For future Oulu cit­i­zens

Mov­ing abroad and build­ing a new life is an excit­ing, life-chang­ing expe­ri­ence. But deal­ing with a dif­fer­ent coun­try can be chal­leng­ing. Where should I begin?

Nordic cit­i­zen:

If you are a cit­i­zen of a Nordic coun­try (Den­mark, Ice­land, Nor­way or Swe­den) and migrate to Fin­land, you do not need to apply for a res­i­dence visa or pro­vide any jus­ti­fi­ca­tion for your stay. In Fin­land, you have the same employ­ment, busi­ness, and edu­ca­tion­al oppor­tu­ni­ties as Finnish nation­als.

If you intend to stay in Fin­land for more than six months, please reg­is­ter at a ser­vice loca­tion of the Dig­i­tal and Pop­u­la­tion Data Ser­vices Agency.

EU/EEA cit­i­zen:

If you plan to stay in Fin­land for less than three months, EU cit­i­zens have the same rights as Finnish cit­i­zens to work, study, and start a busi­ness. The same is true for Swiss and Liecht­en­stein res­i­dents.

If you intend to stay in Fin­land for more than three months, you must apply to the Finnish Immi­gra­tion Ser­vice (Maa­han­muut­tovi­ras­to) for the reg­is­tra­tion of an EU cit­i­zen’s right of res­i­dence, and you must have a job, a run­ning busi­ness, a study place, long-term fam­i­ly ties, or suf­fi­cient resources. The appli­ca­tion must be sub­mit­ted no lat­er than three months after the date of arrival.

If you plan on mov­ing to Fin­land for at least a year and want to live as a munic­i­pal­i­ty res­i­dent, you must noti­fy the Dig­i­tal and Pop­u­la­tion Data Ser­vices Agency (Digi- ja väestöti­etovi­ras­to). In Fin­land, if you have a munic­i­pal­i­ty of res­i­dence (kotikun­ta), you are usu­al­ly enti­tled to use its ser­vices.

No-EU cit­i­zen:

If you intend to stay in Fin­land for less than 90 days, you must apply for a visa, which is an entry per­mit for a short, tem­po­rary vis­it of less than 90 days, unless you are a cit­i­zen of a visa-exempt coun­try. Please vis­it the for­eign ministry’s web­site to get more infor­ma­tion.

If you intend to stay in Fin­land for more than 90 days, you must first apply to the Finnish Immi­gra­tion Ser­vice for a res­i­dence per­mit. The type of res­i­dence per­mit you require is deter­mined by your rea­son for mov­ing to Fin­land. You must apply on your behalf for a res­i­dence per­mit. If you are already in Fin­land, you must vis­it the Finnish Immi­gra­tion Ser­vice with­in three months of sub­mit­ting your appli­ca­tion for a res­i­dence per­mit. If you are not yet a res­i­dent of Fin­land, you can apply for one online at EnterFinland.fi. How­ev­er, you must vis­it a Finnish embassy or con­sulate in per­son with­in three months of sub­mit­ting your appli­ca­tion to con­firm your iden­ti­ty and present orig­i­nal copies of your appli­ca­tion appen­dices.

Once you have been grant­ed a res­i­dence per­mit by the Finnish Immi­gra­tion Ser­vice and have relo­cat­ed to Finland/Oulu, you must reg­is­ter your munic­i­pal­i­ty of res­i­dence in the pop­u­la­tion reg­is­ter to use munic­i­pal ser­vices. Please vis­it the Dig­i­tal and pop­u­la­tion data ser­vices agency’s web­site to get more infor­ma­tion about the reg­is­tra­tion for for­eign­ers.