Denial of admittance or stay, deportation, entry ban
You must leave Finland when your residence permit expires if you do not have any other legal basis for residing in Finland thereafter. If you have applied for a residence permit but receive a negative decision, you must leave Finland. When the decision on your residence permit application is negative, you will usually receive a decision on removal from the country, too. The decision on removal from the country may be either a decision on denial of admittance or stay or a deportation decision.
These links will take you directly to the different sections of the page:
- Decision on denial of admittance or stay
- Deportation decision
- Obligation to cooperate
- Voluntary return
- Entry ban
If you are an asylum seeker or an applicant for temporary protection, see the instructions on the page Removal from the country.
Decision on denial of admittance or stay
You will usually receive a decision on denial of admittance or stay if the decision on your application for a first residence permit is negative. You may also be denied admittance or stay if, for example, you are suspected of having committed a crime, if you have committed a crime, or if you are residing in Finland without the required permit.
If you object to being denied admittance or stay because your human rights or safety would be endangered in your home country or country of permanent residence, you can lodge an application for international protection with the police or the border control authorities. See the page Information for asylum seekers for more information about the asylum procedure.
Deportation decision
You will be issued with a decision on deportation if you already have a residence permit in Finland but you are not granted an extended permit or your residence permit is withdrawn. You may also receive a deportation decision if your residence permit has expired but you did not apply for a new residence permit in time and did not leave Finland. You may also be deported if you have committed crimes in Finland.
If you object to being deported because your human rights or safety would be endangered in your home country or country of permanent residence, you can lodge an application for international protection with the police or the border control authorities. See the page Information for asylum seekers for more information about the asylum procedure.
Your residence permit expires when you are deported from Finland. In other words, the residence permit that you have had stops being valid when you are deported.
Each application is always examined individually
When we make a decision on denial of admittance or stay or on deportation, all facts and circumstances affecting your situation will be taken into account. When making the decision, the protection of family life and child’s best interests are taken into account.
Obligation to cooperate
When a decision on denial of admittance or stay or on deportation has been issued for you, you have an obligation to cooperate with the authorities after being served with the decision. The obligation to cooperate means that you must:
- report all information that is required to verify your identity
- report the countries through which you travelled to Finland
- be contactable throughout the removal procedure
- request a valid travel document from the authorities of your home country and
- contribute to ensuring that the authorities of your home country can identify you so that they can grant you a travel document.
If you do not comply with the obligation to cooperate, an entry ban or some other sanction may be imposed on you.
Voluntary return
The decision on denial of admittance or stay or on deportation will usually set a time limit within which you may leave Finland voluntarily. The time reserved for leaving Finland voluntarily may be 7–30 days. If you do not comply with the time limit for voluntary return, an entry ban may be imposed on you.
In some situations, no time can be reserved for voluntary return. Instead, the police will remove you from the country. No time for voluntary return is reserved if, for example, you are removed from the country on the basis of having committed crimes.
If you have applied for asylum and wish to return to your home country voluntarily, you may be granted assistance for voluntary return. Read more about applying for assistance for voluntary return on the page Voluntary return.
Voluntary return when you are denied admittance or stay
The time limit set for leaving Finland voluntarily may be 7–30 days. The time limit is counted from the day when you have been served with the decision on denial of admittance or stay. If you appeal against the decision on denial of admittance or stay to an administrative court and the court prohibits the enforcement of the Finnish Immigration Service’s decision, the time limit will be counted from the administrative court's decision regarding the decision on denial of admittance or stay.
The police or Finnish Border Guard will remove you from the country if no time limit for voluntary return was given or if you do not leave Finland voluntarily.
Voluntary return when you are deported
The time limit set for your voluntary return is counted from the day when the deportation decision becomes final or from when the deportation decision becomes enforceable. This means that even if you have appealed against the decision issued by an administrative court to the Supreme Administrative Court, the decision on deportation will still be enforceable unless the Supreme Administrative Court separately prohibits the enforcement.
After the Supreme Administrative Court has issued a final decision in such situations, the decision on deportation becomes final. In such a case, the counting of the time limit for leaving the country voluntarily starts over. If you are deported on the basis of having committed criminal offences, the decision becomes enforceable already 30 days after the day when the decision was served on you.
If you have applied for an extended permit for seasonal work, the time limit for voluntary return begins when you are served with the decision made by the Finnish Immigration Service.
If you do not leave Finland voluntarily, the police or the Border Guard will remove you from the country.
Extending the time limit for voluntary return
You can apply for an extension of the time limit set for voluntary return if you have received a decision on removal from the country in which you have been ordered to leave Finland within a certain time. You must submit this application before the end of the time limit set for voluntary return in the decision on removal from the country.
Extending the time limit for voluntary return is always an exception. The time limit may be extended for acceptable special reasons.
Fill in the form ‘Application for extension of time limit for voluntary return’ in Finnish, Swedish or English. Remember to date and sign the form. The application is subject to a fee. Pay the processing fee in advance. If you do not pay the fee, your application will not be processed. Instructions for paying the processing fee are included in the application form.
Entry ban
An entry ban is usually issued to prohibit entry into the entire European Union and Schengen area. If you are subject to such an entry ban, you are not allowed to enter Finland or other Schengen or EU countries during the time the entry ban is valid. An entry ban may be imposed for a fixed term or until further notice.
An entry ban may be withdrawn on the basis of a change in circumstances or for important personal reasons. For instructions on how to fill in and submit a withdrawal application, on processing fees and on the attachments required, see the page Withdrawal of entry ban.
Imposing an entry ban is possible in the following three situations:
- when a decision on denial of admittance or stay, on deportation, or on refusal of entry has been made for you
- when your residence permit is withdrawn or when you are denied a residence permit
- in some cases, with a separate decision.
An entry ban into the Schengen area and the EU Member States may be imposed on you in connection with a decision on refusal of entry, on denial of admittance or stay or on deportation. An entry ban will always be imposed in the following situations:
- When your residence permit application is rejected because you have evaded immigration regulations, for example by entering a sham marriage.
- When you are considered to present a danger to public order or security, for example because you have committed crimes.
- When your application for international protection is rejected in an accelerated procedure or is considered inadmissible.
In addition, an entry ban may be imposed on a foreign national in other situations at the discretion of the competent authority.
An entry ban into the Schengen area and the EU Member States may be imposed on you if the decision on your residence permit application is negative or if your residence permit is withdrawn. See the page Withdrawal of residence permits for more information.
An entry ban may be imposed on you even if you do not reside in Finland in cases where you receive a negative decision on your residence permit application or your residence permit is withdrawn because:
- you are considered a danger to public order or security
- the grounds on which you applied for a residence permit do not match with your actual purpose of entry into the country
- you presented false or forged documents when you applied for a residence permit
- you misled or attempted to mislead the authorities when they investigated whether you meet the requirements for entry into and residence in the country, or
- when you applied for a residence permit, you knowingly gave false information on your identity or gave other false information that affected the outcome of the decision, or concealed information that might have prevented getting a residence permit.
An entry ban may be imposed on you with a separate decision if you reside in Finland and have previously received a decision on denial of admittance or stay or on deportation but grounds for imposing an entry ban have emerged thereafter.
In addition, an entry ban may be imposed on you with a separate decision if you have not complied with the time limit for voluntary return set for you in a previous decision on denial of admittance or stay or in a deportation decision.
An entry ban may be imposed on you with a separate decision if you do not reside in Finland anymore and are suspected of a crime, have committed a crime, or are considered a danger to national security, and you have avoided becoming subject to an entry ban by leaving Finland before a decision on your removal from the country was made.