The page is being updated. Work permit services to be transferred from TE Offices to Finnish Immigration Service on 1 January 2025. Read more: Pause in processing of work-based permits in January 2025

Amendments to the Aliens Act will increase the income required for a residence permit for an employed person to 1,600 euros per month as of 1 January 2025. Read more: New minimum income limit of 1,600 euros for the residence permit for an employed person as of 1 January 2025

Residence permit application for an employed person (TTOL)

Apply for a residence permit with this application if you are coming to Finland to work for a Finnish employer or other employer operating in Finland. A residence permit for an employed person is granted for the professional field to which your job belongs. You must have confirmed employment before you can apply for this permit.

A residence permit for an employed person may be subject to labour market testing, which means that the employer must establish if there is available labour force within a reasonable time in Finland or within the EU/EEA for the work in question.

If your employer has obtained employer certification, 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. Read more about the D visa.

Your spouse and children can apply for a D visa if they are applying for a residence permit on the basis of family ties. Read more on the page Moving to Finland to be with a family member.

Expected processing times:

Processing times
Electronic application fee

First permit 540 € / extended permit 170 €
Paper application fee

First permit 740 € / extended permit 430 €

Are you applying for a first residence permit for an employed person? Check out our guide for employed persons! When you answer the questions in the guide, you can easily find exactly the information you need. The guide also enables you to compile a checklist of the attachments required for your application.

This is what you should do

Prepare:

1. You have found 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.

2. You have sufficient qualifications and education for the job in question.

Your employer must verify that you have the professional skills required for the job. Your employer must document this when they fill in the terms of employment for your application.
Health care professionals, for example, need a permission to practise their profession from Valvira, the National Supervisory Authority for Welfare and Health.

3. You have sufficient income in Finland during the entire time your residence permit is valid.

Your salary has to be at least the minimum specified in the relevant collective agreement.
If there is no collective agreement or if you will be working part-time, your salary must be at least EUR 1,399 per month in 2024.
Some of your salary may consist of fringe benefits, such as company car or employer-provided accommodation. When your salary is assessed, the taxable value of your fringe benefits will be taken into account in the calculation. For more information about the taxable values of fringe benefits, see the website of the Finnish Tax Administration.
Read more on the page Income requirement.
When you apply for an extended permit, the TE Office will assess whether your salary and income have been sufficient.

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

Have the attachments translated and legalised if needed.

A valid passport accepted by Finland (um.fi). Present your passport when you submit your residence permit application
A passport photo complying with the photo guidelines issued by the police, or a photograph retrieval code you received from a photo shop
- The passport photo must be no more than 6 months old.
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
- This document is not needed if you apply for an extended permit.
Response to possible denial of admittance or stay and to entry ban (the form MP_1)
- This form is needed only if you, for some reason, submit your residence permit application in Finland. Please note that an application for a first residence permit must usually be submitted abroad.
- This form is not needed when you apply for an extended permit.

The attachments are available in Albanian, Arabic, Farsi, Mandarin, Russian, Thai, Ukrainian, Uzbek and Vietnamese.

Fill in the application:

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 online via the online service Enter Finland, pay the processing fee:

with a credit card or with Finnish online banking credentials when you submit the application, or
when you visit a Finnish mission abroad to prove your identity.

If you apply with a paper application, pay the processing fee:

when you visit a Finnish mission abroad 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 cannot 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, attach to your application the form ‘Terms of employment’, filled in by your employer.

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

Applications for a residence permit for an employed person are usually processed in two stages

First, an Employment and Economic Development Office (TE Office) may assess whether your terms of employment comply with the provisions of law in force and with the applicable collective agreement. They may also assess whether you have sufficient means of support, whether your work will be temporary or continuous, and whether labour force is available within a reasonable time in Finland or within the EU/EEA for the work in question. Secondly, following this, the Finnish Immigration Service makes its decision. Check the current overall processing time with our Processing Time Checker.

If you do not meet the general requirements for obtaining a residence permit, the TE Office does not make a partial decision. Read more about the general requirements for issuing residence permits on the page First residence permit.

Right to work

You cannot start working before you get a residence permit for an employed person.
You can only work in the professional field to which your job belongs and for which you have been granted a residence permit. You may have several jobs in the same professional field.
If you apply for an extended permit, check if you have the right to work while your application is being processed. Read more on the page Working while your extended permit application is being processed.