Immigration|The reform extends the duration of obtaining citizenship, especially for refugees.
Finland the residence period required to obtain citizenship will be increased from the current five years to eight.
According to the Ministry of the Interior, the goal of extortion is to increase the importance of integration as a prerequisite for citizenship.
Citizenship can be obtained according to the old deadline, if the conditions are met and the application is initiated before November, says a special expert Hanna Pihkanen from the Ministry of the Interior.
The residence time requirement for groups with a lower residence time requirement, such as spouses of Finnish citizens, will be extended from the current four years to five.
For citizens of the Nordic countries and spouses of employees of the Finnish mission, the residence time requirement remains unchanged at two years.
In the process the relaxation regarding the application time for asylum seekers will be removed, when the time spent in the country for the asylum process will no longer accumulate to the residence time required for citizenship.
According to the Finnish Immigration Service, the average processing time for asylum applications has been around nine months this year. In appeal cases, the asylum process can take years.
On the other hand, the processing time for refugees’ citizenship applications will be limited to one year in the future. In 2023, the average processing time for refugee applications was more than two years, according to the Ministry of the Interior.
In practice, the changes mean that refugees will only receive citizenship in the future after actually living in Finland for almost ten years.
For example, for the spouses of Finnish citizens, the typical duration of obtaining citizenship will be five and a half years in the future, as their citizenship application is processed in an average of five months.
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In the future, the time spent in the country for the asylum process will no longer count towards the residence time required for citizenship.
Residence time requirement in addition, the government intends to tighten the integrity and income requirements for obtaining citizenship and to introduce a citizenship test.
HS reported on Thursday that set by the Ministry of the Interior the working group investigating the citizenship test has completed its work.
The government’s goal is for the proposal on the citizenship test to be submitted to the parliament for a decision in the spring session next year.
The President of the Republic is supposed to confirm the legal reform regarding the residence time requirement on Friday.
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