When you hire an international skilled worker who is already in Finland, you must check the employee’s residence permit and right to work. A citizen of the EU, the EEA, or Switzerland does not need a residence permit in Finland and can start work immediately. A citizen of any other country usually needs a residence permit to work in Finland.

In the Business E-services section of Job Market Finland, you can publish a job posting and get suggestions for suitable candidates. You can also browse jobseeker profiles without publishing a job posting.

Hiring an international skilled worker involves special obligations that you must take into account as an employer. Read more about the obligations on the Employer’s obligations in international recruitment page.

Work in Finland provides advisory, expert, and development services, in addition to which you can be granted funding for the development of international recruitment processes. Work in Finland also organises recruitment events for employers. Learn more about Work in Finland’s employer services and current recruitment events on the Work in Finland website. Work in Finland provides services free of charge.

You can get support from the European Job Mobility Network (EURES) for the recruitment of EU, EEA, and Swiss nationals.

Job Market Finland provides information on international recruitment. In the Business E-services section of Job Market Finland, you can publish a job posting for international recruitment and get suggestions for suitable candidates. You can also browse jobseeker profiles without publishing a job posting.

Tips for different stages of international recruitment

A wide range of services are available to support international recruitment that can help for example in the planning of recruitment and in supporting an employee to get settled after their move.

More information on the Work in Finland activities

The KEHA Centre and Business Finland are responsible for Work in Finland activities, and the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment is responsible for its steering.

A good starting point for international recruitment is that it can be viewed in the same way as other recruitments. It is a good idea to invest in the job seeker experience and up-to-date communications to ensure you maintain a good employer image. This will then continue to help attract the best skilled workers to your organisation.

When you expand recruitment outside Finland, this also increases the risks of exploitation in the recruitment process. To minimise the risks of exploitation as an employer, you should carefully familiarise yourself with the recruitment process. For example, collecting a recruitment fee from a job seeker is part of the recruitment process in some countries. You must ensure that the job seeker has not at any point in the recruitment process had to pay for getting recruited to Finland. 

When you utilise the services of established and reliable international recruitment actors, you minimise any risks of exploitation. For example, EURES, the European employment service operating in the EU and EEA, consists of European public employment service specialists who provide their services free of charge to both employers and job seekers. The EURES network also includes private recruitment companies that can manage the entire recruitment process on your behalf. 

The further away from Finland and the Finnish working culture the person's country of origin, the greater the risks of exploitation. If you are recruiting independently directly from outside Finland, as an employer, it is your duty to tell the job seeker as truthfully as possible about your organisation, work tasks and working in Finland so that the applicant can make a decision on accepting the workplace and moving to Finland that is as informed as possible. If you select a recruitment partner, you should familiarise yourself with the partner carefully in advance. Work in Finland maintains a list of reliable recruitment partners.

No matter where you recruit from around the world, the appropriate induction of employees to work tasks and their inclusion in the work community are part of a responsible recruitment process. Good induction training and a warm reception will help you influence the employee’s willingness to continue working in your organisation. Ensuring the responsibility of international recruitment can only be a win-win situation.

If proficiency in a language other than Finnish or Swedish is sufficient for the open position, you should create the job posting in English. At Job Market Finland, you can select a job posting form tailored for international recruitment. The form has English as the default language for the posting and work. When you create the job posting in English, you will get the best possible visibility for the position both among international job seekers already living in Finland and talents living abroad. Job postings in which the language of the posting and the work language are English will also appear on the Work in Finland Find a job in Finland page.

In general, the recommendations for job postings in Finnish also apply to English language job postings for international employees. In the job posting, it is advisable to give detailed information about the content of the position, the competence required for the position and what you offer to an employee as an employer. When attracting talent from abroad to Finland, you should also talk slightly more about the organisation and give a general description of the area where the workplace is located. You can use various marketing materials that present Finland when creating a job posting. They are publicly available on the Finland Toolbox website.

Job postings can be imported to Job Market Finland using an application programming interface (API). The interface allows you to create and manage your own job postings at Job Market Finland.  

