Moving To Turku Soon
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MelissainTexas
- Posts: 3
- Joined: Tue Jan 23, 2007 4:51 pm
Moving To Turku Soon
So here it is I have met someone that lives in Finland and we are talking and planning for me to make the big move overseas to be with him. I am American as you can tell by the name lol he is Finnish. I worry about some things that he has told me not to worry so much about. I know no Finnish other than simple words. So I worry about that being in a country where I do not know the language. I know most people in Finland do speak English I was just there last month visiting and I fell in love with the country right away. I just worry about me finding a job supporting myself while there I do not want to have to depend on him for everything he has told me not to worry about this issue but it is something I do worry about and I feel I need to. I worry I will not find a job. How hard is it to find a job for someone that only has basic skills? I do not have a degree but have had some college. I really need to find good sites to look for jobs in that area of course it will have to be in english. Any suggestions on how to get me through this language barrier issue would be wonderful. He is determined to teach me finnish of course. Which I am gladly accepting the offer of course. I still worry though. I can adpat to the culture and lifestyle of finns that is not a problem. Also any suggestions on transporting pets would be helpful as well I have three but I think I will only be able to bring two. What is the whole process behind that? So any help I would love I am a bit lost to be honest.
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Meri-Tuuli
- Posts: 355
- Joined: Mon Jan 16, 2006 2:25 pm
- Location: Finlandia
Welcome to Turku!
From Texas to Turku.....its abit of a leap I must say!!
There are a couple of Americans I know here in Turku, and they are both married to Finnish ladies. They are both in the 'unemployment school' taking Finnish classes....hmm, I think with no Finnish and basic skills you're talking in terms of a) a miracle or b) at least several months of job seeking to get a job (if not over a year)......somebody correct me if I'm wrong?
Of course, you could perhaps try and study here. There is no tuition or anything like that.
I have no idea about pets. I guess it depends what they are.....
And another thing I've thought of, I guess you're pretty much used to having a car? Well here they're kind of a luxury - alot of people don't even own cars (like me, well I can't even drive!) and you'd better get used to walking and cycling everywhere. I just mention this because my brother once had a girlfriend from Savannah, Georgia, and she actually couldn't walk more than about 30m. You think I'm joking? She complained if we didn't park right outside somewhere. Anyway.
And I guess Texan winters are a bit different from Finnish winters - for instance, it was a mere 20 F here today in the morning.
From Texas to Turku.....its abit of a leap I must say!!
There are a couple of Americans I know here in Turku, and they are both married to Finnish ladies. They are both in the 'unemployment school' taking Finnish classes....hmm, I think with no Finnish and basic skills you're talking in terms of a) a miracle or b) at least several months of job seeking to get a job (if not over a year)......somebody correct me if I'm wrong?
Of course, you could perhaps try and study here. There is no tuition or anything like that.
I have no idea about pets. I guess it depends what they are.....
And another thing I've thought of, I guess you're pretty much used to having a car? Well here they're kind of a luxury - alot of people don't even own cars (like me, well I can't even drive!) and you'd better get used to walking and cycling everywhere. I just mention this because my brother once had a girlfriend from Savannah, Georgia, and she actually couldn't walk more than about 30m. You think I'm joking? She complained if we didn't park right outside somewhere. Anyway.
And I guess Texan winters are a bit different from Finnish winters - for instance, it was a mere 20 F here today in the morning.
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Nicole Nadja
- Posts: 10
- Joined: Sat Oct 28, 2006 7:46 pm
Hi,
Good luck with your move to Finland.
We have also just arrived 3 weeks ago and we had to go through the process of bringing our animals to Finland. This is the address where you can write your questions about importing animals to Finland.
Elintarviketurvallisuusvirasto Evira
Mustialankatu 3, 00790 Helsinki
puh. 02077 24218, faksi 02077 24355
[email protected]
They are very helpful and can tell you exactely which kind of injections etc. the animals need.
Hope you will be able to get your pets to Finland.
Good luck with your move to Finland.
We have also just arrived 3 weeks ago and we had to go through the process of bringing our animals to Finland. This is the address where you can write your questions about importing animals to Finland.
Elintarviketurvallisuusvirasto Evira
Mustialankatu 3, 00790 Helsinki
puh. 02077 24218, faksi 02077 24355
[email protected]
They are very helpful and can tell you exactely which kind of injections etc. the animals need.
Hope you will be able to get your pets to Finland.
