Every story about immigration is unique, and everybody has different reasons. Finally, I decided to tell you my story how I became an immigrant. The story is long, therefore I decided to write it in parts.
It all began...
Long ago, when I was only studying at school, I dreamt of moving somewhere from Estonia. But the dreams remained dreams, for I did nothing for this to come true. I certainly wasn't planning moving into Finland. Otherwise, I would have learnt Finnish already at university.
Our movement to the Santa Claus land happened to be surprise for us all. I have to say, my husband didn't want to move anywhere from Estonia. So how on earth did that happen?
By that time we were a young married couple with a toddler. My husband was finishing his Master's studies and I was taking care of our year-old kid, doing my Master's studies in inteprereting at the same time. We lived on my mother salary, which was not bad at all - I worked hard for this in one insurance company - and on my husband's scholarship. We weren't rich, but it was enough.
My husband almost got his Master's Degree. Already in spring he started to look for a good job in his field. But the job was not easy to find. In summer, after my husband got his Master's in mathematics, he received a letter via his university mail, that one Finnish company which dealt with statistics, was looking for interns.
Everything happened so fast. Already in two weeks we knew that husband's internship would start in September. At first, we decided that I would stay with our child in Estonia, for I wanted to finish my Master's. But then I pictured myself how short will be our time together and how our son will see his father so few. This is when I threw away my ambitions and decided to go with my husband right away.
Finland
When we moved to Finland, my husband had an internship contract for 5 months. Along with us came his costudent from the university. We lived together in one apartment for all these months. We got the apartment from the company, it paid the most part of the rent, the rest paid we along with costudent.
Me and my son couldn't apply for the residence permit, because my husband had a contract for short time and, in addition, we rented an apartment with a stranger. For that reason we stayed in Finland as tourists. The citizens of European Union can stay in a foreign country for 3 months, then you have to leave the country and return to your homeland. This is what we did - went to Estonia in order to come back to Finland.
Fortunately, my husband had good relationship with his superiors, and he got a permanent job offer already in January, one month earlier than we expected. We were also lucky in our search for a new flat. We found one nice apartment with two rooms in the same area where my husband worked. Our interview with flat's owners was successful. The owners were also a nice young married couple with a little boy (their child was only half-year older than our son).
Already in January we moved in our new home and started our independant and measured life in Finland. Right after movement, we applied for the residence permit based on family reunion.
Conclusion
In conclusion I may say that the citizens of the EU can move to another EU country on the ground of employment and on the ground of family reunion. Of course, there are other opportunities as well, but we encountered only these two conditions. I cannot say how it is for the people who are not citizens of the EU. I know something from other people, but I won't write it here. If someone is interested in that question, I recommend visiting website that I named above.
Next time I will tell about first months in a foreign land. If you have some questions, feel free to ask them in comments, you can also contact me via e-mail ilona@blognote.fi or via social media. You can subscribe for the newsletter below. I will also be happy if you share your story how you moved to another country.
Илона, интересно было почитать твою историю, узнала о тебе чуть больше.
Переезд — дело всегда непростое, тем более в другую страну. Это ведь кардинальное изменение жизни, другой менталитет, язык, все другое.
Мне всегда очень интересен период адаптации, как прошёл первый год. Так что жду с нетерпением!
Спасибо, Лена! 🙂
Да, переезд — это не только трудности внешние, но и внутренние. О том, как прошёл первый год, я как раз собираюсь написать в следующий раз. 🙂