If the employer has not found a suitable employee in Finland, they can search for labour abroad. The employer can also utilise a labour market area larger than Finland in larger-scale recruitments.

You may need a separate permit to hire an employee from abroad, and an employee from outside the EU or the EEA must have the right to work in Finland. Please also note that your foreign employees are subject to the same employment rights and obligations, terms of employment, occupational safety requirements, and statutory insurances as Finnish employees.

Work in Finland as an aid in international recruitment

Work in Finland's international recruitment advice for employers is a nationwide and centralized service that offers employers general advice regarding international recruitment and work-related immigration.

The service is open Mon–Fri from 9 am to 3 pm. Call +358 295 016 770 to use the telephone service or to request a call-back. You can also send an email to tyonantajaneuvonta@workinfinland.fi.

EURES assists with recruitments from Europe

EURES (European Employment Services) is a comprehensive European cooperation network and a high-quality public service that brings employees and employers together in all of Europe.

EURES experts trained and specialised in European employment services help with recruitment processes in all EU and EEA countries. The unique network employs about 1,000 experts. EURES helps 50,000 jobseekers find work in a different country every year.

EURES experts

• know the European labour market and act as a middleman in recruitment,
• help find a suitable target country and start the recruitment process,
• find a local partner for cooperation,
• assist in participating in job fairs and promote the company's vacancies,
• organise a recruitment event in the target country if needed,
• respond to applicants' enquiries and receive applications,
• make a pre-selection if necessary – the employer always makes the final decision, and
• advise foreign employees in matters related to migration and Finnish working life.

You can find free EURES services at the nearest TE Office.

An employee who is a non-EU country, Iceland, Norway, Liechtenstein or Switzerland citizen usually needs either an employee's residence permit or another residence permit entitling gainful employment. For help with these questions, please contact the work permit services.

EURES portal and events help with recruitment

European CV database

A great tool for recruitment is the EURES portal with its European vacancies and CV database. Employers can advertise open jobs and browse job seeker resumes in the portal.

Opening a job advertisement

Through the EURES specialists at the TE Office, it is possible for the employer to open a job advertisement directly on the job search pages of another member of the EURES network and expand recruitment outside Finland's borders. Please, contact your nearest EURES specialist to initiate recruitment.

Recruitment events

You can participate in recruitment events organized in Europe together with experts. You can also

• attend a job fair and interview jobseekers,
• leave a job posting with an expert who spreads it to suitable applicants, or
• participate in European Online Job Days online recruitment events.

Participation in fairs is usually free of charge. You pay for your own travel and accommodation.

Please, contact your local EURES specialist. We will help you find the best recruitment events for your company.

Recruiting with the help of Targeted Mobility Schemes

Through financial support, the Targeted Mobility Scheme facilitates the recruitment of experts from another EU country, Norway or Iceland. The project is coordinated by the Swedish Public Employment Service together with EURES members.

Through the project, a company can be granted financial support for the costs of induction training and adaptation to a new country. The amount of support granted to the employer is determined based on the extent of the induction provided to the jobseeker. For employers located in Finland, the subsidy is EUR 1,390-1,750 per employee recruited.

You can get financial support when the following conditions are met:

• The hired employee must be at least 18 years old and a permanent resident of the EU, Norway, or Iceland.
• You must offer the employee arriving in the country job orientation, help to settle in the locality, or language training.
• Your organization has no more than 250 employees and is legally established in an EU country, Norway, or Iceland.
• You enter into an employment contract with the recruit for at least six months, the salary and working conditions are in accordance with national labor legislation, and the employment contract applies to full-time or part-time work, but at least 50% of the full-time working time.
• The position has been publicly open for applications.

Please, note that to apply for support, you must contact your region's EURES specialist.

Jobseekers also can apply for support for work interview trips and settling in as well as for language courses and the costs of recognition of qualifications.   

Application forms

In the application forms, you will find more detailed instructions on what, e.g. the basic orientation or a more extensive orientation must include and which attachments are needed to apply for support. The support is employee-specific, meaning that if there are several employees to be hired, you can receive this amount for each employee. Please note that the project has the right to make changes to the grant amounts.

Please send the application form to BBi Communication Finland Ltd at eures@bbi.se or Allianssi Youth Exchanges at eures@alli.fi.

If proficiency in a language other than Finnish or Swedish is sufficient for the open position, you should create the job posting in English. Select English as the language of the job posting and write the job posting in English. Remember to also select English as the working language. Both the language of the job posting and the working language are selected at the beginning of the form. 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.

In general, the recommendations for job postings in Finnish also apply to English 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 tell 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.

Contact information for International Recruitment Advice Service for Employers

If you need help in creating a job posting for international recruitment, you can contact Work in Finland’s advice service for employers. The service is open from Monday to Friday between 9:00 and 15:00. Call +358 295 016 770 to use the telephone service or to request a call-back. You can also send an email to tyonantajaneuvonta@workinfinland.fi.

When is a residence permit for an employed person required?

A foreigner’s right to work in Finland is determined by one’s nationality.

