Three-month/six-month unemployment rule to enter into force in June 2025

The reform will strengthen the link between work and work-based residence permits and make the monitoring of permits more systematic. The Government will also issue a decree on labour shortage sectors in June 2025. The holders of a residence permit for an employed person may look for new work in these sectors more flexibly than before.

The amendments will enter into force on 11 June 2025.

In future, an employee working in Finland with a work-based residence permit will have three months to find a new job if the employment relationship ends prematurely. If the holder of the permit does not find new work and there are no other grounds for staying in Finland, the permit will be cancelled.

The job seeking period will be six months instead of three months:

• for specialists (including EU Blue Card holders),
• 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.

It is already possible to cancel a residence permit when an employment relationship ends. However, there have been no regulations governing the time within which unemployment should lead to cancellation of a permit and no systematic monitoring has taken place.

More flexibility to seek work in labour shortage sectors

In future, the holder of a residence permit for an employed person could, under the same permit, switch to another sector that has been verified as a labour shortage sector throughout Finland. Until now, the holder of a residence permit for an employed person has been able to change employers within the same sector, but not switch to another sector without a new residence permit.

The government decree will be issued at the beginning of June and lay down provisions on national labour shortage sectors. Going forward, the Government will update the decree regularly in cooperation with the KEHA Centre and the ELY Centres so that the list of Finland’s labour shortage sectors will always correspond with the current situation.

Employer’s obligation to notify authorities to make monitoring more systematic

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

However, it will not be necessary to submit a notification about the end of casual or temporary work that an employee has carried out in addition to the employment relationship related to the residence permit.

Inquiries:
Teresa Salminen, Special Adviser to the Minister of Employment, tel. +358 295 047 318 (questions to the Minister of Employment)
Jarmo Tiukkanen, Senior Ministerial Adviser, Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment, tel. +358 295 047 355