Author is British, moved from London to Ylöjärvi 2012.
I have a quiet sense of completion, several important things having happened during the first half of this year.
My passport was expiring in March, so I made an online application for its renewal. This turned out to be the easy part of the process! My old passport was also required by the Passport Office, so I sent it by registered post and settled down to wait. A week later I received an email from the Passport Office reminding me that the passport had to be sent, and a week later again.
My wife started to trace the delivery, which was hampered by various reasons and the Finnish Post Office could only confirm that the package had been dealt with and they believed it had been transferred to the care of the Royal Mail, but they had no facilities to trace its path in Britain. It appeared that the Covid-19 had seriously affected the Royal Mail distribution system and mountains of undelivered post were building up in its warehouses. I telephoned the Passport Office and explained the situation.
The response was very much more helpful and informal than I expected from a formerly so stiff, bureaucratic Government office! I was told that, in the circumstances, a new one could be produced on the basis of my application. However, my relief was great when, one day before the old passport expired, I received an email confirming that the passport had arrived, having been seven weeks on its way! I was quite stunned at the speed of the process thereafter!
Within a week a DHL representative was at my door with the new passport and a day after with the old one back, for a good measure! I wished the Passport Office had put it into their secure shredder because I have no use for it now. After all that, I felt like I’d been for a very long walk in the wilderness!
At the same time I had been wondering what was happening about my application for a new residence permit following Britain leaving the EU. Months went by without any sign from Migri and my telephone enquiries got nowhere. They, too, must have been keeping an eye on my passport situation because, shortly after the expiry date of my old one, they sent me a letter asking me to go and show my passport to them! Obviously they wanted confirmation that I had not been disowned by Britain. I duly complied with their request and received my residence permit in the next post. I have to say, the Migri staff I met were very helpful and relaxed through the whole process and dealt with the non-Finnish speaker in immaculate English.
Having been forcibly hauled out of the EU by my nation, I wasn’t sure if I would be able to vote in the local elections here but received a notification and cast my vote in due course. I’m not very educated on the Finnish political scene but see it as my duty to vote when opportunity occurs. As an expat registered voter, I can still cast my vote in British elections for a few years and intend to do so every time although I hardly now recognise the candidates. Time passes, and its effect seems to be that the politicians begin to look like immature lightweights hardly to be trusted with the government of the nation.
After all those worthy events, it is good to see that our “winter of discontent” (Shakespeare, Richard III) is turning into a more or less “glorious summer” (same), with the Covid-19 beginning to release its grip. My wife and I were pleased to receive our second dose of the vaccine recently and now have an impressive EU certificate to show for it. Hurray!
However, the virus has just reminded us that it is by no means defeated. Vigilance is still necessary to protect ourselves and those around us, even – and perhaps especially – at party time.
PAUL DOCKREE
