The life in Finland

nnickos · Post by **nnickos** » Wed Apr 01, 2015 5:05 am

Hi all,

This gonna be a topic with some complaints, but I would also like to have some answers. I am preparing myself to move myself to Finland, Helsinki area. Reading a lot of posts that is very difficult to get everything settled in Finland, literally everything. If you are a EU citizen you can work, live in Finland for three months, as in any other country, BUT after that it is getting really hard right? I was just wondering, why? Every EU citizen has the same rights. Shouldn't make a difference which EU country you are from. Why are the finnish authorities making it so hard to welcome foreigners. I get it why you don't wanna open the borders and welcome everyone, I am from The Netherlands..

But seriously? Everyone? If I read are the topics and posts, that means that if you are not married, got a proper job or you bring something to Finland, you will not be accepted. Is this right?
I am gonna put myself as an example. I got no degrees, no knowledge to the Finnish language, very willing to learn though and I am lucky to be very good in language, but will they believe that? Basically, I have almost worse to nothing to offer, still, I wanna settle in Finland. I don't wanna be a burden to the government, but I have to show some income, how is that possible when you are moving from a different country? I can't continue my work here in Finland, I have to start from the bottom which I realise.
For example, I live in three months, work and a roof is not a problem, my visum is finished so I need an temporary (permanent)? residence permit. How do I get that without an Finnish social number? I need an bank account right?
I am trying to figure this all out trough my native language websites, but they can't give my anything. I hope you people can help me a little bit.

Sincerly,

Nick

**Sponsor:**

Rosamunda · Post by **Rosamunda** » Wed Apr 01, 2015 10:00 am

If you are an EU citizen, you are welcome to hang out in Finland for as long as you want (in theory it's three months max but in practice they have no way of proving you didn't return to the Netherlands every other weekend). However, you will not be able to "sign on" or get into the benefits system. you are on your own (ie a tourist) until you start working. It's pretty much the same system throughout the EU. If I decided I REALLY REALLY wanted to live in the Netherlands, I guess I would be in the same situation as you coming to Finland. The borders here are as open as in any other EU country. You do not need an RP or a visa (they are for non-EU nationals). As soon as you get a job you go to the police station and apply for a social security number.

But first things first, how good is your Finnish? The chances of finding work without speaking the language are not very high.

betelgeuse · Post by **betelgeuse** » Wed Apr 01, 2015 10:37 am

nnickos wrote: This gonna be a topic with some complaints, but I would also like to have some answers. I am preparing myself to move myself to Finland, Helsinki area. Reading a lot of posts that is very difficult to get everything settled in Finland, literally everything. If you are a EU citizen you can work, live in Finland for three months, as in any other country, BUT after that it is getting really hard right?

It doesn't if you fill the criteria to stay here. Yes the bureaucracy to get registered in proper places will be annoying but this is not a problem unique to Finland.

nnickos wrote: I was just wondering, why? Every EU citizen has the same rights. Shouldn't make a difference which EU country you are from. Why are the finnish authorities making it so hard to welcome foreigners.

What makes you think EU citizens are treated differently based on the country of origin?

nnickos wrote: I get it why you don't wanna open the borders and welcome everyone, I am from The Netherlands.. But seriously? Everyone? If I read are the topics and posts, that means that if you are not married, got a proper job or you bring something to Finland, you will not be accepted. Is this right?

There's no absolute right to move to another country in the EU. If you will be a burden on the social security system, you will not be accepted.

http://ec.europa.eu/social/main.jsp?catId=457

nnickos wrote: I am gonna put myself as an example. I got no degrees, no knowledge to the Finnish language, very willing to learn though and I am lucky to be very good in language, but will they believe that?

Whether they believe doesn't matter. None of those matter for registering right of residence.

nnickos wrote: Basically, I have almost worse to nothing to offer, still, I wanna settle in Finland. I don't wanna be a burden to the government, but I have to show some income, how is that possible when you are moving from a different country? I can't continue my work here in Finland, I have to start from the bottom which I realise.

Either you have savings or then you get a job offer before settling in.

nnickos wrote: For example, I live in three months, work and a roof is not a problem, my visum is finished so I need an temporary (permanent)? residence permit. How do I get that without an Finnish social number? I need an bank account right?

There's no visas for EU citizens.

http://www.poliisi.fi/licences_and_perm ... _residence

You get a personal identity code after registering right of residence. With SEPA the need of a Finnish bank account is less than it used to be.

rinso · Post by **rinso** » Wed Apr 01, 2015 12:03 pm

I am gonna put myself as an example. I got no degrees, no knowledge to the Finnish language, very willing to learn though and I am lucky to be very good in language, but will they believe that? Basically, I have almost worse to nothing to offer, still, I wanna settle in Finland.