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MelissainTexas
- Posts: 3
- Joined: Tue Jan 23, 2007 4:51 pm
lol the walking didnt bother me in fact i loved it when i was there. i wanted to walk everywhere now i am back home and confined to my car which so sucks. i am not even really worried about having a car in finland really no need. so much easier to take a bus or a taxi. yeah my friends that went with me one she couldnt handle all the walking. the only time i didnt care for it was in the freezing rain when i was in helsinki. yes i have been afraid about that not finding a job i do have some skills but no degree to back those skills up if that makes sense. and thank you for the advice on my pets when my net at home is working correctly again i will for sure contact them and see what advice they have. but i have a feeling sadly which i have been avoiding this they will have to stay here in the US and i will have to find them homes 
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jamie_designer
- Posts: 738
- Joined: Thu Oct 19, 2006 11:44 pm
- Location: Turku
I read your post and thought I might have some valid information to add. now I am no immigration expert, there is however lots of information on this site as well as links to other sites that contain this information but from what I do know. One does not simply move to finland.
For the sake of this post lets assume that US and Canadian citizens have the same deal with Finland. Then we have legally 90 days in the country with out the need for a visa or residence permit. lets just say that any violation of this agreement could have horrible repercutions.
One only obtains a residence permit by three means Marriage, Family Ties, or Employment.
One only obtains a Visa by showing proper documents such as return flight, travel insurance, enough money in the bank to support yourself and a really great reason to stay.
From what I understand there is the humanitarian wild card, but that may be a little hard to play as life in the US ain't so bad.
If your not willing to Marry, or you don't fall under the other sections I don't think your going to have to worry about anything else because you won't be able to move there.
Now you can visit and look for employment during your stay, I would not suggest email, I have been emailing companies for the past 20 months and I have gotten out of maybe 150 emails 3 replys which were thanks but no thanks. If your emailing from another country, unless you are brillant they are going to delete your email.
Its not likely that any employer is going to see your email, fly you over for an interview, then decide whether you fit the job, you really need to be there and you need to be active.
Not being able to speak Finnish is even more trouble, its not an easy language, it doesn't have the same sounds, same rules or similar words as english, you are basicly having to start from scratch and its a slow process. and it cuts the amount of job you can apply to in half, more than half. Its going to be REALLY hard.
So my advice:
You want the EASY way: Marry the man, move and let him support you while you go to school in finland during this time you learn the language and get a great Finnish education that will allow you to get a decent to good job, meet friends and have your own life in Finland. After 2-4 years you will have graduated, hopefully landed a job and you can support your husband for a while
You want the HARD way: You don't marry and you now can only visit, during your stays you have a wonderful time but the good byes get harder and the long distance thing wears you both out. You are broke because plane tickets are costly and you had to quit your job because they can't hold a job for you while you go off to Finland. You both "love" each other and hate being apart so you decided to get married and then you follow the rest of the easy way.
( I hope I don't sound bitter )
Moving to Finland can be hard, I have been traveling there since 2003. I am actually headed back there on January 30th for 3 more month and during that time I will do what I always do, look for jobs, practice my Finnish, have a good time and enjoy the company of my friends and the people who have become my family. Because come May I have to go home, I have to leave my girlfriend and the life I have in Finland behind and come back to Canada and earn enough money to get back there.
I love my girlfriend very much, So much that I would do almost anything for her. she does not want to get married and I don't want to get married, for any other reason then its a quick fix to imigration papers
So we have a tough path, but its a path we both have decided to walk, the best advice I can give is this, Together look at your situation and know what your getting yourselves into. See how far your willing to go for each other and where your not willing to go. Talk to each other and be honest with yourselves.
and when your done that make a desicion about your future and hopefully if your both willing to work at it you will have a great relationship.
hopefully that helps.
For the sake of this post lets assume that US and Canadian citizens have the same deal with Finland. Then we have legally 90 days in the country with out the need for a visa or residence permit. lets just say that any violation of this agreement could have horrible repercutions.
One only obtains a residence permit by three means Marriage, Family Ties, or Employment.
One only obtains a Visa by showing proper documents such as return flight, travel insurance, enough money in the bank to support yourself and a really great reason to stay.
From what I understand there is the humanitarian wild card, but that may be a little hard to play as life in the US ain't so bad.
If your not willing to Marry, or you don't fall under the other sections I don't think your going to have to worry about anything else because you won't be able to move there.
Now you can visit and look for employment during your stay, I would not suggest email, I have been emailing companies for the past 20 months and I have gotten out of maybe 150 emails 3 replys which were thanks but no thanks. If your emailing from another country, unless you are brillant they are going to delete your email.
Its not likely that any employer is going to see your email, fly you over for an interview, then decide whether you fit the job, you really need to be there and you need to be active.
Not being able to speak Finnish is even more trouble, its not an easy language, it doesn't have the same sounds, same rules or similar words as english, you are basicly having to start from scratch and its a slow process. and it cuts the amount of job you can apply to in half, more than half. Its going to be REALLY hard.
