Service from one source – in ten languages

Immigrants will receive more comprehensive information and advice from one source when the Finnish Immigration Service and the Helsinki Register Office conclude a joint services agreement with the Immigrants Information Point of the City of Helsinki Social Services Department. This will also significantly increase the information services of the Finnish Immigration Service and the Register Office.

Significant benefits for customers as well as the Finnish Immigration Service and the Register Office include extended service hours every Wednesday and a greater range of languages. The Citizen’s Service Office’s immigrant-background employees will serve customers in ten languages: Finnish, Swedish, English, Arabic, Bulgarian, Kurdish, Somali, Turkish, Persian and Russian.

The City of Helsinki Social Services Department, the Finnish Immigration Service and the Helsinki Register Office will sign their joint services agreement on 9 December 2008 at 9 am at the Immigrants’ Information Point, Itäkeskus (address: Tallinnanaukio 1 A, 4th floor). Representatives of the press are welcome to attend the event.

Help in handling bureaucracy

Immigrants can have difficulty in understanding Finland’s complex official system. The Information Point will try to integrate immigrants into Finnish society by providing information about how and where issues are handled in Finland. The new partners to the agreement will regularly train the Information Point’s employees.

The Information Point will, for example, help customers complete official forms. The Information Point’s employees will not make official decisions, nor can they influence decisions made by others. They will, however, explain to customers in their own language any issue that customers do not understand.

The Information Point is not the place to initiate Finnish Immigration Service, Register Office or City of Helsinki applications. But other mail, for example answers to requests for further information, can be directed to their destination via Itäkeskus.

The Information Point is located close to the Itäkeskus shopping centre, at the address Tallinnanaukio 1 A (4th floor), opening hours: Mon, Tue, Thu, Fri 9 am–3 pm. On Wednesdays only, the Information Point is open for a longer time, until 6 pm.

Further information for the media:

• City of Helsinki Social Services Department, Immigrants Information Point Supervisor Christina Huotari, tel. (09) 3106 2671, e-mail: christina.huotari@hel.fi
• Finnish Immigration Service, Customer Service Director Hanna Koskinen, tel. (071) 873 0431, e-mail: hanna.koskinen@migri.fi
• Helsinki Register Office, Registrar Paula Ojaniemi, tel. (09) 695 44222, e-mail: paula.ojaniemi@maistraatti.fi

9.12.2008