More and more experts are moving to Finland
This year, the Immigration Office the number of residence permit applications submitted by experts has clearly increased. In January–July, international experts submitted 1,627 first residence permit applications, which is about a thousand applications more than in the same period last year (January–July 2021: 621).
In this context, the experts are, for example, IT experts and employees with a university degree, whose work in Finland requires special skills.
The first residence permit is a permit that a person applies for before moving to Finland for the first time.
The number of expert applications peaked in June, when 345 applications were submitted. Compared to May, the number of applications increased by 56 percent.
Experts have moved to Finland especially from Russia, India and China. In recent years, the most common countries of origin have remained unchanged. The Finnish Immigration Service estimates that one of the reasons for the number of applications submitted by Russian citizens this year is that employees of Finnish companies have moved to Finland to work here.
“This year, a record number of experts will move to Finland. Last year’s figures were already exceeded in July, and more applications are constantly coming in. We at the Immigration Office are pleased to state that despite the huge increase in incoming applications, we have been able to issue residence permits in less than two weeks. often even in less time. Behind the success is our continuous effort to improve our processes, for example by increasing digitization,” says the deputy director. Elina Immonen.
Quickly to work in Finland
This year, the average processing time for experts’ residence permit applications has been nine days. One of the reasons behind the faster processing of applications is improvements in automation, which is an important tool for speeding up the processing of permits.
“In order to shorten processing times, we have also had to develop and improve our work methods extensively. This is something that our staff has been very actively promoting”, says Kaj Swanljunghead of the work and study department.
Since the beginning of June, experts, starting entrepreneurs and their family members have been able to apply for a residence permit using the express service offered for these applications. Quick service is the fastest way to move to Finland. Its service commitment is to resolve the residence permit application within a maximum of 14 days from its submission, and the applicant can move to Finland immediately after the decision is issued.
In order to move to Finland with the express service, the customer must submit and pay the application online and prove their identity at a service point located abroad within five business days. In order to make the authorization process predictable and transparent to the customer, customers and their employers are guided, among other things, by means of frequently repeated automatic messages.
“Customers’ views are an important development tool for us. We ask customers who use the express service when moving to Finland to give feedback on the process. Their feedback is used to improve the expedited service. Now, the feedback we have received in the initial phase has been very positive. Most customers have found the fast service to be easy and smooth,” says Swanljung.
The immigration of international professionals and their permit processes are developed in cooperation with several operators. The Finnish Immigration Service has worked on an expedited service, e.g. with the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Labour, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of the Interior, Business Finland, ELY and Transport Center. The environment and the Digital and Population Information Services Agency. All authorities participating in the accelerated system are committed to a 14-day service promise.
HT
Source: Finnish Immigration Service