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[jringer]

Hi,

I am an Australian citizen and can get either dual citizenship with Finland or the UK as my mother is Finnish and I was born in the UK (my father is british). I was naturalised as an Australian citizen on my Fathers certificate of citizenship at the age of 10 when our family moved to Australia.

My wife (6 generations Australian) and I plan to travel/work around the world next year for a 12+ month period, and are finding it difficult to figure out the following if anyone can help:

-Which is the best passport for me to get, Finnish or UK?
-Will I be entitiled to work/live in member states of the EU?
-Is my wife entitled to any rights and the ability to get work as a non EU person, but spuse of someone with an EU passport?

Any help would be great!

[danrau]

I can't answer your first question as I have no idea about UK citizenship and am not aware of the requirements involved.

In terms of your second question, with Finnish citizenship you are able to work and live in almost all of Europe unrestricted (well, effectively anyway). Most countries place superficial restrictions on EU citizens if they wish to work and/or reside for an extended period. For example, as an EU citizen in the UK you simply have to register your intent to stay. This registration covers you for 5 years with no other work/residential restrictions placed.

Are you aware of the process involved with getting Finnish citizenship? If not, just let me know. Otherwise, if you go to the Finnish Consulate webpage it explains your options when you parent is a current, or even former, Finnish citizen.

If you were to go down the Finnish citizen route, you are entitled to request Finnish citizenship for wife at the same time of making an application. If you do not wish to, then your wife is still entitled to work and live in Europe if she has an EU spouse. However, if you take the latter option of non-citizenship for her, you will need to check with each country whether they will allow her to work on the basis of your citizenship; each country will differ.

I hope all of this helps. Unless you speak Finnish, going through the process of getting citizenship can be difficult, although not impossible so it may be worthwhile looking into UK citizenship. In addition to this, applications for Finnish citizenship are only being offered until 31 May 2008 .

Just let me know if you want further information.