Frequently asked questions from employers

Submitting an application and visiting a service point 

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 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 professional field 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.

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.

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 professional field 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 professional field? 

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 professional field is only valid in the professional field indicated on the card. The right to work may be restricted to a certain professional field 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. 

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

If the work tasks are in the same professional field 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? 

Residence permit holders must always have grounds for their residence permit. If you have hired someone who has been granted a residence permit on the basis of work, you can notify the Finnish Immigration Service of the ending of the employment relationship by email using the Securemail service (securemail.migri.fi). Based on your notification, the Finnish Immigration Service may start considering the withdrawal of the person’s residence permit. At the moment, there is no legal obligation for you to notify the Finnish Immigration Service of the ending of your employee's employment relationship. 

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.