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Permits and citizenship

Frequently asked questions from employers

Submitting an application and visiting a service point

What is the average duration of the processing of applications?

The average duration of the processing of applications varies from 1–2 months. The processing time is calculated from the time when the biometric identifiers have been obtained from the applicant and when the Finnish Immigration Service has received all the information relevant to the processing of the application from the applicant and the employer.

Applying for the first residence permit via the fast track service is available for the following residence permits on the basis of employment:

  • Specialists
  • EU Blue Card
  • Specialists and managers (ICT)
  • Top or middle management.

In this case, the application will be processed within 14 days of submitting the application in the Enter Finland online service.

What type of permit should I apply for?

The applicant and the employer are responsible for determining the grounds for the residence permit that best suit the applicant’s situation. The Finnish Immigration Service website contains comprehensive information on the requirements for different types of residence permits on the basis of employment and the documents required for the application process. For example, applicants can use the Application Finder to determine the suitable grounds. For more information, see the Application Finder.

If the Finnish Immigration Service finds that an applicant’s grounds for application do not match their situation, it will contact the applicant and ask them for their written consent to change the application type. If the Finnish Immigration Service changes the permit type to one that is more favourable from the perspective of, for example, the right to work, it may not ask the applicant for their separate consent. However, the applicant has the main responsibility for choosing the correct grounds. 

How is the hourly pay reported by the employer calculated in the processing so that the monthly minimum income requirement proposed by the Government is taken into account?

The hourly pay reported by the employer is calculated using a multiplier of 4.3. This enables the Finnish Immigration Service to examine whether the hourly pay corresponds to the monthly salary limit proposed by the Government.
If the applicant's hourly pay is given, the estimated monthly pay is calculated as follows:

  • hourly pay x weekly working hours x 4.3 (for example: EUR 13.29/h x 30 h/week x 4.3 = EUR 1,714.41).

Do you check paid salaries retrospectively when you assess whether the requirements for an extended permit for an employed person are met? When is the salary requirement of 1,600 euros per month applied?

When assessing paid salaries retrospectively, the required minimum salary is 1,600 euros per month as of 1 April 2025. Until that date, the minimum income limit is 1,430 euros per month, which complies with the work requirement (‘työssäoloehto’) in 2025.

What happens if an application has been submitted before 1 April 2025 and the monthly salary stated in the terms of employment is less than 1,600 euros?

When processing applications, the Finnish Immigration Service applies the salary requirement that is currently valid. The minimum salary required for extended permits for employed persons is 1,600 euros per month as of 1 April 2025. Until that date, the minimum income limit is 1,430 euros per month, which complies with the work requirement (‘työssäoloehto’) in 2025. If the Finnish Immigration Service processes an application described above after 1 April 2025, the required minimum salary is 1,600 euros per month and the employer will be given the opportunity to increase the salary so that is reaches the required level.

We have an employee who has applied for a residence permit. What should he do if there are no available times for proving his identity in the Migri appointment system?   

The employee is advised to submit his application in the Enter Finland online service. The application is pending immediately after it has been submitted in Enter Finland. All applications for residence permits based on employment can be submitted in Enter Finland.

If his permit is not about to expire within the next 2 months, he can wait for new appointments to become available.

If the employee applies for an extended permit, he may be able to avoid visiting the service point if he uses strong electronic identification in Enter Finland. Read more about strong electronic identification on the page Identification. 

If the employee cannot book an appointment but the permit is about to expire and the employee is not able to submit an application online in Enter Finland, he or she can print out and fill in a paper application and visit a Finnish Immigration Service service point to queue with a queue number. The contact details of the service points can be found at page Service points. 

Does our employee need to visit the service point in person when applying for an extended permit? 

Your employee does not necessarily need to visit the service point if he or she submits his or her application in Enter Finland using strong electronic identification. 

Strong identification means that a person logs in to Enter Finland using his or her Finnish online banking credentials, citizen's certificate or mobile certificate. 

When an applicant is submitting an extended permit application, the Enter Finland service will inform the applicant whether he or she needs to visit the service point for proving his or her identity or not. 

Read more about strong electronic identification on the page Identification.

I am using Enter Finland for Employers and I have entered the terms of employment in the service and added attachments to the employee’s residence permit application. Does the employee need to take the original documents with him or her when proving identity in person?

Your employee does not need to bring the documents that you as an employer have attached to the application in Enter Finland for Employers. When your employee visits a service point to prove identity, the employee must bring the documents that he or she has attached to his or her own application.  

Your employee does not need to present the employer’s original documents in connection with proving identity even if the employee had attached the documents to the application him/herself at the employer’s request. 

If neither you or your employee use the online service, presenting the employer’s documents in connection with proving identity may speed up the processing of the application.

The terms of employment

Watch the info video Terms of employment as part of the application process (youtube.com).

I am employing several people to work in Finland. The same terms of employment apply to all of them. Do I need to fill in the terms of employment separately to each employee's application?

No, you don’t. You can submit the terms of employment for all employees at the same time. if all employees are applying for the same type of permit, such as a residence permit for an employed person (the ‘TTOL’ permit).

