Be ready to fight!

[r32]

Be ready to fight! That's the only way you will get something in Finland and also in Europe! I've realized it after 5 years that bureaucracy has a paradise, and that paradise Finland.

And now the aberrant part.

I am a Eu citizen. In the last 5 years I've been living in Finland but in the last 2,5 years I've been working here. In January 2007, Romania joined Eu, so I changed my old status, from a B-status to European Union Citizen Certificate. Also since January 2007, I've registered my address here in Finland to be my home address. Everything normal till now.

In February 2009 I've applied for the University, academic year 2009-2010. Based on my rights and everything mentioned on kela's web page I am entitled to get the student aid and I will get it no problem about that, but the ABERRANT part is that I visited Kela office today to check the status of my papers for the study grant and they told me that "we miss something B-status, don't know what..." that's the explanation that I got, nobody was able to tell me more. I was really really pissed because they are just constantly trying to pull your leg and that's starting to be frustrating. Since I am an European Union Citizen with all the rights in Finland we shouldn't even discuss about this problem, life could be less complicated but they will always make things hard for you and I don't understand why...
I went to the Police station to ask the lady in the Foreign office about this, and she said to me that "European citizens don't have any status, you can study, work etc, so go and show Kela the paper. The only ones that have a status are people coming from outside EU countries". I knew this information before, but I just wanted to hear this from her again. I went back to Kela, showed them the paper, they even called the Centre for Student Financial Aid in JYVÄSKYLÄ and the worker from the phone was asking the guy from Lahti, if Romania and Bulgaria are part of Eu... Is something really rotten with these people? How they can pretend like this?
Why you always need to get a kick in the ass when the law helps you...please guys help me out here to understand the situation, what's wrong with the world?

So for all the students coming here, from EU or outside EU, be ready to fight,even when the law helps you, because here, people are constantly trying to make your life harder.

[Huy]

KELA = Incompetence x 10000000000

[r32]

KELA = Incompetence x 10000000000

Your words are wisdom!

[r32]

KELA = Incompetence x 10000000000

They make rules but unfortunately their workers don't follow them...
And the problem is that even when the law is by your side, they still try to take you down...how sick is that? And we call this democracy?

[Huy]

Seriously, if the great folks at KELA is asked a question that they do not know the answer to, and they PRETEND to be all-knowing Gods of Wisdom, that is unacceptable. If they instead just admitted or even just hinted, that they may need to fetch some more information because the answer is eluding them, now THAT is how it should be.
But noooooo, the Gods at KELA is never ever wrong in front of the customer.
Next time, remember to ask what his/her name is and who the supervisor is, when they try to pull your leg. After they give you the names, ask them your original question again.

HAIL THE ALMIGHTY KELA-GODS

[r32]

Seriously, if the great folks at KELA is asked a question that they do not know the answer to, and they PRETEND to be all-knowing Gods of Wisdom, that is unacceptable. If they instead just admitted or even just hinted, that they may need to fetch some more information because the answer is eluding them, now THAT is how it should be.
But noooooo, the Gods at KELA is never ever wrong in front of the customer.
Next time, remember to ask what his/her name is and who the supervisor is, when they try to pull your leg. After they give you the names, ask them your original question again.

HAIL THE ALMIGHTY KELA-GODS

Actually I just did that, I asked the guy, or should I call him "God", that I want to speak your his supervisor about this issue because I don't want to be discriminated in Finland, never, I will not take that because it's not normal anywhere in the world, especially in this "civilized" countries. Immediately after I said this, he started to be a bit more helpful...but why you always have to fight for something that you deserve ?
This was the first time in 5 years when I really felt that all this European Union stuff is just non-sense...Sorry for striking in EU now but I've heard many funny stories also from other countries within EU. I am still wondering when people will really open their eyes???? Everything looks great on the outside but the taste is s***

[Mook]

We tried to help an italian student get some cash from Kela - we didn't manage, just got the run-around. After every rejection it was "well why don't you try appyingf for that" round and round in a circle.

