When Ele­na Sor­munen, 45, moved to Oulu with just one suit­case, she left behind a suc­cess­ful career in Kyiv and start­ed every­thing from the begin­ning. Today, she works as a health cen­ter doc­tor.

Are you new in Oulu or plan­ning to move here? Inter­na­tion­al House Oulu’s Wel­come Office is here to sup­port you and make your life smoother in a new city. You can get help online or by book­ing an in-per­son appoint­ment. The ser­vice is free of charge.

The Lumo Light Fes­ti­val, organ­ised by the City of Oulu, will once again light up Oulu from Novem­ber 21 to 23. This year’s pro­gramme has an excep­tion­al­ly inter­na­tion­al flavour, with a total of 10 works cre­at­ed by artists from across Europe.

Meet Mako­to, a fam­i­ly man from Japan who now calls Oulu home. In this video, Mako­to shares his expe­ri­ence of relo­cat­ing to Oulu, talks about the sup­port avail­able, and how eas­i­ly his chil­dren were able to find school places in Oulu.

In just four months’ time, Oulu will be Euro­pean Cap­i­tal of Cul­ture! The Oulu2026 pro­gramme will place the North firm­ly at the cen­tre of Europe’s cul­tur­al map. Already over 1,000 events are list­ed in the offi­cial cal­en­dar, with fur­ther addi­tions to fol­low.

Mia Chen focus­es on chil­dren’s learn­ing appli­ca­tions in her master’s stud­ies, while Yomal Fer­nan­do spe­cialis­es in dis­ease pre­ven­tion. Oulu has made such a good impres­sion on them that they both hope to work in Fin­land in the future.