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Queue of applications for seasonal work permits and certificates

Publication date 1.9.2020 14.04

A total of 9,000 seasonal workers from outside the European Union may arrive in Finland during the spring and early summer. Over 10 000 seasonal workers have received a positive decision to their application. The Finnish Immigration Service grants more than 9,000 permits, as all seasonal workers who have been issued with a permit have not arrived in Finland.

According to the Finnish Border Guard, approximately 2,400 seasonal workers had arrived in Finland by mid-June. The Finnish Immigration Service cannot influence which of the more than 9,000 seasonal workers who have been granted a permit can come to Finland in the end. When the Finnish quota for seasonal workers is full, a seasonal worker who has been issued with a permit may be refused entry at the border.

Queue situation concerning seasonal work

In the future, we will update the queue situation concerning seasonal work once per week on our website.

Those who have applied for a seasonal work certificate

  • By 1 September 2020, there have been 11 334 seasonal work certificate requests submitted since the start of 2020.
  • A decision has been made on 10 883 seasonal work certificate requests.

Those who have applied for a residence permit for seasonal work (duration of work: 3–6 months)

  • By 1 September 2020, there have been 1023 seasonal work applications submitted since the start of 2020.
  • A decision has been made on 1090 seasonal work applications, in which the duration of work is 3–6 months.

Those who have applied for a residence permit for seasonal work (duration of work: 6–9 months)

  • By 1 September 2020, there have been 350 seasonal work applications submitted since the start of 2020.
  • A decision has been made on 469 seasonal work applications, in which the duration of work is 6–9 months.

We are treating your application as urgent

All applications are processed in the order they are submitted, and our aim is to take the time when work starts into account. We try to make the decisions before the start of the agreed employment relationship.

Exceptionally, we will not respond to status enquiries concerning seasonal workers until further notice if there are no problems with the processing of the application. The Finnish Immigration Service receives dozens of status enquiries every day, and responding to them takes a lot of time away from making decisions.

In this way, we want to ensure that you can start work on time.  

If you have not applied for a seasonal work permit yet, apply for the permit in the normal way. Enter Finland is the fastest way to apply for a seasonal work certificate or a seasonal worker’s residence permit. Instructions on how to apply are available on our website at migri.fi/seasonal-work.

You can also find information about the impact of the coronavirus epidemic on the processing of applications on our website: migri.fi/coronavirus.

Employer: Use Enter Finland and speed up the processing of applications

In the Enter Finland online service for employers, you can now speed up the processing of the employee’s seasonal work certificate or residence permit application. When you supplement the employee’s application in the online service, the processing time of the application is shortened and the employee will receive the decision faster.

Your employee will receive the decision once it has been made. You can ask them about the decision.

Further information: Employer: Will your company have seasonal workers? You can speed up the decision-making in Enter Finland

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