Government sends proposal on the three-month/six-month unemployment rule to Parliament

The Government is seeking to strengthen the link between work and work-based residence permits, and to make permit supervision after the entry into Finland more systematic. The proposal takes the long recruitment times of specialists into consideration. At the same time, the proposal would offer foreigners more opportunities to find new work in the national labour shortage sectors. 

The Government submitted its proposal on amendments to the Aliens Act to Parliament on 17 October 2024.

The Government proposes that an employee with a work-based residence permit would have three months to find a new job if their employment in Finland ended prematurely. If the holder of the permit does not find new work and there are no other grounds for staying in Finland, the person should leave the country.

The jobseeking period would be six months instead of three months: 

• for specialists (including the EU Blue card),
• for all those who have lived in Finland for longer than two years with a work-based residence permit,
• for those in the middle or top management of a company, and
• for seconded specialists and managers moving within a company.

“The rule would bring security to employees, as the protection period for jobseeking would be laid down in law. The regulation is in line with the other Nordic countries, and a protection period of at least three months in the event of unemployment will be introduced in all EU Member States in the next few years,” says Minister of Employment Arto Satonen.

The unemployment rule would apply to work-based residence permits and not, for example, permanent residence permits, family permits, EU citizens, international students or researchers.

Once the residence permit expires and there are no new grounds for staying in Finland, the holder of the permit would have to leave the country, as before. In other words, the protection period would not give the holder additional time to stay in Finland beyond the period for which the residence permit is valid.

Systematic follow-up monitoring is part of responsible policy

It is already possible to cancel a residence permit when an employment relationship ends. However, there are no regulations governing the time within which unemployment should lead to cancellation of a permit and there also is no systematic monitoring in place. Since April 2023 the Finnish Immigration Service has already applied a practice whereby a residence permit cancellation is not initiated within a three-month protection period.

“There will be comprehensive and automated follow-up monitoring. The rules for continuing to stay in Finland will be clear to everybody,” Satonen adds.

In future, employers would be required to notify the Finnish Immigration Service if the employment relationship of a person residing in Finland with a work-based residence permit ended prematurely. The employer should submit the notification within 14 days of the end of the work. The simplest and quickest way of submitting the notification is by using the e-service of Enter Finland.

Proposal offers more flexible jobseeking opportunities  

The Government proposes amendments to the residence permit for an employed person. The goal is to promote the availability of labour in sectors suffering from labour shortage and to increase the chances of re-employment. 

A person with a residence permit for an employed person in Finland may currently change employers within the same sector but may not switch to another sector. The proposal would allow the employee to switch to another sector that has been verified as a labour shortage sector throughout Finland under the same permit. It would still be necessary to apply for a new residence permit for work in sectors other than these.

Labour shortage sectors would be prescribed annually by government decree in summer 2025. Extending the right to work would only apply to a residence permit for an employed person, because such a permit is always granted only for a certain professional field. In contrast, the protection period of unemployment and other parts of the proposal would apply to all work-based residence permits. 

Changes would enter into force in April 2025

The amendments would enter into force on 1 April 2025. Based on the comments received and the statement of the Finnish Council of Regulatory Impact Analysis, some changes that clarify the proposal and specify the impact analysis have been made to it. 

The proposal implements some entries of the Government Programme and certain amendments required by the revision of the EU’s Single Permit Directive.

Inquiries: 
Veera Svahn, Special Adviser to the Minister of Employment, tel. +358 295 047 321 (questions to the Minister of Employment) 
Jarmo Tiukkanen, Senior Ministerial Adviser, Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment, tel. +358 295 047 355 (not available 18.10.)
Katri Niskanen, Senior Ministerial Adviser, Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment, tel. 
+358 295 047 373 (available 18.10.)