This is what you should do:

  1. Log in to your Enter Finland for Employers account.
  2. Select ‘Waiting for terms of employment’ on the Enter Finland Home page.
  3. Select ‘Submit terms of employment for several employees at a time’ and select which employees’ terms of employment you want to submit.
  4. Fill in the terms of employment for the selected employees.
    • The terms of employment must be the same for all employees whose terms of employment you want to submit at the same time.
    • If the terms differ, fill in the terms of employment separately for each employee.

If any documents are needed for the applications, you must attach the documents separately to each application.

My employee has already submitted the employment contract with his or her application. Why am I requested to separately add the terms of employment and possibly other attachments to the application?

The Finnish Aliens Act was amended on 23 February 2023 to increase the obligation and responsibility of employers to submit information to the employee’s residence permit application. An employment contract or a job offer does not usually contain all the information required by law, which is why additional information is requested. 

You must submit more information on the employment relationship to the residence permit application than your employee does. It is your responsibility to add to the application information such as the applicable field of employment and collective agreement, the location where the employee will work, and the duration of the employment relationship. 

In addition, as an employer you need to assure that you have performed and will continue to perform your employer duties. You must also assure that the terms of employment that you and the employee have agreed on comply with the existing provisions and the applicable collective agreement. 

You can easily submit the information in Enter Finland for Employers online service. If you cannot use the online service, print out the Terms of employment form to fill in on paper and give it to your employee. Your employee can attach the Terms of employment form to his or her application in Enter Finland. If your employee filled in a paper form to apply for a residence permit, the employee can bring the Terms of employment form with him or her to the service point when he or she proves identity.

How should the pay be reported using the Terms of Employment form?

The pay must be reported as a gross salary in the Terms of Employment form. Any bonuses or other compensation paid in addition to the basic pay are not taken into account in the monthly minimum income requirement. Instead, the requirement must be met with the gross salary guaranteed by the employer.

What do the terms of employment for which the employer is responsible mean? Why does the employer have to submit additional information as part of the application?

According to the Aliens Act, the employer must present the following information in the application for a residence permit for an employed person:

  • Employer information: employer’s name, business ID (private employer’s personal identity code), employer’s contact person
  • Employee’s main tasks
  • In the case of workers’ residence permits, information on the field of employment in which the work is carried out
  • The start date of the work and, in the case of a fixed-term employment contract, its end date
  • Grounds for determining pay and other remuneration and the pay period
  • Collective agreement applicable to the job or information that no collective agreement is applied
  • The place of work or, if the employee does not have a primary fixed place of work, an account of the principles according to which the employee works at different work sites.

The employer must also ensure that they have verified that the employee has sufficient health and qualifications for the job and has the permits required for the work. In the case of specialists' residence permit applications, the employer must declare that the position requires special qualifications that the candidate possesses. In addition, the employer must ensure that all the above information is correct.

If necessary, the employer must also submit any additional reports specified on the form. The Finnish Immigration Service primarily retrieves information on the employer and the fulfilment of employer obligations from the information resource of another authority, such as the Compliance Report and the Incomes Register. If the information cannot be obtained from registers, the Finnish Immigration Service will request it from the employer.

Validity of the employee's right to work 

How can I check whether an employee's right to work is valid? Is it possible to get a certificate of the right to work?

In the section Verifying your employee’s right to work, you will find detailed instructions on how to check an employee's right to work in different situations. 

Our employee applying for an extended permit works in the construction sector with changing work sites. To enter the work site, the employee must present a valid residence permit card. How does the employee prove his right to work at different work sites while he is still waiting for a decision on his extended permit application and the previous permit has expired?

At the work site, the employee can present a certificate of a pending application for an extended permit and his old residence permit card. The certificate of a pending application states when the application has been submitted. If the application has been submitted before the expiry of the old residence permit, the employee's right to work is usually valid for as long as the processing of the extended permit takes. Read more about the continuation of the right to work on the page Right to work while your application for an extended permit is being processed.

I would like to hire an employee whose residence permit has been granted on the basis of another job. Can he start working for us on the same residence permit? 

He can do so if the new job is in the same field of employment or consists of similar tasks as those that the employee’s residence permit that has been granted on the basis of work allows him to perform. In such a case, he does not need to apply for a new residence permit.

If the employee has been granted a residence permit for the employee in the service of a specific employer, the permit applies only to the employment in the specified employer's service. In this case, the employee must apply for and be granted a new residence permit for an employee before he or she can start a new job at your service.

If the employee's residence permit was granted on the basis on intra-corporate transfer, the permit only allows the employee to work in the service of the original employer. In that case, the employee must apply for and be granted a new residence permit for the work that he or she intends to do.

Many residence permits that are granted on grounds other than employment give an unrestricted right to work. Such permits include a permanent residence permit and a residence permit on the basis of family ties. 

You can check the employee's right to work on his or her residence permit card. 

Read more about changing jobs on the page Changing jobs, and about checking an employee's right to work in the section Verifying your employee’s right to work.

How can I check an employee's right to work within a certain field of employment? 