Obligation to ensure the right to work

As an employer, you must check that your employee has the right to reside and work in Finland. You can check your employee’s right to reside and work by checking their passport if they are a citizen of an EU or EEA country or Switzerland, or by checking their residence permit card if they are from some other country.  Remember to ensure that the right to work is valid throughout the employment relationship.

An employee’s residence permit (TTOL) may contain sector-specific restrictions, so make sure that your employee has the right to work in the position in question.

Obligation to provide notification of recruitment

If you hire a person who is not a citizen of an EU or EEA country or Switzerland, or a family member of an EU or EEA country citizen or a Swiss citizen, you must notify the Finnish Immigration Service of their hiring. Notify the Finnish Immigration Service without delay giving the name of the person, the duration of the employment relationship, their pay and the applicable collective agreement.

You can enter the information electronically into the Enter Finland for Employers online service. If you cannot use the online service, submit the information using the paper form titled Employee announcement.

In addition, you must notify the shop steward, elected representative, and occupational safety and health representative at the workplace of the name of the person and the applicable collective agreement.

You do not need to report the employment relationship information to the Finnish Immigration Service again if you have participated as an employer in applying for a residence permit for a person and submitted the information as part of the application process.

Obligation to keep information

As an employer, you must keep records on all your foreign employees and the grounds for their right to work. The occupational safety and health authority enforces the right of foreigners to work in Finland, and you must be able to present this information if necessary. For example, you can take a copy of an employee’s passport if they are a citizen of an EU or EEA country or Switzerland or a copy of their residence permit card if they are a citizen of some other country.

You can find more information on the employer’s obligations on the Foreign employee page of the Occupational Safety and Health authority's website Työsuojelu.fi.

The employee will apply for a residence permit electronically via the Enter Finland online service or by submitting a paper application to a Finnish diplomatic mission abroad. If the application has been submitted electronically, the applicant must visit the Finnish mission or a Finland Visa Application centre to prove their identity, give their fingerprints and present the original copies of the appendices to their application. This may require travel to another country if there is no diplomatic mission or visa application centre in the applicant’s country of residence.

As an employer, you must complete the agreed terms of employment and other necessary attachments to the employee’s residence permit application. You can enter the information in the Enter Finland for Employers online service. If the employee has applied for a residence permit using a paper form or you cannot use the Enter Finland service yourself, fill in a paper Terms of  Employment form and send it to the employee. The employee attaches the form to their application.

If an employee is applying for an extension to their permit in the Enter Finland online service, they do not need to visit a service point to prove their identity if they have used strong electronic identification.

You can monitor the progress of the application in the Enter Finland service.

A specialist may fast track their first residence permit application to the Finnish Immigration Service. The Immigration Service can issue a decision on the residence permit application within two weeks. A residence permit can only be fast-tracked while the applicant is abroad and in cases where an employee comes to work in Finland as a specialist, start-up entrepreneur or in senior or middle management.

If an employee applies for a residence permit in the Enter Finland online service, you can agree with them on who will pay the processing fee for the residence permit application. If an employee fast-tracks their residence permit application to the Finnish Immigration Service, the employee must pay the processing fee themselves.

Working in Finland will require compliance with Finnish legislation. A foreign employee has the same rights as a Finnish employee, i.e. the terms of employment, such as pay and working hours, must comply with Finnish laws and collective agreements.

EURES advisers specialise in European employment services and assist in recruitments in all EU and EEA countries and Switzerland. The EURES network employs about 1,000 advisers. 

The Finnish EURES network operates as a national coordination office as part of the KEHA Centre. The national coordination office is responsible for maintaining the national EURES Finland network. EURES consists of public employment services and private members providing support and services for the different stages of recruitment. Public employment services are free of charge, whereas services provided by private members may be subject to a fee. 

In the Business E-services section of Job Market Finland, you can publish a job posting and get suggestions for suitable candidates. You can also browse jobseeker profiles without publishing a job posting.

Companies and third-sector organisations can apply to join the EURES network providing international recruitment and employment services.

The International Recruitment Advice Service for Employers helps employers with questions related to the recruitment of foreign employees.