residence permit on the basis of international protection
- you are stateless.

[Haroun]

In fact you are totally correct. Without the speedup letter from my employer my case would stay on shelf at least 6 more months. That's why I said one cannot compare with my case