Starting January 1, 2025, the Finnish Immigration Service (Migri) will take over the responsibility of processing work-based residence permits, a task previously handled by the Employment Office (TE Office). This shift is part of a broader reform of TE Services, which will transfer employment and economic development services from the central government to municipal employment areas.
Under the new system, Migri will take full responsibility for the residence permits of employed individuals, which were previously handled in two phases—first by the TE Office and then by Migri. Tuuli Huhtilainen from Migri explained that the partial decision phase will be eliminated, and Migri will now manage the entire process. This includes assessing employment conditions, verifying employer obligations, and conducting labour market tests to ensure no suitable workers are available in Finland or the EU/EEA.
If there are qualified candidates within the local labour market, the residence permit for an employed person will not be issued. Additionally, Migri will handle employee announcements for non-EU/EEA workers hired by Finnish employers. Employers must report the hiring of foreign nationals with valid residence permits, but this requirement does not apply to EU citizens or their family members.
The transition will also involve training for TE Office employees, who will be introduced to the new methods and systems. The reform will require significant updates to the current systems and automation.
As a result of these changes, application processing may experience temporary delays at the start of 2025. There will also be a brief pause in decision-making between January 1 and 8, 2025, due to updates to the Enter Finland and automated systems. Initially, the processing time for a positive decision is expected to be around two months, but this will be quickly reduced to the target processing time of one month, according to Huhtilainen.
