Finnish Immigration Service achieved significant reforms and development in 2024

The Finnish Immigration Service’s key targets for 2024 included speeding up the average processing times of residence permit applications for employees and students as set out in the Government Programme, strengthening the security of the residence permit system, combating abuses by developing automated post-decision monitoring, and more efficient returns.

As in 2022 and 2023, the Finnish Immigration Service’s operating environment also remained unstable in 2024. The continuing war in Ukraine and prolonged threat of instrumentalized entry, which was controlled by closing the border, added to the uncertainties.

The Finnish Immigration Service reformed its organisation to enhance the efficiency of its work in the new operating environment and to support the achievement of the performance targets. Strengthening monitoring and security and streamlining permit processes were emphasised in the reform. The new organisation was introduced on 1 June 2024.

The Finnish Immigration Service’s work in 2024 was guided by the Government Programme and the targets set in the performance agreement. Streamlined processes for immigration based on work and studies, ensuring internal security, preventing abuses and effective returns were highlighted as key themes in the Finnish Immigration Service’s activities. At the same time, general government indebtedness and savings targets set for central government made it necessary to develop process management, increase efficiency, and make full use of digitalisation and automation.

“Last year, we succeeded in reforming our organisation, completing significant tendering processes, speeding up permit processing and enhancing efforts to prevent abuses of the residence permit system. The processing times of residence permits for work and studies in Finland are among the fastest in Europe. On average, students now receive a decision to grant a permit in 29, employees in 40, and specialists in 10 days,” says Johannes Hirvelä, Director of Development. 

In addition, the Finnish Immigration Service took a number of measures to prevent permit system abuses and improve security. 

“We extended our automated post-decision monitoring relating to residence permits for specialists and start-up entrepreneurs last year and prepared for the introduction of automation-assisted post-decision monitoring of all work-based permits. This will enable the authorities to intervene more effectively in labour exploitation. Cooperation with other authorities on preventing threats to internal security was also stepped up,” explains Hirvelä. 

The Finnish Immigration Service will continue to develop its activities in 2025. This year, key development targets include clearing the backlog of citizenship applications, shortening the processing times of asylum applications to six months, and increasing the efficiency of voluntary and forced returns in collaboration with the police. The poor state of general government finances in Finland will additionally necessitate significant improvements in productivity in the years to come, also at the Finnish Immigration Service. 

“The operating environment of immigration is currently uncertain and liable to experience rapid changes. By improving productivity, we will ensure that internal security risks are combated effectively and that permit procedures for immigration likely to improve general government finances also work smoothly with reduced resources. The productivity improvements required to achieve savings need to be achieved over the very short time span of no more than two years, which will be a major challenge for the Finnish Immigration Agency,” notes Hirvelä.

Further information for the media 

• Johannes Hirvelä, Director of Development, tel. +358 295 434 083, email: firstname.lastname@migri.fi
• Annual report of the Finnish Immigration Service 2024 (in Finnish)
• Operations and finances of the Finnish Immigration Service