Residence Permit

Overview

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. Applying is allowed to all Nigerian citizens, as well as citizens Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Central Africa, Chad, Republic of Congo (Brazzaville), Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Ivory Coast, Equatorial Guinea, Liberia, Mali, Niger, Sierra Leone, Sao Tome & Principe, Senegal and Togo and applicants legally residing in these countries.

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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.

*Completed in https://enterfinland.fi/eServices portal

**Kindly click here for further information

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

Methods of payment for residence permit fees:

If the applicant submits their residence permit application at the Finland Application Centre:

• Cash payment at the Finland Application Centre on the day of appointment. Residence permit Fee and service charge are paid at Bank Implant inside VFS Centre. Kindly carry the 1st page passport photocopy while paying the service fee and the residence permit fee at the bank.

If the applicant submits their residence permit application at the Embassy of Finland in Nigeria:

Service charge applicable when applying at the Finland Application Centre:

Please note that the service fee is inclusive of VAT

For information on documents Verification and Legalisation Please Click Here

Please Note:

• Applicable fees in NAIRA are subject to change without notice according to the current exchange rate.
• Fees at the Application Centre are paid in cash for all Foreigner and POS for Customers with Naira accounts. 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

Official certificates concerning family ties, such as birth and marriage certificates, must be legalised if they are not issued by Nordic authorities. If the documents are not in Finnish, Swedish or English, they must be accompanied by a translation into one of these languages by an authorised translator. Both the original documents and their translations must be legalised.

The Embassy of Finland can only legalise original documents which have first been legalised (authenticated) by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the country of origin of the document. Both the original document and the translation must be legalised and the fee will be charged for both documents.

For more information about legalisation process in Nigeria please view Embassy of Finland in Abuja

Legalisation of documents should be completed before application submission.

For information on Jurisdiction and how to apply for legalization, click here

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.