Start preparing your application immediately after receiving your acceptance letter. The entire process may take several weeks or even months. The application process is longer if you submit an incomplete application, so be sure to follow the instructions carefully.
- The Finnish Immigration Service has prepared customer instructions in English for students who have received a study place in Finland. Read these instructions carefully before you start the application. Check out also this instruction video and guide for students made by the Finnish Immigration Service.
- Submit your application for a residence permit online at Online Service of the Finnish Immigration Services.
- Apply for your residence permit abroad, not in Finland.
- Please note that if you are a Bachelor's or Master's level student, you must apply for a residence permit for study. If you are a doctoral student, you must apply for a residence permit for scientific research. If you are a Doctoral student in your home country but you will study only Master level courses in Helsinki, kindly contact studentexchange@helsinki.fi for further instructions.
- Visit a Finnish embassy/consulate in person for identification and fingerprinting. All Finnish embassies and consulates are listed on the website of Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Finland. If there is no Finnish diplomatic mission in your country, check on the finlandabroad.fi -website which embassy or consulate you need to contact.
- Your application will be processed only after you have personally visited a Finnish mission. It is very important that you will be able to attend the orientation period so book the appointment time as soon as possible.
Finnish Immigration Services processes all residence permit applications based on studying as urgent. To follow the progress of your application, log on to your electronic account. You can check the processing time of your application on this website. Remember that telephone or e-mail inquiries will not make the process faster.
If you need more information, please contact Finnish Immigration Services.
The D visa allows you to travel to Finland immediately after being issued with a residence permit
You can apply for a D visa at the same time as you apply for a residence permit. The D visa allows you to travel to Finland immediately after you have been issued with a residence permit and a D visa sticker has been attached to your passport. You should apply for a D visa only if you can travel to Finland within two weeks of being granted a residence permit, because you need to be able to collect your residence permit card from a collection point in Finland.
With a D visa, you can arrive in Finland during a time period of 100 days before the residence permit becomes valid. The validity period of your D visa needs to overlap with the validity period of your residence permit for at least one day.
Please note that if you apply for a residence permit long before your studies begin, it may not necessarily be possible to grant you a D visa together with the residence permit. In such cases, it is possible that your card is delivered to Finland but you are not necessarily able to collect it from the collection point in Finland. If this happens, someone else can pick up the card for you. You can see instructions on this on the Finnish Immigration Services website. Please note that the University staff is not able to pick up the card for you.
Read more about the D visa.