Cory wrote:
You need to talk to a professional about your visa issue, though.
That is my paramount concern for you as well, BillyBob.
After reading the PDF extract and the FAQ about residence permits on the migri website, to me the prospects of your staying in Finland long-term do not look promising. I would assume that any conversation you have about this with Migri or your local police will appear as a note in your immigration file. Asking about the consequences of divorce is a red flag -- it suggests that subsequently staying together is done for fraudulent purposes. If you and your wife were after all to reconcile, such a note could become problematic three years from now when it's time to convert to a permanent A-permit. Maybe I'm just carrying some kind of instinctual memory of the Kännö era and maybe it's no longer valid. But for me, it's hard to escape the feeling you're screwed if you divorce too early (or maybe even if you do so too soon after getting the permanent permit) and you're screwed if you convert the marriage to a "fake" marriage.
If you had (or have) a job in IT or another specialized field, maybe you could convert the basis of your A-permit to employment. If you divorce and switch to a B-permit, you're going to have to show a bunch of money in the bank that you didn't have to show to get accepted at the university (it sounds like you have been...). And of course you'll have to buy health insurance. In either case, converting the A to employment-based or converting to a B, you might have to leave the country for a while, it sounds like. There's the additional hassle that when you finished your degree program, you'd have to find a basis for converting the B to an A -- marriage, specialized employment, or something like that. Else it's back to the U.S. with a degree that although factually superior to a U.S. university degree (in most fields) will be quite problematic if you try to get into a graduate program or government job in the U.S. Most universities require evaluation by a so-called professional, and I have seen some
spectacularly incompetent and dishonest (borderline criminal) cases there. Finland's university system is not familiar to these U.S. degree-evaluation companies, which really ought to be called rackets, and so they wing it.
The longer you stay in Finland, as long as you like it and manage to feel at home, the harder it becomes to return to the U.S. Not least is the problem of returning without a job after years of having most of your money go to taxes and basics. But more than that is the cultural problem. Sure you may miss the huge thunderstorms, the vast plains and prairies, the seacoasts, the mountains, the national parks, maybe the bar culture, maybe even the tourist traps. But you find that you have lost your immunity and blinders against the magnitude and volume of ignorance, incompetence, complacency, and general snafu culture. Listening to the political discourse becomes almost impossible.
So regarding whatever you file and whomever you talk to, treat it like chess. Think several moves ahead. Don't act until you're sure of the consequences of each action. Because if you simply
hope for the best and assume the authorities will treat you in a way you consider fair, I'm pretty sure it won't turn out that way at all.
To file for divorce a year after getting a marriage-based A-Permit is to start a high-wire walk, or at least that's my impression. Even when done in good faith, to a bureaucrat it smells like fish. And they already think of Americans as having an exaggerated sense of entitlement.
