Finnish authorities announced the Finnish Immigration Service is now fully responsible for processing residence permits for employed persons.

Key Points:

  • As BAL previously reported, a pause on decision-making was previously announced for certain residence permit applications during the transfer of responsibility.
  • Work permit services have now been transferred from TE Offices (Employment and Economic Development) to the Finnish Immigration Service.
  • The Finnish Immigration Service will now be responsible for the discretion related to the partial decision-making phase, which includes the assessment of the terms of employment, the inspection of employer obligations, the consideration of income and labor market testing.

Additional Information: Previously, matters concerning residence permits for employed persons were the responsibility of the TE Office, performed in two stages: The TE Offices first issued a partial decision before forwarding the application to the Finnish Immigration Service for further processing. Work permit services will now be transferred to the Finnish Immigration Service, and they will inspect and assess all the requirements for work-based residence permits at one time as part of reforming of the application processing structure.

The change is part of the overall reform of TE Services, which involves transferring employment and economic development services from the central government to the municipalities’ employment areas. The aim is to improve the customer experience and ensure smoother processing by centralizing residence permit matters for employees to the Finnish Immigration Service. Authorities stated that the processing of applications may temporarily slow down early in 2025.

This alert has been provided by the BAL Global Practice Group.

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