Residence permit application for an employee of a religious community

You have a job. 

• Your employer must supplement your application by filling in your terms of employment either online in Enter Finland or by using a paper form.

 

Your employer is a religious community

• Your main duties involve practising the religion.

 

You have sufficient financial resources for the entire validity period of your residence permit.  

• You may work in paid employment or pursue a trade or business without establishing a company.
• Your main source of income must be the work for which you are applying for a residence permit. 
  • If your main source of income is paid employment, your salary must correspond to at least the minimum specified in the relevant collective agreement. 
  • If there is no collective agreement in your sector or if you will be working part-time, your salary must be at least EUR 1,331 per month in 2023.
  • If your main source of income is pursuing a trade or business, or if you are combining paid employment and pursuing a trade or business, you must make at least EUR 1,331 per month in 2023.
• Some of your salary may consist of fringe benefits, such as company car or employer-provided accommodation. The taxable value of your fringe benefits will be taken into account when your salary is assessed. For more information about the taxable values of fringe benefits, see the website of the Finnish Tax Administration (vero.fi) (Only in Finnish and Swedish).
• Read more on the page Income requirement.

In addition, you must meet the general requirements for obtaining a residence permit. See the general requirements for granting a residence permit.

Have the attachments translated and legalised if needed.

General attachments

• Valid passport (you must present it when you submit the residence permit application)
• Passport photo complying with the photo guidelines issued by the police or a photograph retrieval code you received from a photo shop, OLEL_PK
• Colour copies of the passport page containing personal data and of all passport pages that contain notes
• Document showing that you are legally staying in the country where you submit the application
• Form MP_1 (if you already are in Finland and apply for your first residence permit)

If you pursue a trade or business, add to your application:

• your contracts with clients; or 
• an explanation of how you will earn income from pursuing a trade or business if you have not signed any contracts with clients.

You can fill in the application online in Enter Finland. The fee for an online application is lower than for a paper application. If you apply for your first residence permit in Enter Finland, you might not need to visit a service point when you apply for an extended permit.

If you cannot use Enter Finland, fill in a paper application. You will find a link to the application at the bottom of the page.

If you apply for a residence permit online in Enter Finland, you need to pay the processing fee  

• with a credit card or with Finnish online banking credentials when you submit your application, or
• when you visit a Finnish embassy or consulate abroad or a service point of the Finnish Immigration Service in Finland to prove your identity.  

If you apply for a residence permit with a paper application, you need to pay the processing fee

• when you visit a Finnish embassy or consulate abroad or a service point of the Finnish Immigration Service in Finland to prove your identity.

After you have submitted your application in Enter Finland, your employer must add your terms of employment and other required documents to your application using Enter Finland for Employers. See the page Filling in the terms of employment to check what information your employer needs to fill in and which attachments are required.

An employer who is not able to use Enter Finland for Employers can fill in the ‘Terms of employment’ paper form. In that case, you need to attach the form to your application in Enter Finland.  

If you are submitting your residence permit application on paper, have your employer fill in the form ‘Terms of employment’ and attach the form to your application.   

If you pursue a trade or business and are not an employee, you do not need to fill in the terms of employment. 

• If you are abroad, book an appointment at a Finnish mission (embassy or consulate).
• If you are in Finland, book an appointment at a service point of the Finnish Immigration Service.

When you apply for an extended permit, you may avoid the need to visit a service point to prove your identity if you log in to your existing Enter Finland account using Finnish online banking credentials. Read more on the page Identification.

For more information, see: 

• Handling your matters at a Finnish mission
• Handling matters at a service point of the Finnish Immigration Service

• If you applied online in Enter Finland, you will receive notifications of your application's progress and of possible requests for additional information by email and text message.
• If you applied on paper, you will receive notifications of your application's progress and of possible requests for additional information by email.

For more information, see: Processing of applications

You can follow the processing of your application with the help of our chatbot, Kamu, by giving Kamu the diary number of your application. Kamu will also tell you the expected processing time of your application. 

For more information, see: What affects the processing time of your application