Been staying in Finland for a few weeks and I LOVE this country. The weather.. umm maybe not so much in April. People are awesome, global food scene is unexpectedly awesome and authentic.

I am not familiar with Finnish Films, but been seeing this film on my instagram for the past week (https://www.instagram.com/reel/C5LrMdBKlUZ/?igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==). It looks interesting. Do Finnish films have subtitles? It would be awesome to check it in theaters, but can’t find any English info on it.

On another note, if there are any local spots anyone can recommend, that would be awesome!

Kiitos!

How do i get copies of my medical records from mykanta i need them for immigration reasons.

Appreciation post for Finland for having this guy. Love his literature. I bet if he was from USA, England or France we’d learn about this guy in every school. This guy made me add Finland to places I want to visit. I just had to make this post because it’s not normal that writer of this size isn’t recognized worldwide. Thanks for this writer once again Finland! 🇭🇷🤝🇫🇮

Hello all, I hope you all doing well!

I want to share my life situation and get your thoughts, opinions, and maybe suggestions on how I should behave. Criticism is also welcome.

I'm a European citizen who lives in Finland for a little over than 7 years now. I'm 32 years old male now.

6-7 years ago I was dating a Chinese woman. Everything was great and we lived together for 3 years. After some time, she got pregnant. I did accept the fact positively and was pretty happy about it. But after she delivered a baby, everything turned upside down, and I became less and less important. I received less and less respect, no matter how hard I was trying to be a good partner and good father. Fights and arguments started. We could not handle the situation anymore, so she decided to split, and I agreed to it. So, she went down south of Finland, and I stayed up north.

I'm having a good and beautiful connection with my child. We chat regularly, and I meet him a couple of times in a year ( I live and work in Lapland area). He loves me, and I love him.

Since we broke up, I took it very personally, no matter how she treated me, and criticized me because of every minor thing that I did in the wrong way. I blamed and judged myself that the relationship didn't work out. Because that is what I'm.

Because of that, I was trying to avoid any new connections with the woman, just trying to be single and focus on my personal life goals. But you know, after ~3+ years of being single with no support, no any love and no close person next to me, I started to feel miserable and less happy. I'm tired of waking up every morning alone. Such a simple thing like a hug gives me so much happiness and energy.

And about a month ago, I started to chat with one finnish women who I met long time ago. She is open to have a conversations with me and the whole connection goes strong and she is clearly interested in to me (same as me). We have lots of common things, same values etc.

We had a date. And it went better than I expected. Way better! Day after, we met again! And we had a really nice time together. She likes me and I like her. And we are looking forward to meet each other again!

In a one week time we will have our another date again. She is exited about it, same as me. Just I'm wondering how should I tell her the fact that I'm a father? I don't want to scare her and I'm very happy that after several years I can have a partner and not feel miserable and lonely.

Question for all of you, who managed to read all this story:

• what finnish women think about men who has kids from previous relationships?
• when and how should I tell her about the fact that I do have a child from my previous relationship?
• do I have a chance at all no to be a single, because I have a child?

Thank you for your time, patience and all the useful information 🙏

Life finds me in a situation where I'm selling the house and I've got a lot of stuff gathered up that I just won't need after moving from the house to a smaller apartment. Some things I would like to keep but most of it is something I need to get rid off when I sell the house. Everything from nice usable furniture to books from the 40s is available and I just want to get rid of it all and could even pay a bit if someone would handle it for me. What services are available? Like some second hand store? Or should I just throw it away at the local dump? It feels like a waste to throw it away since there's nothing wrong with the things. Just that I won't need it after living in a smaller place.

My best hope currently is a lot of help from friends or that whoever buys this place doesn't mind the extra stuff with the purchase. But I feel like I should get another option as well and I'm having a hard time finding anything online.

Jyväskylä area if location matters.

Moi!

I frequently buy

• oatmilk
• peanut butter
• cereal / porridge (correction I meant muesli, porride, oatmeal that type of foods)
• bread

but everything I see in k-market, s-market LIDL have some added sugar "josta sokereita"

Is it not common for people to seek sugar free stuff? where can I find sugarless alternatives products like these? I prefer to not order everything online because it costs more for delivery fees.

kiitos!

