Residence Permit

Overview

The application centres in New Zealand can receive applications from citizens of Australia, New Zealand, Fiji, Papua New Guinea, Nauru, Samoa, Tonga, Vanuatu and the Solomon Islands who are legally residing in these countries. As the Embassy of Finland is the only mission of Finland in the South Pacific region, application can also be received from citizens of the other South Pacific Island nations and those third-country nationals legally residing in these countries (excluding Marshall Islands, Mirconesia and Palau) . All third country applicants must always proof their legal staying in said country before their applications can be accepted.

Applicants from Marshall Islands, Mirconesia and Palau are to submit their applications at the Embassy of Finland in Japan. https://finlandabroad.fi/web/jpn/customer-service.

Applicants who plan to stay in Finland for longer than 90 days within any 180-day period are required to have a residence permit. You may have to apply for a residence permit in order to work in Finland even if your stay does not exceed 90 days. Decisions for the residence permits are made by The Finnish Immigration Service which is the competent authority in residence permit matters in Finland. The right to work without a residence permit is restricted.

If you are a citizen of an EU Member State, a Nordic country, Liechtenstein or Switzerland, you do not need a residence permit to stay in Finland. You must apply for EU registration if you plan to reside in Finland for a longer period than three months without interruption. If you are a family member of an EU citizen and an EU citizen yourself, you should also register your right of residence. If you are a family member of an EU citizen, but not an EU citizen yourself, you need to apply for a residence card for a family member of an EU citizen.

Please see more information on the webpage of Finnish Immigration Service https://migri.fi/en/eu-citizen.

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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 NZD 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 credit card or debit 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.

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.

Legalisation

In order to obtain the intended legality in Finland for a document prepared and issued abroad by a foreign authority (excluding the EU countries), 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 the 5th of October 1961 Abolishing the Requirement of Legalisation of Foreign Publc Documents. In the countries that have joined said Hague Convention, the documents are legalised with the so-called Apostille certificate (stamp or paper certificate). Above mentioned countries have joined the Hague Convention of the 5th of October 1961. Apostille certificates in each country are issued by the competent authority as outlined on the Hague Conference on Private International Law website at https://www.hcch.net/en/instruments/conventions/authorities1/?cid=41.

Australia, New Zealand, Fiji, Niue, Samoa, Tonga and Vanuatu are an Apostille country.

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

Documents issued by Apostille Countries:

Apply for the document you need from the appropriate authority, such as a certificate of marriage or birth. Apply for an Apostille for the original document from the competent authority of issuing country ( DFAT passport office for Australian documents).

If the document is not in Finnish, Swedish or English it must 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 another Apostille for the notorised document.

In practice, the customer retrieves the document and the first Apostille. The translation company may then be asked to translate, obtain notarisation for translated document and then apply for an Apostille.

In Australia, NAATI accredited translator’s translations are treated as notorised translations. As so, an Apostille can be attached directly to the translated document.

Translations made by authorised translators in Finland are acceptable as such. Contact information for authorised translators is available on Finnish National Agency for Education – Register of Authorised Translators https://akr.opintopolku.fi/akr/etusivu.

Note: Make sure the Apostille legalises the signatory of the original document and not just a Notary Public. If a notarised document has an Apostille, the copy of the original document must also have an Apostille.

Documents issued by Non-Apostille countries

A document issued by a country not party to, nor member or the above mentioned Apostille conventions requires a two step legalisation process.

1. The Ministry for Foreign Affairs of the issuing country certifies that the document is genuine and has been issued by its authority.
2. The competent Finnish mission accredited to the country legalises the document by appending to it a certificate proving the right of the official at the country’s ministry for foreign affairs to issue such certificates.

Documents issued by the Philippines

The Philippines has signed the Hague Convention on Apostille, but Finland has has objected to the accession of the Philippines to the Apostille Convention. This means that all documents have to be legalized at the Finnish Embassy in Manila, even though they have an apostille.

Documents issued by the Pakistan

Pakistani documents must be legalised at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Pakistan. After that they can be sent directly to the competent Finnish authorities, who will decide if they approve the documents or not.