Moving to Iceland with my elderly mother

Last activity 30 April 2015 by Huda90

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Huda90Member30 April 2015 01:07:09

Hi everyone,,

I want to complete my PhD in a lovely country, where I may settle after that. I have been searching for universities in canada, UK, USA, NZ..etc. and I have two big concerns: 1.To find an affordable university, by that I mean a cheap one , 2.To be able to bring my mother with me, which according to my search seemed impossible until I came across iceland. I didn't think about iceland before because of the language barrier, but when I read in their immigration site that PhD student can have (family reunification) with a parent who's at least 67 years old !!. I started searching their universities and I found several PhD programmes taught in english language, with only small fee paid every year, strange but amazing ,,, I would like to ask a few things:

1. If I have been accepted by the university and received my visa, will I be able to apply for my mother directly or I have to settle there for a certain amount of time ?, if so for how long ?
2. I'm wondering about the family reunification, why the parent should be at least 67 ?, My mother is a few years younger, will that be ok ?
3. The application deadline for international student is 1st of feb, is this for fall semester ?, what about spring semester ?
4. After I finish my PhD, will I be able to get a one year Icelandic job experience as an international student ?
5. Let's say I stayed in iceland and loved it, and after 7 years I applied for citizenship for me and my mother, would she go through the language test ?
6. Why the tuition fee is very low for international students ?, It doesn't even consider a tuition fee, right ??
7. I want to work while studying. I'm allowed to work 15 hours a week according to the university website, is it difficult to find a job?
8. I have searched a lot about the pharmacist license in Iceland, but I couldn't find any informations on the training period, exams, language of the exams, procedure for foreigner to practice in Iceland, and what about pharmacist salary and the salary range in iceland ?, there was one post in this forum about it , but not encouraging.

I have many more questions, but it is enough for now, any help will be greatly appreciated

ECSNorway Expert30 April 2015 06:09:56

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1. there's nothing stated about settlement but you do apparently have to support your parent for at least a year. Worth asking the immigration office about this. See here: http://utl.is/index.php/en/relatives
2. You'd better call utl to confirm this. I don't know anyone who's gone this route personally so I don't know the exact reason for the age other than it's probably to do with retirement age rules.
3. I'm finding other dates for application deadlines here. Best call utl and/or the university where you want to study: http://utl.is/index.php/en/school
4. There's no official "just-graduated-from-an-Icelandic-university-and-want-to-work" visa, but presumably the pharmaceutical study pool in Iceland is quite small so you'll be able to make contacts and find a job. There's no guarantee though.
5. If your parent is over 65 after having legally resided in Iceland for 7 years, the test is not required, but an exception statement must be included- it's not automatic. However, the test is really not difficult if you've lived there for 7 years, and be aware that the requirements change regularly so what is valid now might not be by the time you're actually able to apply. Explained here: http://utl.is/index.php/grunnskilyrdhi
(Undanþágur frá íslenskuprófi: umsækjandi er 65 ára eða eldri og hefur átt lögheimili hér á landi síðustu 7 ár áður en umsókn er lögð fram)
6. It's part of the Scandinavian (and actually much of European) model. You don't pay much in tuition but you are on your own to cover everything else- housing, books, activities.
7. If you just want a basic job it's probably not too hard in the summer at least. Not an easy question- easy or hard depends on you!
8. For such specific questions about pharmacist life in Iceland, I recommend getting in touch with the pharmacist's association in Iceland, here: http://www.lfi.is/

one thing to keep in mind also: the student permit and the family member of a student permit are not a basis for permanent residence permits, so you'll have to re-apply every year until you achieve a more stable visa type or manage to achieve citizenship (which itself can take more than a year to get). More info here: http://utl.is/index.php/en/rights

Huda90Member30 April 2015 20:03:15

Thank you a lot ECS for helping me out. I'll try to find out more about all the points you have said.

One more question: do you think it is a good idea to contact a lawyer in Iceland?, and is there such thing as an immigration lawyer ?