Savings in central government finances affect the Finnish Immigration Service's work in many ways. The agency is obliged to adjust its activities to the reduced resources. Cuts in personnel numbers will contribute to a drop in service levels.
“Our personnel numbers at the service points have been cut by about a quarter. In the meantime, customer demand increased strongly in late 2025 as a result of legislative amendments concerning permanent residence permits and citizenship applications. These factors have led to a backlog at some of our service points," says Maaru Launiemi-Mattila, Process Owner of the Customer Service Process.
The service point in Helsinki, in particular, is very busy. As a consequence, many customers have travelled to other service points of the agency, also causing longer waiting times in them.
“We are making efforts to address the backlog in many different ways. We will transfer resources to the service points from our other customer service channels. The reduced resources will unfortunately lower our service level permanently. However, we are working on development measures to keep our services running smoothly in the future,” says Launiemi-Mattila.
Instead of visiting service points, Finnish Immigration Service customers can use other service channels, preventing long waiting times.
"Applications can be submitted online in the Enter Finland service, which means that a lower fee will be charged and the application will be processed faster. In many cases, those applying for an extended permit may not have to visit a service point at all if they can use strong identification in the online service. Our customers also have the option to use our appointment system to avoid queuing at a service point," Launiemi-Mattila says.
Media enquiries
- Maaru Launiemi-Mattila, Process Owner of the Customer Service Process, email: firstname.lastname@migri.fi, tel. +358 295 433 037 (Finnish Immigration Service’s phone number for media representatives)
