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Europe

Audrey and Rambo
HelsinkiLos AngelesTravel

How to Bring Your Pet to Europe

by Audrey
written by Audrey

So, when I first decided to move to Finland, the first thing that came to mind was, how am I going to bring my Rambo with me? Let me start with, this is no easy task! So I thought I’d share the process and some tips.

Steps to bring your pet to Europe

  1. Get IATA approved container for travel – I bought this SportsPet crate from Amazon along with this crate pad. (Make sure you follow the IATA instructions for taking measurements, if in doubt, get the bigger size!)
  2. ISO Compliant Microchip
  3. Rabies Vaccination & 21 Day Waiting Period – Make sure to bring original copies of vaccination certificates
  4. Get an EU Health Certificate up to 10 days prior to arriving in Europe by USDA accredited veterinarian. The vet can provide this for you but make sure they fill out the one for the correct country. Mine filled out one for Portugal instead of Finland, so when I went to get it endorsed by the USDA, they noticed it was for the wrong country so I had to go back to my vet and get the correct one filled out.
  5. Get EU Health Certificate endorsed by local APHIS (USDA) – Because of the tight schedule, if there’s not one near you, you’ll most likely need to mail it overnight and provide an overnight return envelope to get it back
  6. Tapeworm Treatment 1-5 Days Prior – This is only for Finland, Malta, Norway, and Ireland. Any vet (doesn’t have to be USDA accredited) can provide this treatment which can be added to the EU health certificate after it is endorsed by APHIS USDA.

More Information: https://www.aphis.usda.gov/aphis/pet-travel/by-country/eu/eu-echinococcus/pet-travel-echinococcus-treatments

Additional European Commission Requirements

Just when I thought I had all the requirements down, I found out that Finland’s Food Authority (their equivalent of our USDA) had a few additional steps. Below are the additional requirements for importing an animal (dog, cat, ferret) from USA to EU (Finland specifically) that I obtained from the Finnish Food Authority. Note that the requirements are different if you are shipping your pet on a separate flight outside of 5 days within your own flight. By the way, if you email them at lentoasema@ruokavirasto.fi, they’ll respond quickly and are super helpful! Funny story, gmail labels that email as “Ruoka Lentoasema”, so I started with “Hi Ruoka”. I had copied Kimmo on the email and found out that translates to “Food Airport”, so I basically said “Hi Food”. Kimmo got a kick out of that, and I’m sure the rep did too!

  • Owner’s declaration on the non-commercial nature of the movement – Here’s the form
  • Border inspection in the first EU-country the animal enters EU territory. 
  • They also recommend that you repeat the Tapeworm medication within 28 days of your arrival in Finland.

More Information: https://ec.europa.eu/food/animals/pet-movement/eu-legislation/non-commercial-non-eu_en

Flight

Normally it costs 300 euros to bring your pet on board Finnair. In order for your pet to ride in the cabin the total weight of the pet and container cannot exceed 17 lbs (8 kg). If your pet is over that weight, then they go into an air-conditioned area of the hold of the aircraft. The hold area is basically a separate part of the baggage cargo that is air-conditioned, with no light, and personnel. Finnair only takes 1 pet per flight for this and keep in mind if your animal is in distress, there is no way to know. This can be dangerous for short-nosed breeds as they often have trouble breathing. If your pup is over a certain weight, or you won’t be on the same flight, then you’ll need to ship the dog via Cargo service, rather than a standard flight.

Rambo is my ESA animal, and in this case he is treated as a service dog who can remain in the cabin with me, without a pet carrier. There is also no fee for service animals, so the €300 cost does not apply here. Finnair recently started doing direct flights from LAX to Helsinki, which helped tremendously because LAX has pet relief stations. My vet recommended I give Rambo a Benadryl before the flight, which helped him sleep through most of the 10 hour flight. Finnair also gave me a row to myself since it was not a full flight, which gave Rambo more room to lay across the floor. Although Helsinki airport does not have a pet relief station, it is a smaller airport, and the customs check for Rambo’s paperwork was quick and easy, so as soon as we got outside of the airport, he was able to go potty outside. All in all it was a very smooth process.

More Finnair Pet Policy Info: https://www.finnair.com/ru/gb/information-services/baggage/pets/flying-with-pet

Important links

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Helsinki

How to Get a Residence Permit in Finland

by Audrey
written by Audrey

Job Market in Finland

Before I go into how to get a residence permit (work visa/permit) in Finland, I thought I’d give a little glimpse into the job market in Finland. I can’t speak to all job types, but for marketing, communications, and business jobs, I found that most of them require you to speak Finnish. This makes sense since most of the marketing and collateral will be done in the local language. That really narrowed down my options, as I couldn’t really work for any local companies, and had to move my search to international companies that had market focus outside of Finland and did business in English.

I was lucky enough to find one of the few international tech companies that was from Helsinki. Because they were focused on selling on a global level, English was the official language of the company and all of their marketing. At international companies, having English as your native language, was definitely an advantage. I also got lucky that this company does several trade shows in the U.S., which allows me to travel back home every now and then.

Once I got the job offer, I just needed a written contract from the company to apply for my first Finland residence permit. I’m not sure what the process is for other companies, but for this job, I was in charge of taking care of my application, which meant I had to pay for the application fee out of my own pocket and submit the application on my own. My company was very helpful though and gave me all the information I needed to fill out the application. It’s a pretty straight-forward process, and the Finnish Immigration website is very informative and helpful. They even have a chat feature if you have any questions.

