Seasonal work visa for Finland? Yes it is possible and your can work as a seasonal worker in Finland through a residence permit of 3, 6 months or 9 months. Finland is one of the most beautiful lands in Northern Europe surrounded by Sweden, Norway and Russia. Its capital ‘Helsinki’ is considered one of the best international city for tourism. Finland is country with low temperature (minus 20 is considered in most parts of the country as normal) and long winter season. In some parts of Finland for instance in Rovaniemi the summer has 2 months of complete days without nights and 2 months of winter with nights without days. The currency is Euro and total population is 5.5 million (2017). Seems interesting? Lets move ahead.
WHAT IS SEASONAL WORK?
Seasonal work means a type of work in agricultural and tourism sectors in certain time of the year. And if you want to come from abroad to do this work, you will be getting a maximum of nine months in the time of 12 months. You must apply for a seasonal work visa if you chose and get a job from one of following works (these sectors are according to Government of Finland 1 § and is issued by Minister of Labor Jari Lindström in effect from 01 Jan 2018):
Agricultural sectors includes:
- A 01 Crop and animal production and related service activities, except A 017 Hunting and related service activities
- A 02100 Forestry
The ‘tourism’ sector is:
- H 50102 Passenger transport by sea (coastal passenger water transport)
- H 50300 Inland waterway passenger transport
- I Accommodation and catering (accommodation and food service activities)
- N 79120 Activities of travel agencies (tour operator activities)
- N 79900 Reservation services, travel guide services, etc (tour guide services)
- R 90020 Activities of performing arts
- R 93210 Activities of amusement and theme parks
- R 93291 Ski and Ski Resort
- For some companies and employers if applicable: Guiding, cooking, waiting, cleaning and customer service etc.
* The alphabets such as R,N,H and I and digits such as 79120 are the jobs codes issued by Government of Finland, Minister of Labor.
TYPES OF SEASONAL WORKER VISA
You can have a seasonal job in Finland for no longer than nine months during a period of twelve months.
There are 3 types of seasonal work visas:
Less than 3 months
In this case if you are from outside of European Union, you should apply this visa in Finish Embassy. If you are from European Union then you can start working only by having a seasonal work certificate.
Work duration of 3 to 6 months
For this duration of work, you will have to apply for a proper ‘work permit’ from the Finish Immigration Service.
Work duration of 6 to 9 months
If your employer wants you to work with him for 6 to 9 months, then you will have to apply for a work permit to Finish Immigration Service and the visa application will be done in 2 phases: First the Employment and Economic Development Office issues a partial decision. Then the Finnish Immigration Service processes the application and decides on the permit. You do not need to do anything in this case as you will directly apply your work permit from Finish Immigration Service.
* In case you want to apply for longer than 9 months of work visa in for Finland, then you should apply for work visa for employed person (TTOL) with the visa from OLE_TY1. If you are applying for a residence permit for a period longer than six months, your employer must establish if there is available labour force in Finland or within the EU/EEA for the work in question.
RESIDENCE PERMIT FEES
Depending o the length of your residence permit and the mode of application, the visa fees is:
| Method | 3 to 6 months | 9 months |
| Electronic Application | Euro 350 | Euro 400 |
| Paper Application | Euro 550 | Euro 600 |
*Once your residence permit is expired the extension fees will be Euro 190 for either online or on paper application.
PROCESSING TIMES
Online submitted application take less time with an average of one month whereas on paper application can take up to 2 to 3 months. For extension of residence permit, the processing time reaches up to 3 months. These is just estimated duration, the processing can go longer.
WHO CAN APPLY?
In general, anyone can apply for this residence permit and there are no special requirements. Even the Finish Immigration Service states no specific language requirements or experience etc. One with even low qualification levels can also apply for this visa category. But still one must have entry-level of work experience in the required field. You must follow flowing conditions to apply for a residence permit:
- Your work is seasonal, takes place in a certain field, and lasts for 3–9 months. Jobs in forestry, crop production or at festivals are examples of seasonal work that requires a residence permit.
