Finland: Relaxed Rules for Employers and Employees to Streamline Work Permit Process

New trusted employer program. Employers who hire many foreign workers can apply for certification to become eligible for expedited residence permit/work permit application processing.

Initial employer certification is granted for two years, with the possibility of an extension for three years at a time.

• • Employers with a certification benefit from faster work permit processing, although it is not clear how much faster this will be.
  • If there are backlogs or delays in the processing of work permit/residence permit applications, these applications will be prioritized over non-certified employer applications.
  • Certified employers under this scheme are exempt from the new requirement to add the terms of employment for each employee application (see below).

New terms of employment requirement. Non-certified employers must add terms of employment to work permit applications using a standard form on the Enter Finland for Employers online portal or on a paper ‘Terms of Employment’ paper form.

The form must be signed by an individual with signatory power from the Finnish entity and can be provided either on the employer’s EnterFinland account or with the employee’s application submission. Affected employers should work with their immigration professional to complete this form.

• • This adds an administrative burden to applications for employers which are not certified by the new trusted employer program, as noted above, as they need to provide an extra document for each application.

• • Employees will have more flexibility when applying for a work permit on their current passport and will not need to wait to obtain a new passport with a longer validity period before applying for a work and residence permit.

This provides a new pathway for foreign nationals to work in Finland, which will help expand the pool of eligible candidates. Benefits of this new pathway include:

• • • there is no time limit on the validity of the qualifying higher education degree;
    • they can change employers without additional immigration applications;
    • they can enter the country to find a job and do not need to have an employment offer; and
    • they can sponsor dependents, who will automatically have the right to work under the main applicant's immigration status.