For the time being, applications for residence permits of employed persons are processed in two stages. First, the TE Office makes a partial decision based on overall consideration, and then the Finnish Immigration Service makes a final decision following other permit consideration. The partial decision concerns the availability of labour (labour market test) and the assessment of the terms of employment and employer’s qualifications.
The Ministerial Working Group on Promoting Employment has outlined that the task of making a partial decision would be transferred from TE Offices to the Finnish Immigration Service. As a result, the Finnish Immigration Service would be fully responsible for the tasks related to work permits after the reform.
Discontinuing the two-stage process would support the Government’s objective of speeding up the work permit procedure to a maximum processing time of 30 days on average. As part of the transfer of tasks, resources and expertise of TE Offices would also move to the Finnish Immigration Service.