Seasonal worker: This is how the coronavirus situation affects

22.4.2020 16.43 | Published in English on 23.4.2020 at 18.03

Press release

Due to the situation with the coronavirus, approx. 1,500 seasonal workers can enter Finland during the first phase. Some of the companies have been given permission to receive seasonal workers during the exceptional situation.

The Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry and the Ministry of Employment and the Economy have determined those companies which can receive seasonal workers during the coronavirus epidemic and those 1,500 seasonal workers who are allowed to enter Finland.

Check with your employer whether you can enter Finland

If you are about to come to Finland as a seasonal worker, check with your employer whether you can enter Finland, and whether you are on the list of 1,500 seasonal workers. The Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry will notify your employer about whether the company has received allotments with regard to this seasonal worker quota.

If you have already applied for a seasonal work certificate or a residence permit for seasonal work, the Finnish Immigration Service will process your application and make a decision in the case. The permit can only be granted if the requirements for granting the permit are met. If you have not applied for a seasonal work permit, apply for the permit in the normal way. Instructions on how to apply are available on our website at migri.fi/en/seasonal-work.

We have received the information from the ministries on companies allowed to receive seasonal workers. You do not need to submit any separate certificate concerning being on the list of 1,500 seasonal workers. We will treat these applications as urgent. A separate request for expedited processing is not necessary.

We also make decisions on other seasonal work permits. Finland has restricted border traffic in order to prevent the spreading of the coronavirus, and now only a small number of applicants can enter the country. For this reason, we will first process the applications of these 1,500 seasonal workers and other employees working in critical functions.

Enter Finland is the fastest way to apply for a seasonal work certificate

You will require a permit for seasonal work if you are coming to Finland from outside the EU to do seasonal work. You must wait for the decision at the location where you applied for the permit.

Apply for a seasonal work certificate if the duration of your employment is less than three months and you are coming from a country whose citizens are not required to have a visa. If you submit your application via the Enter Finland online service, you will receive the certificate in the service. If you submit your application with a paper form, we will send the certificate to your employer in Finland.
Apply for a residence permit for seasonal work if the duration of your employment is three to nine months. A requirement for issuing a residence permit for seasonal work is that you have been identified at the local Finnish Embassy. Due to the coronavirus situation, you cannot visit the Embassy at the moment. Check the up-to-date situation of your local embassy on the Finnish Ministry for Foreign Affairs website: finlandabroad.fi

You should use the Enter Finland online service to submit your application. You can use the service to follow the progress of your application.

Your employer can also create a user account in Enter Finland. You can grant the employer permission to use the service in issues related to your seasonal work permit. For example, the employer can add attachments to your application, for example.

We are currently investigating how to deliver your residence permit card to you.

Frequently asked questions about seasonal work and the coronavirus situation

We are regularly updating the web page migri.fi/coronavirus with latest information on the effects of the exceptional situation on the processing of applications related to seasonal work. At our website, we have also published answers to frequently asked questions about the effects of applying for a seasonal work permit.

Further information: Frequently asked questions about seasonal work and the effects of the coronavirus situation. We will publish more questions and answers on our web pages as necessary.