Delay in processing residence permits termed unlawful

Deputy Chancellor of Justice Mikko Puumalainen on Wednesday strongly criticized the Finnish Immigration Services (Migri) for delay in processing residence permit application and termed taking more than one year for processing the applications unlawful.

The top justice official made the ruling on a complaint where Migri took 13 months to handle the application without allowing the applicant to inquire into the situation of the application, reported the national broadcaster Yle.

According to law, Migri is required to provide a decision on such applications within nine months.

Puumalainen also said rejected Migri cannot use a heavy workload or lack of resources as an excuse to avoid the legal obligation.

He also said that the Immigration Services is in problems for years to bring its services to the standard of legal requirement.

According to the complaint, the first action taken by Migri on the application was asking for further information from the applicant and the applicant’s spouse after one year. The application was submitted in July 2017.

The applicants did not get any response from Migri despite repeated queries in 2017 and 2018.