Thread: Obtaining a Residence Permit in Finland

What are your experiences in obtaining a residence permit in Finland. As an EU national it is quite easy as we have bilateral agreements...but what about those who come from other countries?

Originally Posted by Aleksis Kivi

What are your experiences in obtaining a residence permit in Finland. As an EU national it is quite easy as we have bilateral agreements...but what about those who come from other countries?

Difficult for those passport holders whose countries don't have some kind of bilateral agreements. In my case (Nepali), I came here as a student. So, ei tarvi niin paljon SISU!

well Canadians need to get a visa if they are planning to stay for a longer period than 3 months (I'm not sure anymore if it's 3 or 6 months, but I think it's 3 months). But since it's also a northern country (not from Northern Europe, of course), both governments have made the whole processus quite easier and require less paperwork than other countries :] my province (Québec) even have an agreement in which canadians in Finland with a visa can access to the health system and such. I'm not sure of all the things that are covered since it wasn't specified in the agreement, but still !


I am registered as a resident in Helsinki and didn't have much trouble for that procedure.

Im from Pakistan, and it was unbelievably easy to get Finnish visa. Peace of cake. Apart from the resdence permit its amazing that no driving license is required in Finland for Pakistani citizens. if the Finnish police can come and see how we drive in Pakistan,, hehe..Anyway Finland rocks

I found it really easy because well not only im i a EU citizen, but I've also got finnish family.
I plan on moving back out again permantly in few years

hii all,
Im new here,
I want to move to Finland(Im from El Salvador)...I can stay just for 3months..what can I do if I wanna stay longer? will the visa be easy to get? I heard you have to have a lot of money to pay your living..and make sure you have the money, isnt it? I'd like some help.
thank you.

Bring a lot of money with you. Getting a job here as a foreigner is almost impossible especially if you don't speak the language

When you wanting to come over? And if you dont speak the language id advise you to learn it straight away, because it will be very hard getting around otherwise. If you want i can send you a link where you can learn basic finnish to move onto more advance staff later on.

And like HKI said, bring alot of money with you

i didnt get any visa from finland but my friends have experiences as turkish citizens

tourist visa is not that hard to get compared to dutch/german visas(also schengen and hard to get) and embassy is very helpful.

residence permit is also not hard to get,especially for students who're going to polytechnics.they just want to learn if you have enough money for living.

Originally Posted by Myrica

residence permit is also not hard to get,especially for students who're going to polytechnics.they just want to learn if you have enough money for living.

hello, so it is not so hard to get a finnish visa?, "they just want to learn if you have enough money for living." I read this was a requirement to get a visa or residence, for example how many money do u need for a year, is it a lot of -high quantities-?