Any Finnish/American Couples?

[NinaDavid 0]

Thanks. We just got our NOA2 approval today! Just in time for her visit in a couple days!

[Aleksi 0]

Hey guys!

We are finnish-american couple and have lived in Finland for few years now and hope to file a visa for me.
Now we´re at the point of sending the full I-130 package but I´m not sure about the payment. It says it should be done with a check, but we´ve never really used those. Any advice of how to handle the payment?

Thanks for your answers and for your awesome posts, they´ve helped us a lot!

[BirdyGirl85 23]

My husband and I didn't file I-130, but I just checked the form, and indeed it says you have to send a check or money order. (Which I am not surprised, we sent checks for payment through every process, but naturalization. K-1, AOS, and ROC. Naturalization allows you to pay with a credit card, which we did this time.) Are you in the U.S. right now? The form says the check or money order must be drawn on a bank or other financial institution in the United States and must be payable in U.S. currency. My bank let us have checks for free when I signed up with them. But if you don't have any checks of your own, you can get a money order from a bank.

[Lenny&Sanna 114]

Hyvää itsenäisyyspäivää Suomi!!

Edited December 6, 2015 by Lenny&Sanna

[Lynkali 163]

In reply to Aleksi about the check -- they don't care who actually writes the check, as long as it's from a US bank account. If you have relatives or even friends in the USA who have a US bank account, you can have them write the check (just make sure it's made out correctly), and you can repay them however you wish. As long as the check is a valid US bank account, it doesn't matter whose account or name it comes from.

[Lenny&Sanna 114]

Happy New Year to all you lovely Finns

[Lenny&Sanna 114]

Bump

[Lenny&Sanna 114]

Come on Finns where are you all at?

[BirdyGirl85 23]

My husband had his oath ceremony last week and is now a U.S. citizen! He applied for his U.S. passport after his oath too. He will be flying to Finland during the end of May. Now, we know as a U.S. citizen, he has to show his U.S. Passport when he leaves and enters the U.S., but I was wondering about when he enters and leaves Finland, does he have to show his Finnish passport? He said he thinks it doesn't matter since his trip is only two weeks long, so he just wants to show his U.S. Passport when he enters Finland. Does any Finn here know how Finland feels about this? (Finnish citizens using a different country's passport to enter and leave Finland)

[Lenny&Sanna 114]

My husband had his oath ceremony last week and is now a U.S. citizen! He applied for his U.S. passport after his oath too. He will be flying to Finland during the end of May. Now, we know as a U.S. citizen, he has to show his U.S. Passport when he leaves and enters the U.S., but I was wondering about when he enters and leaves Finland, does he have to show his Finnish passport? He said he thinks it doesn't matter since his trip is only two weeks long, so he just wants to show his U.S. Passport when he enters Finland. Does any Finn here know how Finland feels about this? (Finnish citizens using a different country's passport to enter and leave Finland)

Congratulations on him getting approved for naturalization that it awesome My wife said it shouldn't matter which one he presents in Finland, but it will be a little easier for him question wise if he presents his Finnish passport, however since it's only two weeks he will be there the officer will just advise you of the max period of being there etc..... however coming back into the USA you will want to show the CBP Officer his American Passport since he is now Naturalized.

[Lenny&Sanna 114]

[BirdyGirl85 23]

Thanks for your response Lenny&Sanna. My husband has never updated his status in Finland to married, and now that he recently became a U.S. citizen, and he is going to Finland next month, I was thinking he should probably update both of those status's while he is in Finland. He said he was just going to bring our marriage certificate and his naturalization certificate to Finland and show them those. But is that enough? A couple of you of mentioned needed an apostille. I am so confused about apostilles. I'm trying to research about it now. We live in California right now, but we were married in Oregon. So we have to get an apostille for our marriage certificate from Oregon right? (I realize we can do this by mail, but I am just double checking.) As for his naturalization certificate, we can get an apostille for it from USCIS? At least that is what I read on one website. I am starting to wonder if he will have to time to get these before he leaves for Finland on May 27.

[NinaDavid 0]

Update. My fiancé had her interview and was approved. She will be entering the States with her Visa on August 24th.

[Jasmine&Roni 33]

Update. My fiancé had her interview and was approved. She will be entering the States with her Visa on August 24th.

Yay! Congratulations

[derppis 1]

Thanks for your response Lenny&Sanna. My husband has never updated his status in Finland to married, and now that he recently became a U.S. citizen, and he is going to Finland next month, I was thinking he should probably update both of those status's while he is in Finland. He said he was just going to bring our marriage certificate and his naturalization certificate to Finland and show them those. But is that enough? A couple of you of mentioned needed an apostille. I am so confused about apostilles. I'm trying to research about it now. We live in California right now, but we were married in Oregon. So we have to get an apostille for our marriage certificate from Oregon right? (I realize we can do this by mail, but I am just double checking.) As for his naturalization certificate, we can get an apostille for it from USCIS? At least that is what I read on one website. I am starting to wonder if he will have to time to get these before he leaves for Finland on May 27.

Bit of a necropost, sorry about that.

If you try to change your status in Finland to married, you need an apostilled marriage cert, and I understand only one place in the US does apostilles. It is easier to do it through the Finnish embassy in the US, since they accept the original certificate.

I'm still unmarried there (I'm a Finn but I haven't lived there for years) because Finland makes it so difficult, and the ever-so-friendly people at Maistraatti weren't being very helpful.