Residence Permit

Overview

Application Centre in Tokyo can receive applications from citizens of Japan, Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Palau or from applicants who are legally residing in these countries. All third country applicants must always proof their legal staying in Japan before their applications can be accepted.

Applicants who plan to stay in Finland for longer than 90 days within any 180-day period are required to have a residence permit. The right to work without a residence permit is restricted. You may have to apply for a residence permit in order to work in Finland even if your stay does not exceed 90 days. If you are an EU citizen or a citizen of Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway or Switzerland, you are not required to have a residence permit in Finland. Decisions for the residence permits are made by The Finnish Immigration Service, which is the competent authority in all residence permit matters in Finland. You are allowed to apply only first residence permit abroad. Extended residence permit needs to be applied while you are staying in Finland.

Who is eligible to submit a residence permit application?

The application must be submitted in the country in which the applicant resides legally.

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Residence Permit Categories

The applicable residence permit category needs to be chosen based on the reason for the applicant coming to Finland. For more information about residence permit categories please visit The Finnish Immigration Service.

Application Fees

*Applicant under 18 years-old is considered to be minor.

*Please note that the service fee is inclusive of VAT.

Please Note:

The applicable residence permit fees in Euro varies with the current exchange rate. It is subject to change without notice.

The applicants who will pay the service fees at the Residence Permit Application Centre should pay by debit or credit card.

The fees are non-refundable and non-transferable.

Application form

You have two options to apply for a residence permit

Option 1- Applying at Enter Finland e-service

Enter Finland is an e-service of The Finnish Immigration Service. You will get a user account created with your e-mail address at Enter Finland. The account is for personal use only. Keep your e-mail address and password safe so you can log into the service later. Choose the correct application form based on why you are coming to Finland (for example, work, studies or a family member in Finland).

Enter Finland will guide you through the process of filling in your application. Enter Finland will save your application automatically as you fill it in.

Pay with a credit card or the online bank credentials of a Finnish bank. If you have issues with paying, you may also pay in Application Centre.

Attach your supplementary documents at Enter Finland. Make sure you attach all the required documents. Print Certificate of a pending online case and your application form. You need to provide both these documents at the Application Centre.

When you have submitted your application at Enter Finland, you have to visit the Application Centre in order to prove your identity and to have your biometric identifiers taken. If you have applied at Enter Finland, you need to prove your identity within three months after submitting your application.

You cannot use the e-service to apply for:

• a residence permit on the grounds of Finnish origin
• a residence permit on other grounds
• a renewal of a residence permit card
• travel documents
• a Schengen visa
• asylum

Option 2 -Applying with paper application

Select the appropriate residence permit category on website of The Finnish Immigration Service

You will find the correct application form at the end of chosen residence permit category site. Print the application form.

Fill in the paper application form in Finnish, Swedish or English and prepare the required documents.

You must present the original, legalised (if required) documents and their translations during submission. Copies of those will be collected together with your application.

LEGALISATION

In order to obtain the intended legality in Finland for a document prepared and issued abroad by a foreign authority (excluding the Nordic countries), it must be legalised.

Legalisation of a document is a measure related to the customer's security right to ensure that the authority is entitled to issue such a certificate according to the laws of the particular country, and that it has been issued with correct content and is a valid document in the particular country.

Legalisation is done in two different ways, depending on whether that country is a signatory to the Hague Convention of 1961. In the countries joined to the Hague Convention the documents are legalised with the so-called Apostille certificate (stamp or paper certificate). Japan has joined the Hague Convention. Apostille certificates in Japan are issued by the Japanese Foreign Ministry.

If you need a Japanese official document for the Finnish authorities, the legalisation and translation process takes place as follows:

Apply for the document you need from the Japanese authority, such as an extract from the family register koseki tohon (if one of or both spouses are Japanese citizens) or a juri shomeisho (if both spouses are non-Japanese), after which you must apply Apostille for the document from the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Please find more specific instructions below concerning marriage and birth certificates.

The document must then be translated into English, Finnish or Swedish by an official translation firm, after which a notary public must authenticate the translation and, finally, apply for an Apostille application.

In practice, the customer retrieves the document and the first Apostille. The translation company may then be asked to translate, obtain notary legalisation and Apostille.

Translation Agencies in Japan who are able to manage the process in the right way.

Translations made by authorised translators in Finland are acceptable as such. Contact information for translators is available on The Finnish Association of Translators and Interpreters’ (SKTL)

Marriage certificate

• if one of or both spouses are Japanese citizens, you need to have Family register/koseki tohon (戸籍謄本)
• if both spouses are non-Japanese and marriage was contracted in Japan, you need to have certificate of marriage notification/Kon-in todoke juri shoumeisho (婚姻届け受理証明書)
• if the marriage was contracted outside Japan and both spouses are non-Japanese, you need to have residence register extract/Juminhyo (住民票) and also marriage certificate from the country where it was contracted

And you need to have also copies of both parties passports and Japanese residence cards (if non-Japanese).

Applicants from Nepal or Myanmar, please contact embassy for more spesific instructions. Basically marriage document needs to legalized by that country’s Foreign Minister and after that for Nepal citizen’s also legalized in the Embassy of Finland in Katmandu (Nepal) and after that for Myanmar citizen’s also legalized in the Embassy of Finland in Bangkok (Thailand).

Birth certificate

• if one of or both parents are Japanese citizens, you need to have Family register/koseki tohon (戸籍謄本)
• if both spouses are non-Japanese and child was born in Japan, you need to have certificate of the child's birth notification/Shussho todoke juri shoumeisho (出生届受理証明書)
• if the child was born outside of Japan and both parents are non-Japanese, you need to have birth certificate from the country where the child was born

And you need to have also copies of both parents passports and Japanese residence cards (if non-Japanese).

Applicants from Nepal or Myanmar, please contact embassy for more spesific instructions. Basically marriage document needs to legalized by that country’s Foreign Minister and after that for Nepal citizen’s also legalized in the Embassy of Finland in Katmandu (Nepal) and after that for Myanmar citizen’s also legalized in the Embassy of Finland in Bangkok (Thailand).

Photo Specifications

Please note: The technical requirements for the photo must meet the standards set by the police https://poliisi.fi/documents/25235045/31329600/Passport-photograph-instructions-by-the-police-2020-EN-fixed.pdf

DNA and Interview

The Finnish Immigration Service may offer the applicant and the sponsor the opportunity to take a DNA test if there are no other means of sufficiently establishing family ties based on biological relationship.

A residence permit applicant may have an invitation to an interview if there are no other means of establishing sufficient grounds for granting a residence permit. The interview may be held only by an official of the Finnish mission or The Finnish Immigration Service. For more information please view The Finnish Immigration Service.