Hei r/Finland! I am visiting from Minnesota, USA, at the end of May and for the entire month of June. I will be in Kristinestad doing an artist residency most of my visit but I am planning to rent a car for some of my trip and will be in Helsinki for the first 5 or so days. I'm hoping that some of you will have suggestions for some of my more niche interests!

1. I collect antique and vintage fine jewelry and I welcome suggestions for any stores any of you can suggest! I enjoy picking up a piece or two wherever I travel as a memento.
2. I also love vintage clothing shopping and it's hard to figure out where the good spots/neighborhoods are from Google.
3. Same thing with art supply stores! Some things are impossible to get in the USA.
4. I'm also a knitter and I'd love to visit some yarn shops or producers which produce wool from local sheep! We actually have some local Finnsheep breeders here in Minnesota, believe it or not, so I am familiar with the breed and am looking forward to stocking up on a sweater quantity or two of yarn when I am in the country.
5. I want to visit Isokyrö at some point, because my great-great-grandparents emigrated from that municipality. If you've got tips for what to do in the area, likewise, much appreciated.

Kiitos in advance!

I promise I'm not the bank PR person :D I just read the news that today OP bank started to offer web banking in English. I believe only Nordea had a full web banking in English so far.

Their mobile app was available in English before, but the web interface was only in Finnish and Swedish. The mobile app has most of the features, but some things can be done on the website only.

​

Hi, my partner has his 1st residency permit and with that he got his social security number but he has a UK passport. He went to open a bank account with S Pankki and they said he can’t due to Brexit and because his passport in non-EU. How do Brit’s open a bank account here?

What is up with people using their phones in public spaces (especially public transport) on loud volume? Is this considered acceptable in Finland and do people here generally don’t mind? I’m genuinely wondering because some people seem annoyed but no one says anything. Everywhere else I’ve lived it is frowned upon and if someone watches videos or listens to music on their phone without earphones, someone will ask them to turn it down immediately.

Hi all,

I'm planning to move to Finland in the future (I'm leaning Finnish). I'm visiting soon to have a feel of what it is like, but I'm having a hard time deciding the region/town. I don't care about population size, but ideally something in the lines of Kuopio is big enough for me.

I want to go to a region that is (relatively) dry and not very windy. I can deal with cold weather, but wind just kills me. Bonus points of I can avoid midges swarms during summer. Which region do you think that will best suit me? Am I asking too much?

How come there aren't any Finnish language testing centres abroad for the YKI and VKT tests yet?

There are university courses for the Finnish language but no testing centre to get a YKI or VKT score. Knowing the language before moving would take a load off of people moving from outside the EU/EEA. It even helps students living way outside Helsinki with getting part-time jobs.

Surely there's more than enough Finnish language enthusiasts who can set up such places with support from the government.

Like educational institutes could ask their students and professionals interested in going abroad if they want to learn Finnish. And if there is a popular demand, Finland is notified and arranges teachers to teach online or, more ideally, in-person.

I'm not denying the free material available online or the efforts of people who learned the language on their own before moving to Finland. I just think having language centres abroad/outside the EU & EEA would make Finnish more accessible.

Also, there are Swedish language centres outside Sweden that test for Swedex and TISUS scores.

https://www.folkuniversitetet.se/in-english/swedex-swedish-examinations/examination-dates/

And then on https://www.su.se/tisus/english/about-tisus?open-collapse-boxes=ccbd-testdatestisusabroad,ccbd-testlocationstisusabroad

It says "Test locations

In Sweden, Tisus is organized in seven cities with a geographical spread throughout the country. Abroad, we have no permanent test locations, but Tisus is held where there is a demand and where we have an available test leader."

--

Edit: Some extra info :)

These tests are not just for citizenship:

1.   Some of the universities of applied sciences (polytechnics) give significant scholarship money based on your YKI test score. Just google a UAS’s tuition fees and scholarship and see if they have a section for language proficiency in Finnish and/or Swedish:

·     Metropolia UAS in Helsinki: https://www.metropolia.fi/en/academics/general-information-on-studies/cost-and-finance/scholarships-and-tuition-fees#:~:text=The%20YKI%20system%20consists%20of,only%20once%20per%20academic%20year 

·     Tampere UAS: https://www.tuni.fi/en/students-guide/handbook/tamk/study-right-and-annual-enrolment/scholarships-fee-paying-students

