Finnish national having never lived in Finland seeks advice

[Meri-Tuuli]

Hey folks,

I'll be moving to Finland in Sept to commence studying. I am technically a dual national with British and Finnish passports.

Now. As I am technically Finnish, er, what do I have to do when I arrive? I assume I am automatically entitled to everything a normal Finn would be, except maybe some benefits that state you have been living in Finland for two years.

My mother has been faithfully informing the magistratti of my address. I know when I arrive I'll have to give them my address.

But what else would I need to do? Get a KELA card? One of those ID cards?

Eh? Obviously its abit hazy as they would assume a Finnish national would know how to do all these things, but er, I don't!!!

[Hank W.]

Well, as you've been "registered here" you have a "nuber" so in case you haven't memorized it, do. Then when you get a flat you need to report that to the Mistraatti with a printed form as "moving in from abroad". Then you put in an application for a KELA card, might be useful of getting a tax card if you plan on getting any work done, and one of those ID cards is useful as carrying a passoprt around is cumbersome and then claiming to be Finnish and having an UK passoprt will get you into more trouble as a suspected fraud than just going with the flow with a normal ID card + it fits into the wallet. Don't worry, besides teh ID and KELA cards you'll end up with student card, VR+Matkahuolto student reduction card, library card... so it won't feel at all lonesome.

Yeah, getting a bank account set is one of the things to do, but if you already have your number it'll be a piece of cake.

Oh, and for a person from the UK - "proof of address" means if you are "in the computer". If you are not "in the computer" you don't live there. So in case of say getting a Helsinki bus pass, to get a Helsinki resident deduction you need to be a resident - proof of which is that you are "in the computer". So registering the address with the maistraatti isn't quite that a trivial thing.

[Meri-Tuuli]

Thanks Hank!

Is the magic number located in your passport and begins with your birth date? Looking like 01.01.01 - 100X ?????? So is that your social sercurity number? yeah probably.

So go to Magistratti, give them new address, register for a KELA card, ID card.... student union card, blah blah blah. I think I'll just sort it out when I arrive as I can't really do anything about it now! BTW I already have a flat arranged , so thats one less concern!

Yeah, I think there are a fair number of us Finnish dual nationals... its all those Finnish women marrying foreign men....or rather, having children with them. But having two passports isn't a problem, I mean no-one else sees the other passport, and in the passports themselves it doesn't say anything about dual nationality. I even entered Finland on my Finnish passport and the immigration officer asked me something and I replied in sort of Finnish, but missed the point altogether and the officer just laughed and switched to English. So I cblearly don't look like/act like some fraudster with fake passports. But yeah, it is a slight worry of mine.

Kind regards

Meri-Tuuli