Citizenship Application 2017

[paki]

Anyone here who applied with family. wife and children? specially from those got decision. How fast was your timeline?

[hamkuas]

Hello everyone,
I just got citizenship and I am exactly 28 year and 8 months. I didn't went to apply passport yet.As I am wounding if anyone had/have situation like me. Do I have to still go to army training? Will they give me 5 years passport or only for 16 months? I am not sure.

Thanks in advance.
Best of luck for those who are waiting for the decesion.

[italosuomalainen]

Hi all,

So far, my own time line has been:

Identity/documents verified 30/08/2016
Käsittelyssä 08/05/2017

No news since May 8. Judging by the posts here, it seems that the time from "käsittelyssä" to "päätös valmis" has a lot of variation - and I'm on the longer end of that variation!

I am doing my best to be very patient...

were there any confusions/questions in your applications? It looks that if the application is in order and all criteria are met without any question the decision is made right after the second stage.

In my case, there could be some issues over whether I have resided in Finland long enough.

The total time I have lived in Finland:

1st time: August 16, 1985 - August 31, 1989: this is 4 years and two weeks.
2nd time: August 11, 2014 - present. This is 2 years and 10 months (not counting days here).

I was 14 years old when my family had moved here. We were here as diplomats then (not sure what type of residence permit that was).

Although this is not quite "total of seven years of residence since age 15, of which the last two have been continuous", as stated in §13 of the kansalaisuuslaki (http://www.finlex.fi/fi/laki/ajantasa/2 ... #a359-2003), there seems to be allowed exceptions, i.e. according to §18a (http://www.finlex.fi/fi/laki/ajantasa/2 ... 0359#L3P18). In this paragraph, "total of six years since age 15, of which the last two have been continuous" would apply. By now, I have lived in Finland for a little over six years since age 15, and I definitely have lived here continuously for the past two years.

I do in fact also fulfill the kielitaitoedellytys. I sat for YKI keskitaso in 2015, and passed all parts of the exam at the highest possible level (4), and also for YKI ylin taso last year, and passed 3 out of 4 parts of the exam at the level 5/C1.

I have no way of knowing certainly, but if no decision has been made yet on my application, it may be because of residence status of diplomats. I'm not sure what kind of residence type/status that is considered to be. Kansalaisuuslaki is vague on this point. However, if the time lived in Finland is counted from age 15, it seems obvious that no/few 15-year-olds influence their parents' choice of profession (and thus the type of residence permit under which they reside in Finland).

I did demonstrate that I was physically present in Finland as a teenager -- I have report cards from a local school, and more recent written confirmation from the school itself that I had been a student there. I also have a työtodistus from a summer job I had during my last summer in Finland in 1989. So independent of residence permit issues, I can and did show that I was physically present in Finland during the stated period. "Oleskelu" in that sense I can prove.

[Dalmatinac]

23/02/2017 You have proved your identity and a diary number has been created for your application. You can see the diary number at the top of the page. Your application has been placed in a processing queue.
24/10/2011 A customer number has been created for you. You can see your customer number at the top of the page.
30/05/2017 The processing of your application has started. Contacting us does not speed up the processing of the application. If we need further information from you, we will send you a request through this service.
05/06/2017 A decision has been made on your application.
05/06/2017 The decision can be read on your user account.
05/06/2017 You have received the decision.

Faster than I expected.

congratulations! did you apply in helsinki?

yep it was in Helsinki.

[bigli]

@challengingtimes in my opinion it's best if you make a decision after consulting an expert. We are all in this forum because we have some sort of interest in the matter of citizenship, but we don't know all the details about your case or about citizenship laws. I don't know about Finland, but lawyers sometimes don't charge much if they are just giving you consultation, or there are sometimes volunteer lawyers who provide free service to immigrants or those who cannot afford high fees. good luck!

Perhaps, it is a good idea if you can indicate some contacts info of such lawyer/law firm so that others know where to turn in such situation.

Unfortunately, I don't know of any myself. I won't be surprised if there aren't many immigration lawyers in Finland, as there is not much immigration to Finland compared to many countries. One place which is supposed to help with such questions is Virka, located in Helsinki city hall. https://www.hel.fi/kanslia/virka-en/advice/advice . I went there once and asked some questions related to residence permit and also asked about citizenship. They were very friendly and gave me good answers regarding the residence permit, but they told me that you cannot apply for citizenship before your 5 years is complete and (back then) the police will not even accept your documents and start the process for you if you go there before the end of 5 years. Well, that I know now that is not true.

