To date, 550 foreigners who have arrived to Finland mainly as asylum seekers, have voluntarily returned to their home countries in the Assisted Voluntary Return project organised by IOM Helsinki (International Organization for Migration) and the Finnish Immigration Service. The project, entitled ‘Developing Assisted Voluntary Return in Finland’, was launched at the beginning of 2010. Its purpose is to help people from outside the EU resident in Finland to return to their home countries voluntarily.

Read more:
Press release (27.1.2012)

Manufacturing of your residence permit card takes approximately one week

A favourable decision on a residence permit or asylum application cannot be delivered immediately after it is made, because the manufacturing and posting of a residence permit card takes approximately one week.

The cards are manufactured by a private company, and the Finnish Immigration Service has no influence over how soon the cards can be delivered. Please note that phone calls to the Finnish Immigration Service do not speed up the manufacturing of your card.

(20.1.2012)

Frequently asked questions on residence permit card

Finland introduced biometric residence permit cards at the beginning of 2012. They replaced the residence permit stickers for travel documents. You can find answers to general questions concerning cards at the Frequently asked questions section. There you can find information for example on what you have to do if you have a residence permit sticker in your passport and the passport is about to expire.

Frequently Asked Questions: The residence permit card (13.1.2012)