Types of Residence Permit Applications for Working in Finland

1 Month Processing Time (350 EUR)

These are the residence permits that you can get in about 1 month.

  • Specialist – This permit is if you’re a specialist, consultant, teacher or belong to the top or middle management of a company. Your gross income must be about EUR 3,000 per month.
  • EU Blue Card – This is what I got. I didn’t even know this was an option until HR told me. The best thing about this type of residence permit, is that it allows you to move to a 2nd European Member State. Kimmo and I have thought about living in other cities in Europe, so this made the most sense. One thing to note about this permit, is that you need to have a gross income of at least 4,732 EUR per month.
  • Other Types: Internship, Researcher, Season Work, Religious Community or a Non-Profit Association

Over 1 Month Processing Time (350-400 EUR)

  • Employed Person (TTOL) – Must have a signed contract and (1-4 months processing time)
  • Entrepreneur – You must have a profitable business and you’ll need to enter your business in the Trade Register maintained by the Finnish Patent and Registration Office (6-10 months processing time)
  • Start Up Entrepreneur – You’ll need a  positive statement from Business Finland and secure means of support of 1,000 EUR/month for living costs (2-5 months processing time)
  • Volunteer – Your volunteer work must be arranged through an organization that runs volunteer programs (Maailmanvaihto ry – ICYE Finland). Max volunteer time is 18 months (2 month processing time)

There are several other types of residence permits available, but those are the main ones. For the full list go to: https://migri.fi/en/working-in-finland/applications

What You’ll Need for the Application

I can’t speak for the other applications, but for the EU Blue Card, here’s what I needed for the Online Application:

  • Employment Contract – Must state your job description, salary, and start date
  • Proof of Higher Education Degree – I submitted my college transcripts and diploma
  • Copy of Passport

After you fill out the application online, you’ll need to prove your identity. Luckily there is a local Finnish General Consulate in Los Angeles that I was able to go to. Here, I had to bring:

  • Passport
  • Employment Contract
  • Passport Photo adhering to these guidelines. By the way, this is different than the standard US passport photo, so places like CVS, Walgreens, and UPS can’t take these photos. Every country has different requirements, so make sure you check if the photo place can do passport photos for Finland. I went to Santa Monica Camera where the owner happened to have a Finnish wife and 2 children who have dual citizenship, so he was very familiar with the requirements, and even gave me tips on the Finnish Consulate in LA. What are the odds? Oh and one more thing, you must have a “neutral face” which means you can’t smile in the photo. That was so hard for me! And now my photo looks like a mugshot.
  • Official Copy of Higher Education Degree – I brought official college transcripts
  • Prepaid Self-Addressed Envelope – This is so they can mail you the decision documents and your residence permit card.

The process was so quick for me. I went to the Consulate on a Tuesday to prove my identity, and got a decision via email by Thursday! I must have been one of the few applications in the queue. Guess there aren’t tons of people stampeding to move to Finland… yet! My residence permit card came about 2 weeks after that. I’m ready for you Helsinki!

Residence Permit and Work Visa
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Audrey at rooftop
HelsinkiLifeLos Angeles

LA Moves to Helsinki

by Audrey
written by Audrey

Okay maybe not all of Los Angeles is moving to Helsinki, but at least this girl who was born in LA and lived there her entire life is, along with her pup, Rambo. My name is Audrey by the way. To my Americans reading this, without looking at a map, do you know where Finland is? Did you know that Finland is part of Europe? No? Well neither did I!

The land of Helsinki, Finland

Let me start by giving you some context into the size of Finland. Land wise, the country of Finland is 338,145 sq km which is about the size of California (403,882 sq km). California though, has a massive population of 39.5 million within that land. Finland’s entire population is 5.5 million, not much bigger than Los Angeles, which has about 4 million people. Helsinki, which is the capital and where I’m moving to, has about 600,000. Last year there were 250,000 people just at Coachella. So what I’m saying is, there’s tons of available land in Finland, come on over!

I’ve always dreamed of living in Europe, but this wasn’t exactly what I imagined. So, why would I move to a country I’ve barely heard of?

The story begins at Burning Man

Well back in 2016, I met a Finn at Burning Man. At first it started off as rendezvous in different countries. One great thing about cross-continental long distance relationships is that you get to have dates all around the world. Somewhere along the way though it became serious, so we both started looking for jobs in each other’s countries. During one of Kimmo’s visits to LA back in February 2019, I got a job offer from a tech company in Helsinki. The stars aligned for us that week and that’s why I’m packing up and heading to the North Pole… I mean Finland.

Introducing LAxHEL

This blog is going to be about my journey moving to Finland and the fascinating differences between living in LA and Helsinki. You’ll probably also occasionally hear from Kimmo, and my French Bulldog, Rambo, who is making the move with me. We hear a lot about what it’s like living in major cities like London, Paris, and Rome, but you rarely hear much about Helsinki… maybe except for the occasional article that Finland is the happiest country in the world and Trump saying they don’t have forest fires like California because they rake their leaves. Yup that’s our President, which also makes it a good time to leave the U.S.

Anyway, I thought it would be fun to record my experiences and give the world a glimpse into Helsinki from an outsider perspective, as well as give Finns an insider look into LA. I’d also love for this blog to be interactive and collaborative. That means I’ll welcome any tips from Finns and for my LA people to keep me updated on all things Los Angeles. So let’s find out if Finland really is the happiest country in the world. I sure hope it is!

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