AuPair in need of extending residency permit - Help please.

[Tribby]

Hello everyone!

I'm Megan and this is my first post here...

I'm a Canadian Au Pair who's year of working as an Au Pair will end in May. However, upon my year here I've met very many friends and fallen for a Finnish man. We've become very close and he's made the decision to come to Canada in September.

I was wondering if it was at all possible to extend my residency permit or what actions I should take to be able to stay in Finland for the rest of the summer (until early or mid September) so that we may travel back to Canada together.

Is this possible at all?

Thank you all very much for your help!

[daryl]

Hello everyone!

I'm Megan and this is my first post here...

I'm a Canadian Au Pair who's year of working as an Au Pair will end in May. However, upon my year here I've met very many friends and fallen for a Finnish man. We've become very close and he's made the decision to come to Canada in September.

I was wondering if it was at all possible to extend my residency permit or what actions I should take to be able to stay in Finland for the rest of the summer (until early or mid September) so that we may travel back to Canada together.

Is this possible at all?

Thank you all very much for your help!

This is an interesting question.

As far as I can tell, there is no direct reference to au-pairs in the Aliens Act. The guidance published by the Directorate of Immigration in several languages says that Finnish practice complies with the European Agreement on Au-Pair Placement (Council of Europe, Strasbourg, 24 November 1969). It also says that permission to remain in Finland as an au-pair is issued for up to one year, but any extension must be for some reason other than au-pair work.

What makes this interesting is that the European Agreement on Au-Pair Placement says the following about the duration of au-pair placement:

Article 3

Placement “au pair” which shall initially be for a period not exceeding one year, may, however, be extended to permit of a maximum stay of two years.

Now I could be mistaken, but I dimly recall that regulations issued under the old Aliens Act imposed a maximum period of 18 months on the total residence of au-pairs and trainees. However, those regulations lapsed when the new Aliens Act took effect in 2004. No new regulations have been issued to my knowledge under the new Aliens Act.

This (very preliminary) review of regulations suggests that there is now a mismatch between the declared one-year rule and the law behind it. The Directorate of Immigration does not make the law. Indeed as far as I know, it is not even authorised to issue guidelines of its own.

It therefore seems a fair question to ask why Finland ignores the option of extending au-pair placement beyond the initial one-year period.

Of course, all of this only applies to genuine extension of au-pair placement. That means remaining in the role of taking care of children, helping with housework, receiving pocket money, studying the local language and culture and so on. If the intention is to move out of the au-pair placement, then you have to look at other options (which are probably not especially easy, IMO).

daryl