Submitting the Residence Permit

So today I had my appointment with the Foreign Police.

In order to stay in Finland you have a residence permit. There is quite a lot of paperwork that needs to be completed.

First, you have your employer fill out these papers. Then you fill out your own papers. Since I am applying for residency from within Finland (they recommend you do it from your home country) I have to fill out this form called "Response to possible refusal of entry and prohibition of entry."

There are 2 questions on there that are interesting. Essentially they ask:

1. If your application is rejected, do you object to being deported and prohibited from re-entering the country?
2. If your application is rejected, do you object to your visa being canceled

Its rather fully b/c I don't know how you would answer it. Will someone really say "Oh.. yeah that is fine. Please, kick me out, bar me from coming back. I didn't want to be here anyway"

So anyway yes you have that form, then copy of work contract... 2 photos that must meet 2 pages of criteria... €250. I also took bank statements, insurance statements, education documents etc just in case.

So anyway I turned in the paperwork and now I just have to wait a few months to find out what will happen. The lady I talked to said I can stay in the country while the application is being processed. This is good news b/c I was under the impression I would have to leave if my 90 day tourist visa expires.. and then come back depending on the decision. I asked her if she can give me some kind of "documentation" showing this, but she could not and referred my to the Aliens Act paperwork. I think I found the proof but I am not sure. I'll contact the relocation agency to have them verify.

So anyways for now I'm on my way to being legal. Monday I'll go to another office to get my Finnish ID number.. yay!

--- update --

So it does look like I can stay until the decision is finished.. that is really good.. will save flying back to the USA :O)

Helsinki Pride

Well after I got the official job offer, its also time to celebrate being a homo. Helsinki Pride is this weekend and it will be my first pride event in a big city.

This year there was over 10,000 homo's in attendance, which is quite a lot. I think in Cedar Rapids there were maybe 4 gays total for pride. The strange thing is the woman to man ratio was about 7/1.












It was a good time. We marched in the parade. It was quite nice as I have never marched before and there were tons of people watching and smiling and cheering.











and unfortunatly we were "hate crimed"... ok it was not that bad.. at least not to us.. but some guys threw smoke grenades and sprayed people (and childern) with mace... the smoke grenade went off right behind us during the parade. But yes it was interesting b/c I've never experienced any negativity about being gay..






It was nice to have the city support the event. They had special gay trams that only gay people could ride. If you were strait, we would let you ride, but you had to go to the back of the tram.









All in all it was a nice time. Spent the rest of the day in the park listning to music and drinking and eating and drinking and drinking..and.. eating.




Looking forward to next years pride and hopefully will be living in Helsinki so won't have to worry about the travel :o)

Job Offer

So I had my interview with a company that was interested in me. Interviewed the first time on June 14th. They wanted to interview me once more before giving me the job. Well.. to make this short, went, interviewed and got the job!

Its strange b/c in Europe everyone does "work contracts" so I have this paper that says what I make, how long the job is for and all these formal things. Everyone tells me this is a "good" thing and are so surprised that in the USA we don't use them. So, well now I have one :)

Now I just need to submit the application for the residence permit.