Employer’s role and obligations
An employee who is not a citizen of an EU or EEA country must apply for a residence permit. Your employees must fill in and submit their own residence permit applications but you can help them select the right application form.
There are certain jobs in which an employee may work in Finland without a residence permit for a maximum of 90 days. After that period, the right to work ends. For more information, see the page Working without a residence permit.
Employers have a key role in their employees’ residence permit processes
As an employer, you must fill in the terms of employment in your employee’s residence permit application. For more information, see the page Filling in the terms of employment.
We explain the role of the employer in our ‘Residence permit on the basis of employment’ webinar.
On this page:
- Residence permit on the basis of work
- Notification of decision
- An employee’s right of residence and right to work
- Employer – this is what you need to do
- Employees’ rights
Residence permit on the basis of work
There are more than 20 different residence permits that can be granted on the basis of work. YSee the list of residence permit grounds on the page Residence permits on the basis of work. Which of the permits is the right permit for your employee depends on the nature of the employee's duties and possibly on the duration of the employment relationship. If your employee does not know which application to choose, the Application Finder will be of help.
The processing of your employees’ applications will be faster if your company applies for and is granted employer certification. Read more on the page Employer certification.
Employees who are citizens of an EU or EEA country are allowed to work in Finland without restrictions. However, they must register their right of residence. If your employee is a British citizen, read more on the employee’s right to work in Finland on the page Brexit permits.
As soon as your employee has submitted a residence permit application in the Enter Finland online service, you can log in to Enter Finland for Employers and fill in the terms of employment for the application. The Enter Finland online service is the quickest way for your employee to receive a decision on an application. Read the instructions for use of the Enter Finland for Employers online service on the page Enter Finland for Employers.
If your employee cannot use Enter Finland to apply for a residence permit, he or she can submit a paper application. In that case, you need to fill in and sign the paper form Terms of employment (pdf) and give it to your employee, who then needs to attach the form to the application.
Your employee must apply for an extended permit before his or her previous permit expires.
- Your employee’s right to work ends if he or she does not apply for an extended permit before the first permit expires. In that case, it is no longer legal for your employee to keep working.
- However, your employee’s right to work will usually continue to be in force even if he or she has not received a decision on the application for an extended permit. This requires that the application was submitted before the first residence permit expired. Read more on the page Right to work while your application for an extended permit is being processed.
Employers may follow the progress of an employee’s application. If you use Enter Finland for Employers, you can track the processing stage of your employee’s application online without needing to contact the Finnish Immigration Service for an update. For more information on the processing stages, see the page Processing of applications.
Notification of decision
A decision on a residence permit application on the basis of work must be made within two months of the date when all of the following conditions are met:
- The residence permit application contains all the information that was required on the application form.
- The employer has submitted the terms of employment that are required as an attachment to the application.
- The employee has proved their identity.
Proving one’s identity means that the applicant visits a service point of the Finnish Immigration Service in Finland, or a Finnish mission (embassy or consulate) or a service point of an external service provider abroad to prove his or her identity. The counting of the two-month time limit is interrupted if the application is incomplete and needs to be supplemented. See the page Processing times for more information.
When a decision has been made, a notification will be sent to the employer. If you are using Enter Finland for Employers, you will see in your account when a decision has been made on your employee’s matter.
You may appeal against the decision of the Finnish Immigration Service if the Finnish Immigration Service has issued a negative residence permit decision for reasons related to the employer. Such reasons can be, for instance, that the employer has intended to evade the provisions on entry into the country. In these cases, the part of the decision that you have the right to appeal against will be served on you.
An employee’s right of residence and right to work
An employee's right of residence in Finland and the right to work in Finland are two different things. Your employee may be staying legally in Finland but may not necessarily have the right to work in Finland.
You can check if your employee has the right to reside in Finland by asking him or her to show:
An employee who does not have these documents may still be residing legally in Finland. Your employee may be, for instance, an asylum seeker or a seasonal worker who is working in Finland for up to three months with a visa or visa-free.
An employee who has the right to work in Finland usually has the right of residence in Finland as well, but not the other way around: Your employee may be staying legally in Finland but might not necessarily have the right to perform the work that you have planned. This is why you, as the employer, must primarily establish that your employee has the right to work in Finland.
This is how you can verify your employee’s right to work in the following ways:
- The employee’s residence permit shows what type of work the employee is allowed to do and how many hours a week he or she is allowed to work.
- For more information, see the page Residence permit types.
- See the page Work in Finland for information on the right to work for holders of different residence permits. The right to work may be unrestricted or restricted to certain fields of work.
- If your employee has applied for an extended permit, you can ask him or her to show you their residence permit card and a certificate of a pending application for an extended permit.
- If the employee has applied for an extended permit before his or her previous residence permit expired, the right to work will usually continue to be valid even if a decision has not yet been made on the application for an extended permit. Read more on the page Right to work while your application for an extended permit is being processed.
- If you are using Enter Finland for Employers and the employee is applying for an extended permit on the basis of work, you can see in the online service whether or not your employee has submitted an application for an extended permit.
- You can ask to see the employee’s certificate for seasonal work.
- For more information on the right to work based on a certificate for seasonal work, see the page Certificate for seasonal work.
- You can ask to see a certificate of an asylum seeker’s right to work or ask the asylum seeker about his or her right to work.