- You must have a job contract or a binding job offer by your employer in Finland. You must confirm from your employer before applying the residence permit. If you want to work with more than one employers, you will have to submit all work contracts.
- You must also have accommodation in Finland. In most cases the employers offer this but if they do not, then they can also help finding it somewhere near to your duty place.
RESIDENCE PERMIT EXTENSION
Good thing is that once your residence permit is going to expire, you can have it extended provided that you have contract of more work in Finland. You must submit the extension of your residence permit application well before time. This seems sometimes complicated and only is valid for the firs visa duration of 6 months. The Finish Immigration Service does not provide info if it is also possible after the expiry of nine months visa.
FAMILY SPONSORSHIP
You can not unfortunately bring your family with you while you are on this visa.
HOW MUCH YOU CAN EARN ON A SEASONAL WORK VISA
It all depends on your employer, job and city in which you are working. However the minimum salary for waiters and waitresses with under two years of experience in a place where alcohol over 5,5% is served is 11,31 per hour and for younger safari guides, with under three years of experience, minimum salary is 8,70 euros per hour. Same is also true for farm workers. This is just an estimate and it is surely more for most of the jobs. So please confirm from your employer before signing the contract. You are paid double if you work on Finish holidays and on Sundays. Time of work is 120 hours (program services) or 112,5 (hospitality industry) every three weeks, and it is averaged across the season. This may be different for you if you work in agricultural sector. You also get 2 days off during a week.
RESIDENCE PERMIT REQUIRED DOCUMENTS
- A valid passport with a validity of minimum 3 months after the expiry of your residence permit
- A passport sized photograph (see photo specimen here)
- Colored copies of passport data pages plus any other pages with entries and notes.
- In case you are not the national of the country you are staying in, proof of valid visa must be attached.
- Original job contract from your employer.
- Supplement form TY6_plus, filled in and signed by your employer.
- Salmonella certificate (if you are a restaurant worker or your duties include food preparation or packaging)
- If you are going to work with your employer for more than 6 months, you must also get these documents:
- Certificate of paid taxes or certificate of tax debts
- Certificates from an insurance company on the employer’s statutory insurance premiums regarding
- TyEL insurance; accident and group life insurance; and unemployment insurance
- Report on recruitment of labour force from the Finnish labour market and the labour market within the EU/EEA
- Any documents showing your work experience int he past
- Documents of qualification (optional)
- Language proficiency English or Finish (optional)
HOW TO APPLY FOR WORK PERMIT
There are two ways to apply for work permit for seasonal work:
On paper: If you do not have online access, then you can apply on paper by filling in seasonal work visa application form. You can download the form here. Once it is done filling, take it to your near Finish Embassy or Consulate with all above mentioned required documents. You will have to pay the visa fees there too.
Online through e-service Enter Finland: Applying online is easy. You can fill in your application online on this official portal and can attach your personal document which are mentioned above. You must have all of your documents in scanned form so that they could be attached online during application filling process. You can either pay the visa fees online through credit card or at the selected Finish Embassy. Once you have filled in visa application and have uploaded all the required attachments, you can visit the Finish Embassy in your country to prove your identity, with all above mentioned documents in original. Once it is all done, you will have to wait until you receive your visa to fly to Finland.
HOW TO FIND SEASONAL WORKERS JOBS IN FINLAND
There is no direct way to get a seasonal worker jobs in particular but you can do it in two ways. You can contact the related seasonal work companies, employers or sectors to apply directly for a job. Or choose an easy way to search it through third-party job searching portals below (click each link to open):
Government of Finland official job portal (only in Finish language)
IMPORTANT LINKS
LIST OF FINLAND EMBASSY AND CONSULATES ALL OVER THE WORLD
ONLINE VISA APPLICATION THROUGH E-SERVICE ENTER FINLAND
SEASONAL WORKER VISA FORM OLE_TY6
SEASONAL WORK CERTIFICATE (ONLY FOR EU CITIZENS)