·     Turku UAS: https://www.tuas.fi/en/study-tuas/admissions/tuition-fees/#:~:text=The%20amount%20of%20the%20scholarship,for%20the%20previous%20academic%20year

·     Oulu UAS: https://oamk.fi/en/tuition-fees-and-scholarships/

·     Savonia UAS in Kuopio: https://www.savonia.fi/en/study-with-us/apply/bachelors/joint-application/tuition-bachelors/

·     Satakunta UAS in Pori: https://www.samk.fi/en/apply-to-study/tuition-fees-and-scholarships/

·     Karelia UAS in Joensuu: https://www.karelia.fi/en/tuition-fees/

·     Vaasa UAS in Vaasa: https://www.vamk.fi/en/applicant/apply/tuitionfees

·     Novia UAS in Vaasa, Turku, Raseborg, and Jakobstad: https://www.novia.fi/en/study/admission/tuition-fees/scholarships

2.   VKT is used for professional settings: https://www.oph.fi/en/civil-service-language-proficiency-certificates-vkt : “The Civil Service Language Proficiency Certificates (VKT) are a system that enables personnel in public administration to prove their command of the second national language. You can also use the certificates to prove your proficiency in Finnish or Swedish when applying for citizenship.”

3.   The YKI test score is also used for professional settings: https://www.oph.fi/fi/koulutus-ja-tutkinnot/kieli-ja-kaantajatutkinnot/yleiset-kielitutkinnot-yki: “YKI certificates can be used, for example, when:

you are applying for a job or study place

you are applying for Finnish citizenship (Finnish and Swedish language qualifications)

You must prove to the employer at what level you know the language.”

It’s no different to adding a TOEFL for English DEFL/DALF for French, etc. on a resume to show proficiency in the language

4.   Anyone moving from abroad and long done with high school or undergrad and wants to study a course or program completely in Finnish can prove their language abilities with these YKI and VKT scores:

·     University of Helsinki: https://studies.helsinki.fi/instructions/article/language-certificates-incoming-exchange-and-visiting-applications “The University of Helsinki requires language skills in English, Finnish or Swedish (the language you mainly plan to study with) that correspond to Level B2 on the CEFR scale.”

·     University of Oulu: https://www.oulu.fi/en/students/completing-studies/languages-and-communication/kielitestit-ja-kielitodistukset

“Admittance to degree programs which are in the Finnish language requires a minimum Finnish language level. Generally speaking this level is B2 which is equivalent to level 4 and the grade of good on the VKT test.”

Also if anyone has the time before moving or even after moving to Finland, they can try doing courses taught in Finnish or Swedish for free:https://opintopolku.fi/konfo/en/sivu/faq-about-applying-to-higher-education

“Are you applying to study in a degree programme taught in Finnish or Swedish?

Yes ⇒ Student studying in programmes taught in Finnish or Swedish are not required to pay fees regardless of their nationality.

Fees will be charged from students from outside the EU or European Economic Area (EEA) studying towards bachelor or master level degrees in languages other than Finnish or Swedish at universities of applied sciences (UAS) and universities.”

Moi kaikille

I just applied for this resident permit based on family ties. It says it will TaKe 6 months.

I would like to hear from your experience . Have you got it earlier ?

Just to add . I have student resident permit and I’m in the queue number 127

Hello, apologies if this has come up before. I did a sub search and couldn't find much.

Just booked my appointment. I know I'll need to take physical copies of passport, YKI certificate, work contract, etc.

My 'means of support basis' is broad, my own contract, spousal income, but is weighted toward my savings and accounts, etc. Do they need physical copies of them too or can I just show the bank accounts on my phone?

​

Cheers

Hi, so I got this speeding ticket. The dead line for the ticket is 7.5 but the lady said i could pay any value by the dead line, as long as I pay everything on the subsequent months.

That sounded good at the time but I'm not sure if I understood it properly....

Point is, can I pay half of it 7.5 and the other half on 7.6?

I mean the FINNISH post office wouldn't use and INDONESIAN phone number. I'm like 95% sure it's a scam as I'm not expecting any mail let alone a package, putting it out here for people to beware. Also censored the website so people won't make the mistake of testing it and getting their bank data stolen.

Hi folks

I would like to ask about Svea Bank for those who have experience with it. Is it safe to keep there +80k in a term deposit account for a year? They offer a good interest of 4.1%. Help, please.

