Permits and preparations for a move

Moving can be a long and complicated process, but it doesn’t always have to be. On this page we provide information about relevant paperwork, contact information, useful links and other practical things you may need to know when moving to Finland. All in one place to help you make Närpes your new hometown.

What kind of permit is needed?

This application guide will help you find the right information.

Application Finder

Moving to Finland checklist

When you move to Finland, you have to take care of many practical matters. The Moving to Finland checklist will help you with the most important issues surrounding the move. InfoFinland’s Moving to Finland checklist helps you find out and manage everything, one thing at a time. The Moving to Finland checklist is available in more than ten languages.

Go to InfoFinland’s Moving to Finland checklist

Integration services and Welcome Office in Närpes

So, what is it like to move to Närpes and become part of the community? Moving to a new location can be exciting. But you can stay cool! In Närpes we have a long experience within integration. Successful integration, according to many local residents, consists of a sense of togetherness and a wider society while maintaining one’s own culture and engaging in a trusting and mutual interaction between people and institutions.

Närpes has its own health and community communicator. The primary target group for communication services are labour migrants and service is offered in English, Swedish and Vietnamese. Närpes also has a Welcome Office providing statutory advice and guidance to immigrants. The staff at Närpes municipality working on integration issues, work on issues linked to immigration as a whole, regardless of what the reason for entry is. The purpose of the municipality’s integration services is that all immigrants are offered the possibility of participation in society.

Here you can read more about Welcome Office in Närpes

Quick guide for applying for a residence permit

Citizens from Nordic countries

If you are a citizen of a Nordic country other than Finland, no separate residence permit is needed in Finland. You have the right to work, run businesses and study in Finland.

Read more here

EU citizens

If you are a citizen of an EU country, Liechtenstein or Switzerland, you do not need a residence permit in Finland.

If you stay in Finland for over 3 months

Apply for registration of the right of residence of EU citizens with the Finnish Immigration Service (Migri).

If you stay in Finland for over a year

also register at your nearest service point for the Digital and Population Data Services Agency.

Read more here

Non-EU citizens

If you work, run a business or study, you need a residence permit.

The kind of residence permit you need depends e.g. on the industry you will be working in.

Read more here

Fast track

Using the fast track service, you can be granted a residence permit within two weeks.

You can apply for a residence permit through the fast track and get a decision within two weeks, if you are going to come to Finland to work.

Read more here