Finnish Immigration Service to handle all permits for foreign nationals from 1 January 2017
The Finnish Aliens Act will be amended so that all permit applications for foreign nationals will be processed by the Finnish Immigration Service starting from 1 January 2017. Until now, the police have handled some of the duties.
Starting from 2017, the Finnish Immigration Service will take over the following duties from the police:
- all residence permits that foreign nationals apply for in Finland: first, extended and permanent residence permits
- reception of citizenship applications and declarations in Finland
- registration of EU citizens and applications for their family members’ residence cards
- duties relating to refugee travel documents and alien's passports and
- duties relating to service of decisions.
You can submit your application to the police during the rest of 2016
You can submit your application to the police until the end of the year. During the transition period, there will be changes in the system for booking appointments used by the police. We will publish information on the websites of both the Finnish Immigration Service and the police about the upcoming changes as soon as we know more.
In most cases, using our e-service is the easiest way to submit your application. In this case, all you need to do is identify yourself at a service point within one month of submitting your application in the e-service.
Your application will automatically be transferred from the police to the Finnish Immigration Service
If you submit your application before the end of 2016, your application will be transferred automatically to the Finnish Immigration Service without requiring any action on your part.
Starting from 2017, you will get your positive decision and residence permit card from a service point of the Finnish Immigration Service. You will receive further instructions when a decision has been made in your case. Please be patient and wait for the authorities to contact you.
When your application is transferred from the police to the Finnish Immigration Service, all the information you have provided as well as attachments and possible other further information you have provided is transferred at the same time. Already today, the police and the Finnish Immigration Service use the same case management system.
Starting from 2017, permits for foreign nationals will be processed in nine areas
From the beginning of 2017, all permits for foreign nationals will be handled in Helsinki, Lappeenranta, the Turku region, Lahti, Tampere, Vasa, Kuopio, Oulu and Rovaniemi.
There will be no service point in the Åland Islands. If you live in Åland, you can use a service point on the mainland or book an appointment in Mariehamn with a public official from the Finnish Immigration Service.
Exactly where the service points will be located is yet to be decided. We will publish more information as soon as the exact locations have been confirmed.
More information and instructions for our customers will be published during autumn on the websites poliisi.fi and migri.fi and will be available at our service points. All information about the change can be found on the web page for the transfer of the handing of permits.
