Work-based residence permit to cancel after 3 months’ joblessness

The Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment has launched preparations for legislative amendments with the view to tightening the monitoring of work-based residence permits.

In future, persons with a work-based residence permit would have to leave Finland if the employment relationship ended and no new employment relationship was settled within three months, said the ministry in a press release on Friday.

The government is scheduled to send the proposal for public consultation in spring 2024 and to Parliament in autumn 2024. The amendments would enter into force in 2025 at the earliest.

“The work-based residence permits in Finland will increasingly be based on the right and obligation to work. At the same time, we must ensure that persons with a work-based residence permit receive better support for re-employment than now. For example, private employment services could play a stronger role in the future,” said Minister of Employment Arto Satonen.

Under the current legislation, a permit can be cancelled if the employment relationship ends, but there are no detailed regulations on the duration of unemployment. There is also no supervision system.

During the preparation, the Ministry will assess the scope of application of the three-month rule and its effects on the availability of labour.

Amendments will consider labour availability and improve supervision

Compliance with the three-month rule requires supervision. In accordance with the Government Programme, employers would be obligated to notify the Finnish Immigration Service that an employment relationship of a person with a work-based residence permit has ended. Failure to meet this obligation would be subject to sanctions.

In addition, the right to work of people with work-based residence permits would be expanded. Moving forward, people could work with the same permit in other jobs in the same sector and in sectors that can be genuinely identified as suffering from a labour shortage. The aim is to support the re-employment of immigrants and to promote the availability of labour.

Earlier on September 5, the right-wing four-party alliance government has started the initiative with the view to hike the income limit requirement from the existing 1331 euros to 1600 euros to get a Finnish residence permit on basis of employment.

The government took the moves amid protests across the country.

On August 25, several hundreds of people went on demonstrations in Helsinki in protest at the move of the four-party alliance right wing government of tightening the immigration policy.

Separate demonstrations were also held in Helsinki on June 27 and June 18 protesting against the immigration policy taken by the government.

Rector of the University of Helsinki Sari Lindblom and Aalto University President Ilkka Niemelä strongly opposed the tightening immigration policy announced by the four-party alliance government.

Earlier on June 16, leaders of the four parties announced the programme, which included tougher immigration, residence and citizenship laws.

According to the programme, Finland’s annual refugee quota will be reduced to 500 people from the existing 1,050.

The government will amend the requirements to obtain a permanent residence permit and citizenship in future and it will be possible to obtain a permanent residence permit based on six years of residence subject to certain requirements in addition to the current requirements.

The additional requirements are sufficient language skills demonstrated in a language test, a two-year work history without recourse to unemployment security or social assistance other than for a very short period, and a stricter integrity requirement.

Rejected asylum applicants will be prevented from switching to a work-related immigration procedure. It will be possible to remove a person refused asylum from the country even if they have obtained a job during the asylum process.

The income limit for a residence permit for an employed person will be raised to sector-specific minimums of the collective agreement, but to no less than 1,600 euros a month from the existing 1331 euros.

Three other components of the alliance government are radical rightist Perussuomalaiset (Finns Party), Suomenruotsalainenkansanpuolue (Swedish People’s Party of Finland-RKP) and SuomenKristillisdemokraatit (Christian Democrats of Finland-CD).