Finland for non-EU partner of EU citizen with UK residence

[rlobo]

Hello folks,

My partner (Dutch) and I (Indian) are travelling to Finland in a couple of weeks. I have a 'family of a EU national' residence stamp on my passport. We are not married, but we applied for the visa based on a 3 year de facto relationship, and it was granted.
In the last year, we have travelled to Portugal (no problems), Netherlands (some problems), Spain (no problems) ...via Ryanair (always big problem) as well as Easyjet (no problems).
However, I cant seem to find any information about Finland's attitude to the EEA family residence on this forum or on the Finnish website. ...could someone please help me? I would really appreciate any information or links you can provide!

Thank you for your time!
Resh

[EUsmileWEallsmile]

It's exactly the same as the other EU countries. The only slight complication is that being de-facto, it may be more difficult to demonstrate entitlement, but this is a generalisation.

[rlobo]

Thank you! While the Finnish website talks a lot about Schengen, they don't say much about EU/EEA...They do say something along the lines of not having to pay for a visa, but nothing about visa-free travel. And each country seems to have its own intepretation of the directive. Hence my query... to see if anyone else has had experience while travelling to Finland.
Cheers!

[EUsmileWEallsmile]

Try IATA travel website, it would tell you what airlines would expect.

[UKBA HUNTER]

Hello folks,

My partner (Dutch) and I (Indian) are travelling to Finland in a couple of weeks. I have a 'family of a EU national' residence stamp on my passport. We are not married, but we applied for the visa based on a 3 year de facto relationship, and it was granted.
In the last year, we have travelled to Portugal (no problems), Netherlands (some problems), Spain (no problems) ...via Ryanair (always big problem) as well as Easyjet (no problems).
However, I cant seem to find any information about Finland's attitude to the EEA family residence on this forum or on the Finnish website. ...could someone please help me? I would really appreciate any information or links you can provide!

Thank you for your time!
Resh

What problems you faced while flying Ryanair and how you respond?

[EUsmileWEallsmile]

Others have reported that they have had no problems with that particular airline. Do you have particular concerns?

[rlobo]

I'm more concerned about Finnish authorities letting me pass than Ryanair really.
And yes, because I am not married to my partner, and therefore don't hhave a marriage certificate to show, Ryanair always has issues accepting it. In fact the last time I travelled (Barcelona, Feb 2013 for half marathon, can't remember the date), they not only made us wait for over an hour at the check in counter before accepting that I dont need a visa, they stopped us again just before boarding, and wouldnt let us pass, until we asked for a supervisor and to check with the previous check-in officer. Another 5 minutes and we would have missed the flight, thanks to them delaying us by a total of over 1.5 hrs. Good job we actually went to the airport earlier than needed.

[acme4242]

You can find analysis of Finlands implementation of 2004/38/EC here
http://2004-38-ec.posterous.com/

Lot to read
btw posterous.com is going to shut down soon, like in the next day or so.
so don't know how long the link is valid.

Here is some analysis of Finland's 2004/38/EC transposition

Art. 2.2
(b)
Effective transposition – see below
Aliens Act.
This provision covers also unmarried
(or unregistered) couples, regardless
sexual orientation, which have
cohabited for at least 2 years or have
a child in their custody or when there
are other weighty reasons.

Art. 3.2
(b)
Incomplete transposition
Unless the couple are married or in a
registered partnership, 2 years
cohabitation is required, or a child, or
other substantial reasons. In this case,
they are treated as family member

Art. 7.4
Incomplete transposition
Based on Chapter 10, Section 154, ss
3 this also applies to persons living
continuously in a marriage like
relationship etc

[rlobo]

Thanks a million, acme4242!! I've been trying to find this info all morning from some old links I had. Unsuccessful. This makes it lot clearer!
Cheers!

[acme4242]

posterous.com is gone now
I have uploaded the Finland Study to wordpress
please let me know you can view and download these docs ok

http://200438ecstudy.files.wordpress.co ... nce_en.pdf

http://200438ecstudy.files.wordpress.co ... udy_en.pdf

if that works ok, you can find complete list of EU countries reports here
http://200438ecstudy.wordpress.com/2013 ... ssing-eea/

Remember these reports are from 2008, pre-Metock

[rlobo]

Can't thank you enough! Despite the incomplete transposition, we tick the boxes, so there shouldn't be any problems. Fingers crossed!
we're off tomorrow, so if all goes well, I'll update the post with a success story.

Many Thanks!
Resh