6 Fingers & 2 Thumbs

Today is the 27th of December and for many that means waiting in massive line ups for all the wonderful Boxing Day sales (Boxing Day is the 26th of December and way-back-when rich people would box up their gifts they did not like and give them to their servants/hired help) and returning the gifts they didn't like or had duplicates of already.
Today my family got to hang out for a few hours at the police station so we could renew our residence permits (3/4 of us) and apply for a Finnish ID card for the husband so he can get a loan here.
After a lengthy wait and once my husband was finished his share of the process - it was just me and the officer in a cozy office getting my share of the paper work completed.

What's new this year is that the Finnish Residence Permits are no longer pieces of paper with your photo and  some info on it glued into your passport.
This time the Finns are going all high-tech!
The Finnish R.P. look like an ID card of sorts (we won't get ours for awhile so I'm sorry I can't describe it properly) but is not an official piece of identification.  It's merely a permit saying yep we live in Finland.
In this RP there is a microchip and that contains a copy of our finger prints and our signature along with other stuff I'm sure.

A child under the age of 6 does not have to have their finger prints taken.  (Thank goodness!)

And it's all digital....there's no more ink and paper and rolling your fingers this way and that on the ink pad.
Your prints will be taken from both hands - right hand first and beginning with the thumb and each finger is printed twice (you lift your finger between prints) to "ensure quality prints" for their records.
Now because it is winter time and I am TERRIBLE at moisturizing my hands - the scanner was not able to pick up some of my prints.  So I had to rub my fingers onto my skin to get some oil to help make the print clearer.
Good thing I had an apple and lots of peanut butter for breakfast at least 5 hours prior (and nothing else since)...my face was a little oily...not that you care or needed to know that!

Oh!  You're wondering why my title is "6 Fingers & 2 Thumbs"?
My pinky fingers couldn't leave a print because they were "too small".  Alright - not sure if he'll put on my file "She has small baby fingers - no prints available...but she DOES have all 10 digits!" or not - but I found it amusing but didn't ask if he felt the same.

Oh and some friends of ours had to fly to Ottawa to access this machine to get their RPs before moving here - because Ottawa had the only Finnish Embassy that contained a digital finger print scanner...GO CANADA!

Then came the interesting part.

It turns out that my oldest son's RP had expired back in September.  Why it was a different date than ours - I don't know.  Ours typically expired in August but because of this new system - we were advised they would extend the date on our RPs and we had to renew it before 2013 and that we could renew the child's at the same time.  So maybe they didn't extend his??
I apologized profusely and said that I thought we could renew the 3 RPs at the same time and that our expiry dates were all the same - oops - seriously.  That and the lady that we normally dealt with was in the next room - I didn't want to point fingers and play the blame-game...anyways...
He informed me that this was illegal but because he is an under-aged child (he's 3-years old) there won't be any fines.
I advised him that if it was such an issue to be a little late on a RP renewal - why weren't we contacted??
"Well, we don't send notices like that."
"Obviously a 3-year old is not a major threat if his residence permit application wasn't submitted on time and nobody contacted us about it..." - was my grouchy thought...
BUT!  I have received notices - FROM THE POLICE/IMMIGRATION SERVICES in the past - when a residence permit was due for renewal or past due because we were waiting on a proof of contract renewal etc.
Interesting!

THEN!  I realized that the youngest one doesn't have a RP in his passport because we only applied for it in October and it was the first one for him - so it's still being processed in Helsinki at the Immigration's office there.  I informed Mr. Officer this and he asked if we had been in contact with the Immigration's Office - I advised him no, they're probably waiting to see proof of us getting our RPs renewed before they send it back to us or finish the process.
NOW I'm looking like a sneaky suspect because it sounds JUST like something that would happen in Finland and because I sound calm yet like I have experience.  I mentioned that it had happened in the past with our first son - so that is probably what's happening.
And why would the Immigration's Office contact us about submitting OUR RP applications when they/the Police cannot contact us inquiring about an expired "under-aged child's" residence permit??? HMMMMMMMMM!

After showing his paper work to a colleague and coming back to see if I still had that "WTF" look on my face - he then decided to play good cop and ask me why I gave my boys Finnish names...and if my Canadian friends/family can pronounce them....

And there you have it.  My first taste of illegal activity in Finland.