Hello,

I would like to ask if someone has ever managed to get their citizenship application expedited? If yes, how long did it take for the decision? If not citizenship, but you manage to get your visa expedited, how long did it take?

I am asking because in migri's website is stated that they do not tell you whether the expedite request was accepted or not, so I don't know what to expect...

Hi everyone,

We'll be visiting Finland in August for 6 days and I was wondering what are must see places other than Helsinki?

Greetings, I am planning a trip to Helsinki and Tallinn in mid July. I ll be flying to Helsinki on Sunday and departing from Tallinn the next Sunday.

My question is, on which day should I switch cities? Thursday or Friday?

On the first scenario I ll have 3.5 days for Helsinki and 2.5 days for Tallinn and on the second 4.5 and 1.5.

I m also thinking of doing a day trip from Helsinki to Porvoo. Any others suggestions and recommendations are more than welcome, thanks!

Hey everyone :) Aussie here, travelling to Lapland next winter.. I've got a thick down jacket sorted, but was wondering what kind of trousers would be appropriate for -20 degrees? Being Australian (where a cold winter morning is 10 degrees lol) I have absolutely no idea. Also, should I look at some fleece-lined boots too? I'm planning to do some hiking / snow-shoeing / try some cross-country skiing. Thanks in advance!

I will be studying in Finland later this year and wanted to ask for some clarification regarding medication. Is there an easier way to pick up NHS prescriptions while studying in Finland, or do I have to travel back every 3 months to pick up a new supply? Can I walk into a Finnish pharmacy with my paper prescription (from the UK) and my GHIC/EHIC card and get my prescriptions that way? Or is there another system in place that I haven't found yet?

Any advice and additional information is very appreciated!

Hello everyone! I have a certain problem with enrolling in opisto courses in Uusimaa. Usually when I find the course I want, it is already late and enrollment is only possible on a waiting list. I have heard that there is a certain start time for enrollment with ilmonet, but I can't find anywhere information when it starts. I have looked all over the ilmonet website and can't find anything about it anywhere. Can you give me some information on how to find out when it starts? Or do they start randomly for each course?

So I have two charges from Helmet(the library) one was for returning the book late by a day and the other was for not picking up my reservation. It's 1,20€ I have no problem in paying I can just ask my mom for the money. But I remember my teacher in school telling me that if your under 18 you shouldn't pay if that happens? What should I do? (I reserved these books in the online website thing)

Hello everyone, would like to get some advice on how to ethically navigate a tricky situation with a realtor.

So I have been on the hunt for my dream apartment, visiting many apartments recently. I had good communication with most of the realtors, except for one.

There have been moments where it feels like this particular realtor isn't quite familiar with the details of the apartments we're interested in. I get it, they're juggling multiple properties, but what's been more concerning is the uncomfortable vibe during our interactions. It feels like this realtor may be looking down on me. Whether it's a language barrier or just a clash of personalities, it's not an ideal situation.

Here is the thing: I liked that apartment and I still would like to make an offer, but preferably not through this realtor. But we are not sure how to handle this situation.

The realtor has helped me with two viewings and sent us all the necessary documents, and I don't want to dismiss the realtor's efforts. While it's a new apartment, theoretically allowing me to contact the constructor directly, I am just unsure of the ethics involved in doing so. Are there any other possibilities that I can explore?

Any advice or similar experience you can share would be massively appreciated!

​

​

How much money you need to afford some used car in the 1990s (Finland), and is it hard to get any car in finland 1990s?

Just moved to Finland from USA (I am citizen in both countries).

I want some opinions on accounts I should open with a Finnish bank(s)… if I should.

My banking situation:

-All my accounts are located in USA.

-Checking with Wells Fargo.

-Savings with Paypal (4.3% APY).

-Lines of credit from multiple providers.

-Robinhood as a brokerage.

I’m fairly big on investing and earning interest on what I’m not sending to my brokerage.

With that being said, my questions are:

-Which banks should I look at for opening a checking account?

-Should I even bother with opening a savings account here?

-Brokerages? Should I just convert and send money to my American brokerage?

-What are the strong credit cards here in Finland?

Any insight is greatly appreciated. Many thanks in advance!

Edit: I also have Wise set up.

Edit 2: Are there any good “pay-over-time” options available here?