- For more information, see the page Asylum seeker’s right to work.
- You can contact the Finnish Immigration Service by email.
- Read more on the page Certificate of the right to work.
In some cases, an employee does not need a residence permit. If that is the case, the employee has a restricted right to work in certain fields of work for a maximum of 90 days. Read more on the page Right to work without a residence permit.
Remote working abroad for a Finnish employer
If you have employees who work only remotely and live abroad:
- they are not required to have a residence permit in Finland;
- they are not required to have the right to work in Finland.
For information about taxation, visit the website of the Finnish Tax Administration (vero.fi).
If you have employees that live and work in Finland, you must make sure that they have the right to reside and work in Finland.
Protection of workers’ rights in Finland
The following authorities are responsible for monitoring that employees' rights in Finland are respected:
- Police (poliisi.fi): permit matters, right of residence in Finland, suspicions of human trafficking
- Occupational Safety and Health Administration (tyosuojelu.fi): permit matters, terms of employment
- Finnish Tax Administration (vero.fi): prevention of grey economy.
Employer – this is what you need to do
If you hire an employee from outside the EU or EEA countries, you have certain statutory obligations as an employer.
At the beginning of the employment relationship
- Check the employee’s right to work from his or her residence permit card or passport.
- Take a copy of the employee’s residence permit card. If the employee is a citizen of an EU or EEA country or Switzerland, take a copy of his or her passport.
- Ensure that your employee’s terms of employment comply with Finnish legislation and the applicable collective agreement.
- Keep employee information in a safe place at the workplace. Keep also the information on the employee’s duties available at the workplace for inspection by occupational safety and health authorities. Read more about storing data on the website of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration in Finland (tyosuojelu.fi).
- Inform the workplace’s shop stewards, elected employee representative and occupational safety and health representative of the name of the employee and the collective agreement applicable to the employment relationship.
- Submit an employee announcement to the Finnish Immigration Service within 7 days from the beginning of the employment relationship if you are employing a person who comes from outside the EU and EEA countries and already has a valid residence permit and right to work. If you have submitted the terms of employment as part of your employee’s residence permit application, you do not need to submit an employee announcement. For more detailed instructions, see the page Employer’s announcements on employment relationship.
- Ensure that a foreign employee you hire has the necessary skills and competence needed for the job.
At the end of the employment relationship
- If the employment relationship of a non-EU or non-EEA citizen residing in Finland with a work-based residence permit ends prematurely, submit an announcement about end of employment to the Finnish Immigration Service.
- The employer must submit the announcement within 14 days of the day when the employee was supposed to start working but did not start. For more detailed instructions, see the page Employer’s announcements on employment relationship.
Announcement about end of employment
As an employer, you must submit an announcement about end of employment 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 submit an announcement about end of employment 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
An announcement about end of employment is not required if the person has a permanent residence permit or if the additional work ends but the actual employment relationship, on which the residence permit is based, continues. However, if a work-related residence permit has been issued on the basis of several employment relationships and even one of these ends, the notification obligation applies to the employer that has terminated the employment relationship. A comprehensive list of residence permits granted on the basis of work can be found below.
Announcements about end of employment are not required of posted employees. A posted employee is an employee of a foreign company who is working temporarily in Finland. However, an announcement about end of employment must be submitted if an employee has come to Finland from a company located outside the EU with a residence permit for intra-corporate transfer and the posting ends.
Submit an announcement about end of employment also in situations where the citizenship section in your employee’s residence permit card contains a three-letter code beginning with XX (for example XXY, meaning citizenship unknown).
The employer must submit the announcement within 14 days of the day when the employee was supposed to start working but did not start. An announcement must be submitted also if the employment relationship has ended for some other reason or if the employee has stopped working for some other reason. Employers who do not submit an announcement about end of employment may be fined.
An announcement about end of employment can be submitted by the employer’s attorney or counsel. Before submitting the announcement, a power of attorney or other reliable proof of authorisation must be presented.
- residence permit for an employed person
- residence permit for a specialist
- EU Blue Card
- residence permit for work in top or middle management
- residence permit on the basis of intra-corporate transfer for a specialist or manager
- residence permit on the basis of research conducted in Finland
- residence permit on the basis of a degree completed in Finland
- residence permit for an employee of a religious community
- residence permit for work in the field of culture or the arts
- residence permit for work in the field of mass media
- residence permit for work in an international organisation or in duties concerning official cooperation between states
- residence permit for preparation of a company’s establishment in Finland and for supervision of orders
- residence permit for delivery of a machine or system
- residence permit for an athlete or a coach
- residence permit for a consultant
- residence permit for a visiting teacher, lecturer or instructor
- residence permit on the basis of an intergovernmental agreement.
For instructions on how to submit an announcement about end of employment, see the page Enter Finland for Employers. If you cannot use Enter Finland for Employers, use the form Announcement about end of employment (pdf).
When is an announcement about end of employment not required?
- When you have hired an employee who holds a seasonal work permit, a residence permit for startup entrepreneurs, a residence permit for studies or a residence permit granted on the basis of temporary protection or family ties.
- When an employee from outside the EU/EEA area is temporarily laid off, or when the fixed-term employment relationship that was reported in the residence permit application ends at the same time as the employee’s work-based residence expires.