Kela Dispute

I am quite disappointed in the Kela system currently.  Granted, the staff are very friendly in person and very helpful....but for some reason - I was not credited the proper amount of funds for staying at home to care for our son.

Remember, when I first got here, my residence permit status was listed as "B"?  Well, that's fine.  I guess that means I am not entitled to a stay-at-home allowance etc.
Then in August of 2010, I became an "A-Permanent" status.  Which entitles me to work here with no restrictions.
So I had applied closer to V�in� being 1 (if not after he turned one so at least November 3, 2010) - and was rejected for the stay-at-home allowance.
I went back recently, realizing that perhaps this puts a different spin on things, being "A-Permanent" status and the lady was very kind and gave me some information.  But she looked on the system and said, "I'm sorry, you don't qualify because you are not permanent status here."
But I am.  So I showed her my Passport with the Residence Permits, and she gave a quick call over to another representative higher-up, and she said, "Oh yes!  Of course you qualify if you're Permanent status!  Here, fill out the forms and send them back and we can retro-credit you as far back as 6 months."
So here I am, going onto my 2nd year of living here, and feel a little miffed that I was out an extra 4-6 months (as there is a 180-days waiting period to ensure you really will live here) of stay-at-home allowance.  Which totals to be about 319,00� a month (on average)!!!
Compared to Canada, where you only get 100$/month for 1 child...319� is about $430 Canadian!!!  To some friends of mine who are Finnish moms, 319� isn't a lot compared to their salary.  But for me, not having a salary to rely on when returning back to work after maternity leave...319�/month is A LOT of money!

Ah well, better than not getting it at all!

So please be aware: KELA DOESN'T KNOW IF YOUR STATUS HAS CHANGED!!!!
As soon as your status has changed and you have that label in your Passport - re-apply for all of your benefits because you may end up getting more than you previously did!!!

What's Your Status?

No it's not Facebook related or a bad pick-up line...I really mean it!
What is Your Status?

The reason for me finding out what my status meant, is because I recently had an offer for a potential job with Arnold's as a franchisee.
How in the world did I get this offer? Remember that review I did awhile ago, of Arnold's in Turku and in Jyv�skyl�? (Click the above link to read it again if you wish!)

Well, I was requested to contact someone, who turned out to be one of the co-founders of Arnold's and is the current Managing Director.
After a meeting and several discussions via phone and email, I was offered a potential position as a franchisee of the Arnold's location downtown Jyv�skyl�.
Nothing is official or has been signed.


So after all these discussions, we realized one important factor: "Can I even work here in Finland?"
Off to the Finnish Police station I go! There's the Police station and there's the separate building across from it that's for licensing...and they have foreign assistance.
After a quick review of my current residence permit - there was confirmation that yes, I CAN work in Finland! AND there's no restrictions.

Why?  Because my residence permit status starts with an "A".  If my status started with a "B" - then it would've been a no go.  (It was "B" status my first year here and is now an "A" status).
So by "no restrictions" - I was advised that I can work as many hours as I'd like and make as much money as I wanted....

I'll keep y'all updated on everything!  Thanks for the support!

Orange-yellow mail boxes

Hey there:

So here's the scoop - our permits are a no-go right now. They've been approved in Canada but the police licensing department isn't allowed to put our permits in our passport. So they're mailing our passport to Finnish Immigration services. Hopefully it won't take very long. Yeesh.

Alright - the title. So the mail boxes here are honestly like 4-leaf clovers. Very rare to find and for some reason there isn't one on every block or two. There are no mailboxes near us whatsoever. The closest is about 10 minutes from Tim's office downtown at the University.
The mail delivery people (post-man/woman) don't carry the mail in bags on their shoulders. Instead they have an orange-yellow wheel barrow that is covered and they deliver the mail that way (so it appears when we walked by).

Hesburger changes up their menu it seems. When we first got here - I had the big-mac style burger (which is a regular item) and Tim had gotten the "Habenero burger". When we left the police - we went to Hesburger and there was no Habenero burger posted. Instead - it was an "Il Salsa" burger special this time.

Ok so I am uploading a virtual tour of our flat via FB. :) Enjoy.

I just walked home (without getting lost on my own) from Tim's office - and it started to rain. I think it's stopped now - yahoo. Time to shower and get back to my crocheting and maybe sneak in a nap :).