The peak season for receiving applications from students for residence permits is June to September. At this time, the number of applications so far is almost the same as last summer: between 1 January and 15 July 2012, 3,489 persons applied for their first student residence permit in Finland.
Judging by experiences from previous years, it is expected that some 1,500 further applications will be received during the rest of the summer.
The aim is for students to receive decisions on their applications before the academic year begins. Processing of applications is begun as soon as possible after being filed with the Finnish Immigration Service; so far, considerably more decisions have been made than by this time last year.
More than 2,300 applicants have already received a decision on their application; some 95 % were granted a residence permit.
Average processing time is 20 days
So far this year, the average processing time for a student residence permit application, from filing to decision date, is 20 days.
Processing times vary case by case. If your application is taking considerably longer than the average time to process, this means that additional measures such as requests for missing documents or an interview at a Finnish diplomatic mission are needed.
Fast track through online service
The shortest processing times are those for applications filed through the online service; more than 1,000 of these have been filed so far.
Online applications reach the Finnish Immigration Service more quickly than applications submitted at a Finnish mission abroad on paper, which are delivered to Finland by courier.
If you have filed your application online, you may also track its progress online. Please note that filing an online application also requires a visit to a Finnish mission. You only need to visit a Finnish mission to verify your identity, have your fingerprints taken and present the original copies of any supplements needed for the application; but your application cannot be taken under consideration until you have done so.
Monitor progress of the processing at migri.fi
You can follow the progress of student application processing on the website of the Finnish Immigration Service. The queue is updated every week.