This is not a problem just with Virka, I have gotten wrong information about such matters even from officers who handle residence permit cases for example (not in Finland but in other European countries). You would think that this is their job and they should know the rules really well, but that is not always the case! I think this might also be the reason why for some people here who have citizenship cases which are not completely straight forward, that the processing takes much longer. Because perhaps the application is sent to some more senior officers who knows all the rules better. I don't think taking longer for processing is necessarily a bad sign, it might just be that at migri someone who doesn't know everything does not make rushed decisions and pass on the case to someone else who knows more!

[gowthas]

Any updates peeps? Almost midsummer and wonder if they would carry on processing at the same speed (very unlikely)!

Hopefully in the autumn then!

BR

[zyumei]

Hi,

Is there anyone here that got request to submit more documents 2 times?

[italosuomalainen]

Any updates peeps? Almost midsummer and wonder if they would carry on processing at the same speed (very unlikely)!

Hopefully in the autumn then!

BR

Nothing so far - even though it's been six weeks since my application moved to "käsittelyssä".

In my case, I suspect that there's confusion over how to count my time residing in Finland. And I guess the midsummer slowdown isn't helping either.

[camphor]

Hi,

A slightly unrelated question. I am experiencing a problem to create an user account and log in on Enterfinland.fi for citizenship application. I am using my bank codes from Nordea to authenticate my identity which succeeds and re-directs me to Enterfinland website where I am asked to accept terms of use and click "Activate User Account." After this step I re-directed back to Log in page. And I have to restart the bank authentication and the same process is repeated.

Is anyone else facing the same problem? I am trying since 17.06, I have sent the e-mail on customer service and have received no response. Is there anyone who successfully created their account since 17.06?

[italosuomalainen]

Hi,

A slightly unrelated question. I am experiencing a problem to create an user account and log in on Enterfinland.fi for citizenship application. I am using my bank codes from Nordea to authenticate my identity which succeeds and re-directs me to Enterfinland website where I am asked to accept terms of use and click "Activate User Account." After this step I re-directed back to Log in page. And I have to restart the bank authentication and the same process is repeated.

Is anyone else facing the same problem? I am trying since 17.06, I have sent the e-mail on customer service and have received no response. Is there anyone who successfully created their account since 17.06?

I just tried logging in to the Enterfinland web site using my own bank codes (from OP in my case). I was able to log in without a problem, but I had established my user account last August. This indeed suggests a problem with generating new accounts, instead of a more general problem with the login system itself.

BTW, I could never create a user account using the alternative option - user name etc. I would try creating passwords that fulfilled the criteria - but the system always told me my chosen passwords were unacceptable. So I had to resign myself to using bank codes.

[brexit]

My application is at the second stage since the last of May. No contacts yet. I hope that they make the decision soon.

[gowthas]

My application is at the second stage since the last of May. No contacts yet. I hope that they make the decision soon.

It looks like they are delaying decisions on certain applications, perhaps because of some ambiguity? I hope you will hear from them soon, fingers crossed

[brexit]

My application is at the second stage since the last of May. No contacts yet. I hope that they make the decision soon.

It looks like they are delaying decisions on certain applications, perhaps because of some ambiguity? I hope you will hear from them soon, fingers crossed

when did you application to the second stage?

[sruwim]

Applied from Oulu and now waiting for processing

4/12/2012 Sinulle on luotu asiakasnumero. Näet sen sivun yläreunasta.
4/14/2017 Hakemuksesi käsittelymaksu on vastaanotettu.
4/14/2017 Hakemuksesi on vastaanotettu ja vireillä.
4/18/2017 Olet käynyt tunnistautumassa ja hakemuksellesi on luotu diaarinumero. Näet sen sivun yläreunasta. Hakemuksesi on siirretty käsittelyjonoon. Otamme sinuun yhteyttä, jos tarvitsemme lisätietoa. Käsittelyaikamme ovat internet-sivuillamme: www.migri.fi

[gowthas]

Applied from Oulu and now waiting for processing

4/12/2012 Sinulle on luotu asiakasnumero. Näet sen sivun yläreunasta.
4/14/2017 Hakemuksesi käsittelymaksu on vastaanotettu.
4/14/2017 Hakemuksesi on vastaanotettu ja vireillä.
4/18/2017 Olet käynyt tunnistautumassa ja hakemuksellesi on luotu diaarinumero. Näet sen sivun yläreunasta. Hakemuksesi on siirretty käsittelyjonoon. Otamme sinuun yhteyttä, jos tarvitsemme lisätietoa. Käsittelyaikamme ovat internet-sivuillamme: http://www.migri.fi

I applied in Helsinki a few weeks before sruwim and I have not heard anything yet as well. I think it will be autumn before we here anything from Migri.

Let's enjoy the summer in the meantime