To verify a person’s right to work, you can check his or her residence permit card. The right to work granted for a certain field of employment is only valid in the field of employment indicated on the card. The right to work may be restricted to a certain field of employment only if the permit is a residence permit for an employed person (the ‘TTOL’ permit).  

Our employee is already in Finland. Can he start working before receiving a decision on his residence permit application?

If the work lasts for more than 90 days, your employee needs a residence permit. It is not possible to submit an application for a first residence permit on the basis of work in Finland or start working before a residence permit has been issued.

In some cases, it is possible to work without a residence permit if the work lasts for a maximum of 90 days. For more information, see the page Right to work without a residence permit.

If your employee is an asylum seeker, read more about asylum seekers’ right to work. If your employee is an EU citizen, read more about EU citizens’ right to work.

In some cases, the employee has the right to work for 90 days without a residence permit. How do I know what kind of work can be done without a residence permit for a maximum of 90 days?

You will find information on the right to work without a residence permit for 90 days on the page Right to work without a residence permit.

Can we employ a person who has a residence permit issued by another EU Member State or Schengen State but does not have a residence permit issued by Finland? 

In general, a residence permit granted by another EU Member State or Schengen State does not give an employee the right to work in Finland. Before an employee can start to work, he or she must apply for a residence permit in Finland and receive a decision on his or her application. An application for a first residence permit on the basis of work must be submitted outside Finland.

An exception to the rule are employees of a company that operates in another EU/EEA country, who come to Finland to perform temporary acquisition or subcontracting tasks, as specified in the regulations concerning the freedom to provide services, in the service of the same employer and for a maximum of six months. Furthermore, the employees must also have permits that allow them to reside and work in said country, and these permits must still be valid when they finish their work in Finland. A posted worker may work in Finland without a residence permit granted by Finland for a maximum of 90 days.

In addition, a person with an intra-corporate transferee permit (‘ICT permit’) may work in Finland on secondment for a maximum of 90 days. In that case, the host entity in Finland must submit a mobility notification regarding the employee’s short-term mobility to Finland. For more information, see the page Mobility notification for persons with ICT residence permit. The mobility notification is free of charge.  

Our employee has a permanent residence permit, but his residence permit card happened to expire by mistake. Does the right to work continue even though the employee's permanent residence permit card has expired, and he has applied for a new card after the expiry of the old card?

If the employee has a permanent residence permit, his or her right to work does not end even if the residence permit card has expired. Thus, the expiry of the residence permit card does not affect a permanent residence permit holder's right to work.
The employee can apply for a new residence permit card in Enter Finland. Read more on the page Renewal of a residence permit card.

How is the duration of a residence permit on the basis of employment determined in a fixed-term employment relationship?

The duration of a residence permit on the basis of employment is determined according to the duration of the fixed-term employment relationship for both first residence permits and extended permits. In fixed-term employment relationships, the employer must indicate the start date and end date of the work.

Can our employee move to another place of work our company has?

If the work tasks are in the same field of employment or consist of similar duties, the employee may move to another place of work your company has. 

Our employee has applied for an extended permit on the basis of employment. Can he continue to work while waiting for the decision, even though his previous residence permit has expired?

If an employee applies for a residence permit before the expiry of his or her previous residence permit, his or her right to work will usually continue even if he or she has not yet received a decision on his or her extended permit application. In general, he or she can continue to work while the extended permit application is being processed. 

If your employee has submitted his application for an extended permit too late, that is after the expiry of the previous permit, his right to work has ended and he can get a negative residence permit decision.

Read more in the section Right to work while your application for an extended permit is being processed.

My employee’s employment relationship is about to end. Am I required to notify the Finnish Immigration Service? 

Legislative amendments concerning employers’ notification obligation entered into force on 11 June 2025. You must submit notification of the termination of employment to the Finnish Immigration Service if the employment contract of a non-EU and EEA national residing in Finland with a residence permit on the basis of work ends prematurely.

You must report termination of the employment relationship if:

  • the employee has not started working
  • the employee’s employment relationship has ended or will end
  • the employee has, for some other reason, stopped working before the expiry of the residence permit granted on the basis of employment.

If, however, a work-related residence permit has been issued on the basis of several employment relationships and one of these ends, the notification obligation concerns the employer to whom the termination of the employment relationship applies.

Notify the Finnish Immigration Service of the date of termination of the employment relationship within 2 weeks of the termination of the employment relationship. The police may impose a sanction on notification failure.

Submit notification of the termination of the employment relationship in the Enter Finland for Employers service of the Finnish Immigration Service. Use the same form as when hiring a person from outside the EU and EEA and submitting an employee announcement on the person.

Ending of employment relationship will not affect the grounds for your employee’s residence permit if his or her residence permit has been issued on the basis of studies or family ties, for example.

Legislative amendments concerning employers’ notification obligation entered into force on 11 June 2025. Employers are now obliged to notify the Finnish Immigration Service if an employment relationship ends earlier than it is supposed to. Do I need to notify the Finnish Immigration Service of employment relationships that have ended before the amendments entered into force?

Employers do not need to notify the Finnish Immigration Service retrospectively of employment relationships that have ended before the legislative amendments entered into force.