Ain't you quite Finnish yet?

[marko_the_rat]

I got a package in the mail today from the Finnish Immigration Service. After waiting the better part of a year, they've approved my application for Finnish citizenship! (This doesn't affect my Australian citizenship of course; I wouldn't do it if it did.)

Ohessa Maahanmuuttoviraston päätös Suomen kansalaisuudestanne.

I'm embarrassed to admit that my Finnish is pretty rusty, but I think that says something along the lines of "Has achieved emigrant (or outside of Finland) Finnish citizenship."

So why did I do it? Just to keep my options open, in case I ever want to visit or move to Europe. (Finland is part of the European Union.) It's quite ironic; ristin has American citizenship which I would really value and I have European citizenship which Ristin would really value. How can we swap? :)

Comments

[marko-the-rat.livejournal.com]

I'm ashamed to admit that your written Finnish is better than mine. And what on earth would I do with New Zealand citizenship?

[marko-the-rat.livejournal.com]

Don't worry. I have trouble doing it too and I was born in the language! I am seriously glad I didn't have to pass a Finnish language proficiency test to get my citizenship. If the person I'm speaking to speaks too quickly (all Finns do IMO) or uses a slightly different accent to my parents I get lost very quickly. I filled in my application in Finnish to make it more authentic but I needed a lot of help from my parents to do it.

[avon-deer.livejournal.com]

Of course you now have the right to live and work ANYWHERE in the EU. :D

[marko-the-rat.livejournal.com]

Cool! But what would I do?!

[avon-deer.livejournal.com]

I am sure you will find something. Just making you aware of some of the benefits of Finnish citizenship that might not have been made clear. ;)

I have a friend in Mexico who might want to get British citizenship to work in the UK. This is hard for a Mexican, so I told him to try for Spanish citizenship instead (far easier), and then he can live in work in the UK by default. ;)

In commemoration of your epic citizenship win...

[bucktowntiger.livejournal.com]

...I share with you this:

[zelox-quo.livejournal.com]

Wow, that is really quite cool. Duel citizenship is difficult to come by now-a-days. Congradulations!

[mortonfox.livejournal.com]

Congrats!

I have British citizenship that I'm not using but as you say, I'm keeping my options open.

[guma-kawauso.livejournal.com]

I'd love to have a dual citizenship. I'd choose France though.

Because, you *MUST* remember Ratatouille:

"Excuse us for being rude, but we *ARE* French!"

[sethimothy.livejournal.com]

onneksi olkoon fi~

(I hope that is right. >.>)

[marko-the-rat.livejournal.com]

I had to look it up to work out what it means, which gives you an idea of how bad my Finnish is. Thank you.

[jesper-f.livejournal.com]

Congratulations on your finnishhness!

[rab-otta.livejournal.com]

*nibbles on a rattyear in cong-rat-ulations!*

[helios-inferno.livejournal.com]

Congratulations :)
I didn't even knew it was possible to get citizinship without even living in the country first.
But never really had thoughts of living/moving somewhere else anyway :)

As for the Finnish; well as soon as you actually live there your bound to cath up and learn the language quickly enough :p

[marko-the-rat.livejournal.com]

I was born there as were my parents who are both still Finnish citizens. I only lost my Finnish citizenship when I became an Australian citizen, which is why I had to apply to get it back again. No offence to a wonderful country, but I have intention of living there. I'm too settled in Australia, with my heart too firmly ensconced in America.

[helios-inferno.livejournal.com]

Well at least you keep the option open, as you said :)
In case I would get a dual citizenship I might actually think of going for Australia, though probably only for temporary residence even so..
A bit homegrown in the Netherlands, though I would certainly like to visit even for just a short time.

[marko-the-rat.livejournal.com]

Gaining Australian citizenship is not something you can do over the phone. You'll need to gain permanent residency status first (which is very difficult) and then live here for a few years. Having said that, it would be great if you came and visited!

[helios-inferno.livejournal.com]

:)
Well dual citiz.inship wouldn't be possible anymore for me anyway, in the Netherlands they had a big debate on it at some point..and it's now just about completely banned.

But yes, if I ever get around to it, visiting Australia would be great :)
I actually have family there, moved to Austalia at some point, even though it's not really any closely related family t would still be an option to stay over there during a visit.

[captpackrat.livejournal.com]

How do you go about doing that? My SO was interested in dual-citizenship. Are the requirements all that hard?

[marko-the-rat.livejournal.com]

I was born there as were my parents who are both still Finnish citizens. I only lost my Finnish citizenship when I became an Australian citizen, which is why I had to apply to get it back again. If your SO meets these criteria, then they still won't be able to apply for Finnish citizenship because I applied just before the deadline for ex-nationals expired (May last year). I don't think there's any country in the world that you can apply for citizenship of without evincing a strong connection to that country.

It's my understanding that in America if you apply for and gain citizenship of another country, you automatically lose your US citizenship. (This is effectively what happened to me when I became an Australian citizen. Finland had only later lifted the ban on dual citizenship with selected countries, of which Australia was one.) It could be my knowledge of US citizenship law is out of date. Ristin only gets away with it because he didn't apply for Australian citizenship; he got it by virtue of his parents being Australian citizens who still lived in Australia.

[ponypig.livejournal.com]

Perfect, you can legally marry in the UK get married to Ristin over here and wholaa he can apply for UK citizenship.( possibly)

[savant-da-rat.livejournal.com]

Congrats :)