From what I've seen, optintotuki is optional if you're not Finnish...

[r32]

We tried to help an italian student get some cash from Kela - we didn't manage, just got the run-around. After every rejection it was "well why don't you try appyingf for that" round and round in a circle.

From what I've seen, optintotuki is optional if you're not Finnish...

Based on the law it is not optional.
As you might already know : http://www.kela.fi/in/internet/english. ... enDocument
How long the italian guy lived in Finland?

For me, couple of people from Kela already told me after they checked my details that there will be no problem in getting the student money.

[r32]

We tried to help an italian student get some cash from Kela - we didn't manage, just got the run-around. After every rejection it was "well why don't you try appyingf for that" round and round in a circle.

From what I've seen, optintotuki is optional if you're not Finnish...

One other thing, if the guy came solely for the purpose of studying then that's a good reason why he didn't get it.

[Pursuivant]

Ah, opintotuki. Now you have stepped into something soft on a dark path and you don't want to check your shoes. KELA is very extremely eager to ask the money back if you go over the income thresholds, so be very extremely careful. And also as they don't get the information from the tax office nor can they read dates, they will send you the bill for the last year's opintotuki and you have to prove them exactly why and when and where and with whom and in which position... I could almost say the Italian guy was lucky... Oh then if you get the backing for a student loan, remember that if you tell KELA not to pay the opintotuki, say during your internship they'll send some message to the bank you start getting repayment bills very eagerly too...

... you really need to work for the "free" money.

[skullmonkey]

If you don't like the free, paid education here, you can always go back to Romania. Or do they not have universities there?

[interleukin]

KELA is equally incompetent no matter if you are Finnish, a nordic citizen or EU. So this is really not an EU issue as you make it out to be.

[r32]

If you don't like the free, paid education here, you can always go back to Romania. Or do they not have universities there?

My friend, first of all I know my rights and I want Kela to respect them. I know is hard for you to accept that some things are not working well in Finland but it happens also here, don't be embarrassed to admit that. Nothing is perfect.
And If I am entitled to get the money then I will get them! Otherwise I will go further

P.S. Free is not always synonym with quality

[skullmonkey]

If you don't like the free, paid education here, you can always go back to Romania. Or do they not have universities there?

My friend, first of all I know my rights and I want Kela to respect them. I know is hard for you to accept that some things are not working well in your own country but it happens also here, don't be embarrassed to admit that. Nothing is perfect.
And If I am entitled to get the money then I will get them! Otherwise I will go further

I'm not your friend. In my opinion KELA and any other authority in Finland work perfectly fine, as I had never any problems. Of course if you run in there with an attitude and demand "what you're entitled to" I do understand if some people will think "F#cking foreigners, come here and abuse our system" and make your life more difficult. As I see it, you want free money + free education, so be ready to walk the extra mile for it.

[r32]

If you don't like the free, paid education here, you can always go back to Romania. Or do they not have universities there?

My friend, first of all I know my rights and I want Kela to respect them. I know is hard for you to accept that some things are not working well in your own country but it happens also here, don't be embarrassed to admit that. Nothing is perfect.
And If I am entitled to get the money then I will get them! Otherwise I will go further

I'm not your friend. In my opinion KELA and any other authority in Finland work perfectly fine, as I had never any problems. Of course if you run in there with an attitude and demand "what you're entitled to" I do understand if some people will think "F#cking foreigners, come here and abuse our system" and make your life more difficult. As I see it, you want free money + free education, so be ready to walk the extra mile for it.

Not yet
As I respect the laws here in Finland everyday, then I expect that Kela does the same thing when it comes to respecting my rights. Always when I go to a Finnish authority I never go with any kind of attitude, I just want to benefit for the things that I've worked hard for. I don't need to tell you that my life here was a roller coaster and after all this ride, in which I had the seat belt on, I deserve to get what is written in the book.
Nothing more, nothing less. Receiving this benefits proves that the system works, not that the system is trying to cheat you.