This puts you at a disadvantage. But it's not the bureaucratic system that's to blame but your own lack of skills.
If you want to settle in Finland you have to bring something extra (skills, experience, motivation and persistence). And even then it will be difficult.
Think carefully before you make the move otherwise you might end up as a life long bottom feeder.

nnickos · Post by **nnickos** » Wed Apr 01, 2015 1:29 pm

Rosamunda wrote:If you are an EU citizen, you are welcome to hang out in Finland for as long as you want (in theory it's three months max but in practice they have no way of proving you didn't return to the Netherlands every other weekend). However, you will not be able to "sign on" or get into the benefits system. you are on your own (ie a tourist) until you start working. It's pretty much the same system throughout the EU. If I decided I REALLY REALLY wanted to live in the Netherlands, I guess I would be in the same situation as you coming to Finland. The borders here are as open as in any other EU country. You do not need an RP or a visa (they are for non-EU nationals). As soon as you get a job you go to the police station and apply for a social security number.

But first things first, how good is your Finnish? The chances of finding work without speaking the language are not very high.

Thanks for the replies.

Finding a job will be hard, but not a big problem. I do have a contact in Finland which can hook me up quite easily. My finnish however is horrible, besides "sit" and "no" I know nothing. But again, I am very lucky to pick up a foreign language quite easily, even Finnish.

I believe hard work will pay off. If I get a job, show that I have income in Finland, troughout a dutch bank though, I will eventually get a magic number and be in the system, right?

betelgeuse · Post by **betelgeuse** » Wed Apr 01, 2015 2:01 pm

nnickos wrote: I believe hard work will pay off. If I get a job, show that I have income in Finland, troughout a dutch bank though, I will eventually get a magic number and be in the system, right?

Yes and you don't even need the Dutch bank. A job contract for the income suffices.

Upphew · Post by **Upphew** » Wed Apr 01, 2015 2:03 pm

nnickos wrote:I believe hard work will pay off. If I get a job, show that I have income in Finland, troughout a dutch bank though, I will eventually get a magic number and be in the system, right?

If you get job, you can show that you have income. So you march to police to do your registration.
http://www.police.fi (btw, way better English pages than their colleagues in .nl...)
http://www.intofinland.fi/
http://www.tax.fi
http://www.kela.fi
http://maistraatti.fi/en/

Rip · Post by **Rip** » Wed Apr 01, 2015 2:16 pm

nnickos wrote: Finding a job will be hard, but not a big problem. I do have a contact in Finland which can hook me up quite easily.

Eu citizen + job = combination that would allow you settle here without any real bureaucratic problems.
(not counting the bureaucracy that even the citizens must live with) - If you're right in being so confident about the your employment prospects.

But again, I am very lucky to pick up a foreign language quite easily, even Finnish.

There are such people, though I think they are much rarer than the people who think they can pick Finnish easily. Not a problem with all jobs. Maybe the situation is bit same as in Netherlands: you can take care most business using English, but you will be (even if employed) a bit of outsider always if you don't understand the language most people speak.

biscayne · Post by **biscayne** » Wed Apr 08, 2015 9:52 pm

Ah yes, picking up Finnish in a couple of years...... There were always those mythical people who picked it up in 6 months, everyone knew about them, but I don't recall anyone ever meeting one, and I never did. Did anyone ever really truly meet a person who was fluent in, say, 1 year? Not a friend of a friend, but a real, live person?

Pursuivant · Post by **Pursuivant** » Thu Apr 09, 2015 1:31 pm

The German girl in my class back in tourism college. She had come the previous year as an au pair... I thought she was a local hick girl (swedish-speaker) as she had a very slight 'something' in the pronunciation at times... Yes, from 0 to 100 in a year, totally fluent and passed entrance examinations...

biscayne · Post by **biscayne** » Thu Apr 09, 2015 4:53 pm

Damn! well, good for her! like as in, within one year she spoke and wrote well enough to get into a college on the same basis as the locals??? Damn!

Sami-Is-Boss · Post by **Sami-Is-Boss** » Thu Apr 16, 2015 3:25 pm

Simply being around the language for that amount of time gives you a good knowledge of it even without trying. I can imagine things 'clicked' very quickly for that Canadian once he actually started studying the language

Pursuivant · Post by **Pursuivant** » Thu Apr 16, 2015 6:39 pm

Like so?

tuttu · Post by **tuttu** » Fri Apr 17, 2015 12:21 am

nnickos,
i myself came to finland from another eu country "without anything to offer".
i have no other experience in moving to other countries, but i never had the feeling someone's trying to make it hard for me, quite the opposite.
finding work, that's a different thing...
you're well advised to invest time in learning finnish. i did, it didn't even cost me anything (it was CAISA in kaisaniemi - oh look, it still exists: http://www.caisa.fi/esittely).
and despite what they say, it's not a hard language to learn. finns just like to keep up that air of mystery and weirdness about themselves.

FinnGuyHelsinki · Post by **FinnGuyHelsinki** » Fri Apr 17, 2015 7:22 am

tuttu wrote:and despite what they say, it's not a hard language to learn. finns just like to keep up that air of mystery and weirdness about themselves.

Any language can be learned by anyone, all locals have learned it as well (duh). The possible difficulty in learning Finnish comes from the fact that there are few commonalities with most other languages. So usually it's definitely something else than learning French for a Brit, Spanish for an Italian,...

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