So my advice:
You want the EASY way: Marry the man, move and let him support you while you go to school in finland during this time you learn the language and get a great Finnish education that will allow you to get a decent to good job, meet friends and have your own life in Finland. After 2-4 years you will have graduated, hopefully landed a job and you can support your husband for a while
You want the HARD way: You don't marry and you now can only visit, during your stays you have a wonderful time but the good byes get harder and the long distance thing wears you both out. You are broke because plane tickets are costly and you had to quit your job because they can't hold a job for you while you go off to Finland. You both "love" each other and hate being apart so you decided to get married and then you follow the rest of the easy way.
( I hope I don't sound bitter )
Moving to Finland can be hard, I have been traveling there since 2003. I am actually headed back there on January 30th for 3 more month and during that time I will do what I always do, look for jobs, practice my Finnish, have a good time and enjoy the company of my friends and the people who have become my family. Because come May I have to go home, I have to leave my girlfriend and the life I have in Finland behind and come back to Canada and earn enough money to get back there.
I love my girlfriend very much, So much that I would do almost anything for her. she does not want to get married and I don't want to get married, for any other reason then its a quick fix to imigration papers
So we have a tough path, but its a path we both have decided to walk, the best advice I can give is this, Together look at your situation and know what your getting yourselves into. See how far your willing to go for each other and where your not willing to go. Talk to each other and be honest with yourselves.
and when your done that make a desicion about your future and hopefully if your both willing to work at it you will have a great relationship.
hopefully that helps.
Hello,
let me say extra thing here.
I spent in Turku (or around) the whole year of 2005, working as a baby-sitter and housekeeper for one family (my story is somewhere here on the forum anyway). German skills were useless in Finland, English... well, sometimes didn't work either, unfortunatelly. I learned Swedish at that time, as my goal was to move to Sweden some day anyway (where I've been living for exactly a year now and no plans to move so far).
As someone mentioned already before - without Finnish you need a miracle to get a job. It is a bit easier in Helsinki area, where there are families after all looking for housekeepers sometimes and they pay ok money, and don't require any Finnish knowledge, but Turku... Turku sucks in this case (well, in many others as well if you live there longer than 3 months but you'll probably see).
Marriage idea can be a little bit changed - you can always register as a couple officially, so you don't need to get married to be able to stay - but I have no idea how it's working for those who aren't EU-citizens...
Anyway, more I cannot say, been away from Finland for a while now. I just wish you good luck.
Somewhere on this forum it was said once how to look for a job on http://www.mol.fi if one doesn't know Finnish... But it's just to search.
let me say extra thing here.
I spent in Turku (or around) the whole year of 2005, working as a baby-sitter and housekeeper for one family (my story is somewhere here on the forum anyway). German skills were useless in Finland, English... well, sometimes didn't work either, unfortunatelly. I learned Swedish at that time, as my goal was to move to Sweden some day anyway (where I've been living for exactly a year now and no plans to move so far).
As someone mentioned already before - without Finnish you need a miracle to get a job. It is a bit easier in Helsinki area, where there are families after all looking for housekeepers sometimes and they pay ok money, and don't require any Finnish knowledge, but Turku... Turku sucks in this case (well, in many others as well if you live there longer than 3 months
but you'll probably see).Marriage idea can be a little bit changed - you can always register as a couple officially, so you don't need to get married to be able to stay - but I have no idea how it's working for those who aren't EU-citizens...
Anyway, more I cannot say, been away from Finland for a while now. I just wish you good luck.
Somewhere on this forum it was said once how to look for a job on http://www.mol.fi if one doesn't know Finnish... But it's just to search.
Und die jahre ziehen ins Land und wir trinken immer noch ohne Verstand...
This is from a person who lived in Parainen, which is a separate town well outside Turku, and where the majority speak swedish anyway. So, don't be put off by someone's (misplaced) negativity. While I agree that things may well be easier for an anglophile in Helsinki, Turku isn't that bad. Learn Finnish as best you can, that you already have a finnish person to help and support you is brilliant.Emi wrote: but Turku... Turku sucks in this case (well, in many others as well if you live there longer than 3 months
Look on the experience as an adventure and think that for every down day there will be an up one, when even in the miserable days of February, there will be days when the sun shines, the sky is blue, and it is so beautiful that it is hard NOT to smile. And then there's the summer to look forward to....
kevin
Ni bheidh mo letheid aris ann.
Heh. One of the fastest ways for a couple to break up if for the non Finnish speaker to learn from their mate. Seriously, unless he is a trained language teacher, you probably won't learn Finnish from him, and you most likely will get really, really irritated with him really quickly.He is determined to teach me finnish of course.
If you want to get over the language barrier, start studying Finnish NOW for hours every day. That is the only way to do it. No short cuts. You will not just magically "absorb" it, even living here.
