Instructions for high school exchange students
Congratulations on your study place in Finland!
Start preparing your application immediately after receiving your acceptance letter. The entire process may take several months.
How do I know if I need a residence permit in Finland?
You will need a residence permit in all other cases, except:
- If you are a citizen of an EU Member State, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway or Switzerland. However, you may need to apply for EU-registration. Read more on the page I am an EU citizen.
- If you have been granted a residence permit on the basis of studies by some other EU Member State than Finland and if you are covered by a programme or an agreement specified in the Finnish act on residence permits for students. You can carry out part of your studies in Finland for a period up to 360 days. You must submit a mobility notification to the Finnish Immigration Service. Read more on the page Mobility notification to Finland.
- If you plan to study in Finland for 90 days or less. However, you may need a visa. For information on visas, please see the website of the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland (um.fi).
The mandatory appendices
If your documents are not in Finnish, Swedish or English, have them translated into one of these languages by an authorized translator. Take the originals of your documents with you to the embassy. For more information about the appendices, please see the page Residence permit application for studies.
- Acceptance letter from your exchange program.
- If your studies last less than two years, your insurance must cover both sickness and accident related medical expenses up to at least 120,000 euros.
- Your insurance must be valid throughout your entire stay in Finland.
- Make sure that there are no restrictions to the number of days within the period of validity. Please note that travel insurances are often valid for up to 90 days per trip and we do not accept these.
- Acquire an insurance document indicating the following information:
- Your personal details
- Period of validity of insurance
- Geographical area in which your insurance is valid
- Insurance coverage
- Insured amounts
- Amount of deductible, or a mention that there is no deductible
- Do not terminate your insurance. Otherwise you will be responsible for any costs yourself.
- Read more about insurance companies offering international health insurance to students
- Please remember that you must have a passport that is valid. A residence permit can be granted for a longer period than the period of validity of your passport. If your passport expires while the residence permit is valid, remember to renew it early enough.
- Attach a written consent for you to move to Finland from both your parents or guardians to your application.
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Apply for your residence permit abroad, not in Finland
Apply for your residence permit abroad, not in Finland
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Create an account in the online service. Fill in the application form for studies. Fill in your name as it is in your passport, your contact details and the date you plan to arrive in Finland. Next, collect the mandatory appendices.
Create an account in the online service. Fill in the application form for studies. Fill in your name as it is in your passport, your contact details and the date you plan to arrive in Finland. Next, collect the mandatory appendices.
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Submit your online application.
Submit your online application.
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Visit a Finnish mission (embassy or consulate) in person for identification and fingerprinting. Contact the embassy or consulate in advance to book an appointment. All Finnish embassies and consulates are listed at the website of the Finnish Ministry for Foreign Affairs (um.fi). If there is no Finnish diplomatic mission in your country, check on the finlandabroad.fi -website which embassy or consulate you need to contact. Please note that the Finnish Immigration Service cannot influence at which Finnish embassy or consulate you should handle your matter. The Finnish Ministry for Foreign Affairs makes this decision.
Visit a Finnish mission (embassy or consulate) in person for identification and fingerprinting. Contact the embassy or consulate in advance to book an appointment. All Finnish embassies and consulates are listed at the website of the Finnish Ministry for Foreign Affairs (um.fi). If there is no Finnish diplomatic mission in your country, check on the finlandabroad.fi -website which embassy or consulate you need to contact. Please note that the Finnish Immigration Service cannot influence at which Finnish embassy or consulate you should handle your matter. The Finnish Ministry for Foreign Affairs makes this decision.
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Your application will be processed only after you have visited a Finnish embassy. Also, the estimated processing time of your application starts from the day you visit the embassy.
Your application will be processed only after you have visited a Finnish embassy. Also, the estimated processing time of your application starts from the day you visit the embassy.
Important to remember:
The application process is longer if you submit an incomplete application. We process all residence permit applications for studies as urgent.
If your application is approved, you will get a biometric residence permit card. The card is manufactured in Finland and delivered to the Finnish embassy. It is not possible to speed up the delivery of the card or to collect the card from Finland. You cannot come to Finland without the residence permit card.
We recommend that you do not acquire airline tickets in advance in case you do not receive a decision before your flight to Finland.
How to follow the progress of your application:
- Check the processing queue of students’ residence permit applications
- Log in to your Enter Finland account.
- Please note that telephone or email inquiries will not speed up the process.
The D visa allows you to travel to Finland immediately after being issued with a residence permit
You can apply for a D visa at the same time as you apply for a residence permit. The D visa allows you to travel to Finland immediately after you have been issued with a residence permit and a D visa sticker has been attached to your passport. You should apply for a D visa only if you can travel to Finland within two weeks of being granted a residence permit, because you need to be able to collect your residence permit card from a collection point in Finland.
With a D visa, you can arrive in Finland during a time period of 100 days before the residence permit becomes valid. The validity period of your D visa needs to overlap with the validity period of your residence permit for at least one day. Please note that if you apply for a residence permit long before your studies begin, it may not necessarily be possible to grant you a D visa together with the residence permit. In such cases, it is possible that your card is delivered to Finland but you are not necessarily able to collect it from the collection point in Finland. If this happens, someone else can pick up the card for you. Read more on the page D visa.