EU citizens are allowed to work in Finland without a residence permit, as well as citizens of Norway, Iceland, Liechtenstein, and Switzerland. However, a stay of more than three months must be registered with Finnish Immigration Service.  Nordic citizens must register with the Digital and Population Data Services Agency. The applicant is responsible for registering their stay. A residence permit or visa issued by a Schengen country does not entitle the holder to work in Finland with the exception of work specifically appointed in Section 79 of the Aliens Act.

An employee who is a national of a country other than the ones mentioned above, or a so-called third-country national, usually requires a residence permit for an employed person or another type of residence permit allowing one to work in Finland. An employee must apply for a residence permit for an employed person when they do not have another type of residence permit entitling them to work in Finland, no other specific residence permit can be granted for the work, and the type of work cannot be performed without a valid residence permit.

The employer must ensure the right to work

The employer is obliged to ensure that a foreign worker has the right to work in Finland. The right to work can be checked from the residence permit card. If the employee does not have a valid residence permit, or if the employee's right to work is restricted to another line of work, the employer cannot employ them until an appropriate residence permit has been issued.

The Finnish Immigration Service provides information on the foreigners’ right to work and what kind of residence permit is needed for working or if work can be carried out without a residence permit.

Right to work with a residence permit for an employed person

If the application is the employee's first residence permit application or the application is in a different line of work than the residence permit previously granted to the employee, the employee cannot start work until the employee's residence permit has been issued.

The employee's residence permit is issued for a certain line of work specified on the card. If the name of the employer is mentioned on the residence permit card, the foreigner may only work for this employer.

The employee may continue working during the application process for the extended residence permit if the extended residence permit is applied for before the end of the previous permit and the work continues with the same employer or within the same line of work.

Employer’s obligation to report foreign labour

An employer who employs a non-EU citizen shall promptly provide the TE Office with an account of the key terms and conditions of the employment relationship. It is not necessary to provide such an account or assurance if the person recruited is an EU citizen or a family member treated as such.

The notification can be made electronically through the employer's Enter Finland service.

The notification can also be made by sending the TE Office a TEM055 attachment form and a copy of the employee's passport or residence permit card.

When you have stated the terms of employment in connection with the work-based residence permit application, you do not need to submit an employee report.

You also do not need to make an announcement if you have notified the working conditions in connection with the seasonal work residence permit application, seasonal work certificate, or seasonal work visa.

The employer must inform the shop steward and keep the information of the foreigner’s employment for two years after the end of the employment.

An employee who is not a citizen of an EU country, Iceland, Norway, Liechtenstein, or Switzerland usually needs either a residence permit for an employed person or another type of residence permit which entitles them to gainful employment.  Some tasks specified in the Aliens Act may be performed for a limited period of time with a visa or fully exempted from visa.

The residence permit for an employed person is issued in two stages. The TE Office makes a partial decision for the residence permit application for an employed person (TTOL) and the Finnish Immigration Service issues the final residence permit decision. The TE Office’s partial decision is based on an overall assessment, which includes assessing the availability of labour, the terms of the employment relationship, and both the employer’s and employee’s prerequisites. The employee’s income through gainful employment must also be secured.

The residence permit applications for employed persons (TTOL) are processed nationwide without regional jurisdictional boundaries. In the Åland Islands, the applications are processed by Ålands arbetsmarknads- and studieservicemyndighet (The Åland Labour Market and Student Service Authority).

Processing times

Employee residence permit applications are processed within a maximum of two months from the date the authority has received the properly completed application with its attachments. The TE Office first makes a partial decision, after which the Finnish Immigration Service makes the final decision on the application.

Work permit services will be transferred to the Finnish Immigration Service as of 1 January 2025

As of 1 January 2025, the Finnish Immigration Service is responsible for all matters related to residence permits for employed persons. The aim is to improve the customer experience and streamline the processing process. This change is part of the TE Services reform.

The decision-making on certain residence permit applications will be on pause from 1 to 8 January 2025. The processing pause concerns the residence permit for an employed person and the residence permits for seasonal work where the permit period is at least six months. The decision-making on first and extended permits will be on pause. The pause does not affect the submission of residence permit applications: Applications can be submitted normally through the online service Enter Finland even during the break.

More information

• TE Office’s work permit services will be transferred to the Finnish Immigration Service as of 1 January 2025 (toimistot.te-palvelut.fi)
• Pause in processing of work-based permits in January 2025 (migri.fi)
• Online service Enter Finland (enterfinland.fi)

However, as an employer, you must comply with the following principles.

• The right to supervise work only applies to working hours.
• Provisions that violate the law or good practice are prohibited.
• The employee's physical and professional capacity to perform the assigned task must be considered.
• Changes that significantly affect the position of the employee must be negotiated in accordance with the cooperation procedure.
• The employee's privacy must not be violated.

In addition, matters that restrict the right to supervise work may be agreed upon in the employment contract. For example, if working hours or tasks have not been recorded in the employment contract, you must provide a written report to the employee at the latest after the end of the first pay period.

Remember that as an employer, you cannot usually unilaterally change the terms and conditions of employment described in the employment contract, but they must be re-agreed with the employee.

The occupational safety and health website contains a detailed list of the employer's obligations laid down in legislation.