Any faults in this plan?
 

My son, 17, Finnish by birth, Australian by decent, will be attending a wedding in UK shortly after his 18th birthday in August.
As he's never held Finnish passport before (but was included in mine when we moved to Australia when he was 3 months old), plan is to enter UK at age 17 with his Oz passport, apply for Finnish passport after his birthday (given that applying from UK seems so much easier and cheaper than both of us flying to Canberra pre 18th).
So he will enter UK on OZ passport, applies for Finnish passport, leaves the country on OZ passport, re enters with Finnish passport and he'll have full working rights in UK until end of Brexit? What's the case in regards to NHS? He'll have full travel insurance but entitled to the medicare agreement between UK and Australia. What happens to NHS in regards to being lawfully in the country as EU citizen? Does he need any special permit?
Also bank accounts, easiest way for a youngster from Australia to open a bank account in UK? Anything else I might have forgotten?

Re: Any faults in this plan?
 

It's unclear what your son's intentions are - is he attending a wedding, moving to live in the UK or both? Is he planning to look for work, study or do something else?

Re: Any faults in this plan?
 

He's planning to attend the wedding, get his finnish passport, exit, re enter the country and work as long as he can pre Brexit

Re: Any faults in this plan?
 

The safest course of action would be for your son to acquire his Finnish passport before he leaves for the UK. Assuming he doesn't want to do that for reasons of cost or convenience and proceeds to enter the UK on his Australian passport as a visitor then as a Finnish citizen he doesn't need to re-enter the UK on his Finnish passport in order to stay.

Providing his Finnish passport application is successful then he will have evidence of his right to live and work in the UK as soon as he receives it. His Australian passport will give him access to emergency NHS care free of charge under the reciprocal agreement but he will have full access to all NHS services once he becomes a qualified person under EEA freedom of movement rules, e.g. working.

He should apply for his EEA registration certificate as soon as he commences work. It's not mandatory but given Brexit it will be prudent to have evidence of his status going forward with the ending of freedom of movement. This can now be done online.

He'll need a UK address in order to open a UK bank account. Does he have anywhere to stay whilst he establishes himself?

Re: Any faults in this plan?
 

Thanks, he'll have somewhere to stay in UK. He won't be applying for Finnish passport in advance as he would be under 18 and that would require round trip for both of us, and hotels, in Canberra

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In that case he'll need a return ticket or proof of onward travel on his person when he arrives at the UK border.

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Does the OP know that Finland still has conscription and his son can be called up for national service in Finland?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conscription_in_Finland

I remember reading an article on the Daily Record saying that a Dual British - Finnish citizen from Scotland only lasted 9 days in the Finnish army because of language difficulties.

Scottish teenager quits Finnish army over language difficult • Finland Forum

Re: Any faults in this plan?
 

Yes thanks, I'm well aware! He has been released from army service and has the letter to prove it as he is dual citizen having lived away from Finland over 7 years. That letter is required for him to even get a passport.
And yes, he'll have a return ticket! Thanks heaps for the help. Passport in advance has been made hard as he would still be 17 and would require, as I said, cross country trip for both him and me. He turns 18 when in London with family members and thus easiers to pop into Finnish embassy in London.

Re: Any faults in this plan?
 

Resurrecting this thread as the boy is correctly in U.K., waiting for his Finnish passport and attending a wedding whilst waiting. Application for PP was lodged Monday last week so he should have it when he returns to London next week. He'll be heading to France, and possible Finland after that, but will be re entering U.K. with his Finnish passport by September.
Now comes the everyday issues... easiest and least painful way to get a NI number, he was at a hostel with EU backpackers for a week and they all found it impossible to get NI number with hostel address, can we use friends or relatives address for it? Also what paperwork is required apart from actual IDs?
Second bit, easiest way to open a UK bank account? Sorry for dumb questions, I'm 20 yrs out of date with this stuff and my employer took care of 90% of it when I arrived!

Re: Any faults in this plan?
 

Your son could have opened an UK HSBC bank account in Australia before moving to the UK. Please see link below -

https://www.hsbc.com.au/1/2/personal...tional/move-os

I don't know whether HSBC Australia can open a HSBC UK bank account for your son as he is now in the UK.

Re: Any faults in this plan?
 

HKG3
Are you on commission from the Honkers and Shankers ?

Re: Any faults in this plan?
 

Yep, really useful, we did know that but meant 6 hours of round trip to open a bank account at the nearest branch, unfortunately neither son nor I could take days of a whim, so again, any advice on question above?

Re: Any faults in this plan?
 

He will need to make an appointment at his nearest Job Centre Plus by calling the number here https://www.gov.uk/government/organi...urance-numbers


With banks, they can be awkward and will usually want a permanent address - not a hostel and one of the ID's they like is a tenancy agreement or bill with his name on it.


We found Halifax very good in this and he should just make an appointment to open an account.

Re: Any faults in this plan?
 

Just popping in here to say that if your son is heading to France and he doesn't have an EHIC from either Finland or the UK, then please make sure that he has some form of health insurance coverage.

Re: Any faults in this plan?
 

I do not receive any commission from anyone - my suggestion was based on my relatives' positive experience with HSBC when they opened UK bank accounts in their country of origin before coming to the UK.