Joining the Finish Defense Forces

[JayMakin]

Hello, my name is John. I am Ex-British Army and served 4 years including 1 tour of Afghanistan, I was a Corporal for 1 and a half years. My fiance is Finnish and were moving back to Finland, the only job I have ever really had was in Military and with my and my fiance moving to Finland in the next few months I see it becoming difficult finding work, so I´v decided to find out as much as I can about joining the Finish army.

What I really want to know is if I am eligible to join and if my rank and previous military experience counts at all if I can join? I have done some research and have learnt that non-Finnish speakers can join and there is an "area" where they specialize. I don't really speak much Finnish, only the basics, but would like to know if I have to start from the bottom of the ranks again and if so how to go about this?

Cheers!

John

[rinso]

Hello, my name is John. I am Ex-British Army and served 4 years including 1 tour of Afghanistan, I was a Corporal for 1 and a half years. My fiance is Finnish and were moving back to Finland, the only job I have ever really had was in Military and with my and my fiance moving to Finland in the next few months I see it becoming difficult finding work, so I´v decided to find out as much as I can about joining the Finish army.

What I really want to know is if I am eligible to join and if my rank and previous military experience counts at all if I can join? I have done some research and have learnt that non-Finnish speakers can join and there is an "area" where they specialize. I don't really speak much Finnish, only the basics, but would like to know if I have to start from the bottom of the ranks again and if so how to go about this?

Cheers!

John

You need to have the Finnish nationality before you can join.

[CH]

You probably need to contact the Finnish Defence Forces directly and ask them. You can find the contact information here: http://www.puolustusvoimat.fi/en/
There is lots of information there in general about the Finnish Defence Forces, too.

There are most probably other areas where having a military background would be an asset, like working in security, but not knowing Finnish and/or Swedish is an issue.

[GermanInHelsinki]

Just like in the UK, the Finnish Defence Forces do of course not accept foreigners.

The earliest point for you having Finnish citizenship is of course in 2020.

Discriminating language requirements for cleaning personal have often been lowered in recent years, but there is of course much competition among foreigners for positions in the cleaning sector as well as in the advertisement delivery sector.

If you were not a failure at school, you should of course consider starting university studies in 2016 (it's free!) to learn something useful.

[onkko]

Default and law is that you cant join FDF withouth being citizen and doing conscription but you really should contact FDF and ask about possibilities.

[Pursuivant]

Doesn't work that way. Finland has a "National Service" and not a career army as such, some few thousand. And your grunt service (at 19) decides if you get to step onto the ladder. So in your case, you'd be "too old" already even you were a prodigy with the language and made citizen in the least time as they don't take in over 29 olds. Those with language issues are usually either Swedish-speakers, or then dual citizenship kids with a Finnish parent, who wish to retain their Finnish citizenship.

So, back to the first catch-22