To put it bluntly in terms of jobs:
- you don't have a degree
- you don't speak Finnish
- you don't know anyone besides your bf
= not good job prospects. You will end up being supported by him for quite sometime whether you like it or not. My guess is a few years.
I'm not saying don't do it, just have realistic expectations (it will take you longer than you ever thought to find work, you will experience culture shock, you will need to be fully "taken care of" by your bf [emotionally, socially and financially], etc.
Why not come for 90 days, see how you like it and how the job prospects are, and then make your choice?
I think that its 2 years of cohabitation with your partner (EU or non-EU) to qualify for that "partner" relationship status.
Moreover, In Finland, the Businesses, whatever they might be are more interested in your "Educational Qualifications" than "What you really know"....
I know this from 1st hand experience.... for e.g. Even if you are an expert at something, they still want to see a degree that proves that you are an expert of that something or at a closely related field.
Even when you have a degree and years of qualification, the salaries are not close to that of US, especially "Tax free Texas".
Prices are 2-3 times that of Walmart of Wallgreens or Albertsons.
I lived there for 12 years before I met my SO.
It would be easier for a Finn to move to US for a temporary time, Earn a heck a lot of $$$ and then make a move back to Finland...Getting a car, savings for a house etc..
As people said before, In turku, You can survive but barely without a degree or qualification. Turku has pretty good Science and Bio parks but then Companies rarely higher anyone off the boat/plan here..
Moreover, In Finland, the Businesses, whatever they might be are more interested in your "Educational Qualifications" than "What you really know"....
I know this from 1st hand experience.... for e.g. Even if you are an expert at something, they still want to see a degree that proves that you are an expert of that something or at a closely related field.
Even when you have a degree and years of qualification, the salaries are not close to that of US, especially "Tax free Texas".
Prices are 2-3 times that of Walmart of Wallgreens or Albertsons.
I lived there for 12 years before I met my SO.
It would be easier for a Finn to move to US for a temporary time, Earn a heck a lot of $$$ and then make a move back to Finland...Getting a car, savings for a house etc..
As people said before, In turku, You can survive but barely without a degree or qualification. Turku has pretty good Science and Bio parks but then Companies rarely higher anyone off the boat/plan here..
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MelissainTexas
- Posts: 3
- Joined: Tue Jan 23, 2007 4:51 pm
Since I really want this to work me moving to be with him I decided to do a little more reasearch and there are finnish classes in my area so I will be investing in that next month. It will cost me but I think it will be worth it in the end I can get some sort of work when I get there and not have to depend on him to support me. So I will keep coming here in the mean time and checking on simple issues that arise for me and it gives me time and I dont have to feel so hopeless now that I am going to enroll in the classes. I may be able to work in two classes before I am to come there which I am sure I will be able to. I am ready to come there just not as ready as I need to be lol
As Hank says what is your specialty? I know numerous foreign guys(EU and non EU) who came here because of women, are still here because of family ties, who don't have work. Some have been here 15-20 years and still haven't obtained employment. A couple of them are artists so they can slide by selling their works. One guy buys and renovates apartments to resell, yet can't find work in the construction industry because he doesn't speak finnish. Excpect to be supported by the boyfriend for a while, try to learn the language and think about heading to school here. Christ you need to go to school to be anything here cleaner, hotel clerk etc.., unless of course your some kind of specialist at something with papers to back it. I myself am considering moving to Turku or Helsinki in the summer as I have contract offers in both places, I don't speak the language, so specialty means work, no specialty means no work. The animals are easy, a rabies shot, deworming, federal vet inspection and microchip and they board the plane.(runs about 100 an animal for the vet bills, and look hard at the airlines pet fees, sometimes the ticket might be cheaper the price to get the animal to the destination is more expensive. I'd reccomend bringing them as your going to need something to talk to for the first few months. I think I spent the first 3-4 months here drinking beer, koskenkorva and talking to cats. Good luck and think about costs of flying home etc as you will need to at some point, or you'll go crazy the first year or so.
>> Since I really want this to work me moving to be with him I decided to do a little more reasearch and there are finnish classes in my area so I will be investing in that next month. <<
Where in Texas are you located ? Here are the Finnish Language Meetup Groups in Texas :
http://finnish.meetup.com/cities/us/tx/?all=1
Where in Texas are you located ? Here are the Finnish Language Meetup Groups in Texas :
http://finnish.meetup.com/cities/us/tx/?all=1
Contact the American Embassy for job info!
Contact the American Embassy in Helsinki and check to see if they have any telecommuting jobs. If they don’t then you might consider working any job they have an opening for and that you are qualified; then in 6 months to a year you can attempt to see they will agree to convert the job into a telecommuting position.
One way or another, the American Embassy should at least be able to give a few leads.
Good Luck! - Just my 2 cents.
One way or another, the American Embassy should at least be able to give a few leads.
Good Luck! - Just my 2 cents.