Residence permit for an entrepreneur
Residency route facts
Identity
| Official name (local) | Yrittäjän oleskelulupa as of 2026-08-20[3][8] Migri's Finnish page is headed 'Oleskelulupahakemus yrittäjälle' and its application form is titled 'Yrittäjän oleskelulupahakemus, OLE_YRI'; the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment names the instrument 'yrittäjän oleskelulupa'. The Finnish and English Migri pages are one page in two languages and are not counted as two sources (research-rules 6.1, R28-C2); the ministry release is the independent attestation of the name. |
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| Official name (English) | Residence permit for an entrepreneur as of 2026-08-20[2] |
| Legal basis | Ulkomaalaislaki 301/2004 (Aliens Act, consolidated to 22 December 2025), section 79, with the ELY Centre's partial decision in section 79 a as of 2026-08-22[9] Section 79 grants the entrepreneur's residence permit to a foreign national intending to conduct business in a leading position, on a positive partial decision by the Centre for Economic Development, Transport and the Environment. The provision states no capital or income figure, which is why none is published. Finnish text: “79 § Yrittäjän oleskelulupa. Ulkomaalaiselle, jonka tarkoituksena on johtavassa asemassa harjoittaa yritystoimintaa ja jonka hakemukseen elinkeino-, liikenne- ja ympäristökeskus on tehnyt myönteisen osapäätöksen, myönnetään hakemuksesta yrittäjän oleskelulupa.” |
| Instrument type | residence permit as of 2026-08-20[2][7] |
Who can apply
| Nationals not served by this route | EU, EEA, EFTA as of 2026-08-20[5][7] Migri states that citizens of an EU Member State, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway or Switzerland must register their right of residence rather than apply for a residence permit. Mapped to the eu, eea and efta bloc ids: the four named non-EU states are exactly the EEA/EFTA set, and the vocabulary has no separate id for Switzerland alone. |
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Permit terms
| Initial duration | Not established from a qualifying source Migri's entrepreneur page states no term. Its general residence-permit-types page says only that 'a first residence permit is usually granted for one year at the most' and that the term depends on the grounds – a hedged country-level default, not a route fact, so it is not recorded as this route's duration. |
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| Renewable | Yes as of 2026-08-20[2] Migri publishes an extended-permit application and an extended-permit fee for this route. |
| Renewal duration | up to 4 years as of 2026-08-20[7] Country-level rule rather than a route-specific one: Migri states that an extended permit can be issued for up to four years. Recorded here because the entrepreneur route has no published term of its own. |
| Work rights | full as of 2026-08-20[2] Migri: 'there are no limits on your right to work in Finland' on this permit, but the holder must earn their living primarily from the business, because the permit is issued for engaging in business activities. The cap is on where the income comes from, not on what work is permitted. |
Permanent residence and citizenship
| Counts toward permanent residence | Not established from a qualifying source |
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Requirements
| Business plan required | Yes as of 2026-08-20[2] A business plan and a two-year financial forecast are required attachments for a first permit, and again on extension if the business activities have changed. |
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| Endorsement required | No as of 2026-08-20[2][3] No third-party endorsement. The application is decided in two stages: the Economic Development Centre (Elinvoimakeskus, formerly the ELY Centre) issues a partial decision on whether the business is profitable and the applicant's means of support are secured by it, and Migri then decides the permit. That is an administrative pre-decision by a competent authority, not the startup-committee or accelerator vetting this field is defined against. |
| Innovation criterion | No as of 2026-08-20[1][2] Business Finland directs applicants whose business has no innovative competitive advantage – it names restaurants, consultancies, import and distribution businesses and other service businesses – and companies aimed solely at the Finnish market to this route rather than to the start-up permit. Migri sets no innovation condition on it. |
| Own means requirement | Recorded at the source, but not reducible to a single value as of 2026-08-20[2][6] |
Process
| Where to apply from | from abroad only as of 2026-08-20[2][5] A first residence permit for an entrepreneur must be submitted abroad; an extended permit can only be submitted in Finland. Migri's general first-permit page lists six situations in which a first permit may be applied for in Finland (family member of a Finnish citizen, child born in Finland, victim of human trafficking, victim of labour exploitation, discretionary humanitarian grounds, asylum or temporary protection); none of them is an entrepreneur case. |
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| Fees | |
| Stages |
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Physical presence
| none stated | to keep the permit as of 2026-08-20[2] Migri's route page states no residence or presence condition for keeping this permit. Recorded none_stated on that basis, not as a positive statement that absence is unlimited. Continuity of residence does bite later, at the permanent-residence and naturalisation stages, and those rules are recorded at country level; whether time on this permit counts toward them is unknown (see permit.leads_to_pr). |
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Family inclusion
| Family members may be included | Not established from a qualifying source |
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Your next step
Read the requirements above considering your own situation: the income multiple, the absence limits, who you can bring. Check the country record for the reference figure those amounts are calculated from, and for anything that has changed recently.
The next step is your own case. That assessment is legal work. Create profile for our assistance in this.
Profile benefits
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Verification
| Sources cited | 9 |
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| of which official (tier 1) | 9 |
| Oldest as-of date | 2026-08-20 |
| Newest as-of date | 2026-08-22 |
| Reviewed on | 2026-08-22 |
| Schema version | 1.1 |
Sources
- [1] Finnish Startup Permit
Business Finland · official portal · Tier 1 · Accessed 2026-08-20 - [2] Residence permit application for an entrepreneur
Finnish Immigration Service (Maahanmuuttovirasto, Migri) · official portal · Tier 1 · Accessed 2026-08-20 - [3] Oleskelulupahakemus yrittäjälle
Finnish Immigration Service (Maahanmuuttovirasto, Migri) · official portal · Tier 1 · Accessed 2026-08-20 - [4] Changes to Finnish Immigration Service processing fees as of 1 January 2026
Finnish Immigration Service (Maahanmuuttovirasto, Migri) · official portal · Tier 1 · Published 2025-12-31 · Accessed 2026-08-20 - [5] First residence permit
Finnish Immigration Service (Maahanmuuttovirasto, Migri) · official portal · Tier 1 · Accessed 2026-08-20 - [6] Income requirement for persons who apply for a residence permit on the basis of work
Finnish Immigration Service (Maahanmuuttovirasto, Migri) · official guidance · Tier 1 · Accessed 2026-08-20 - [7] Residence permit types
Finnish Immigration Service (Maahanmuuttovirasto, Migri) · official guidance · Tier 1 · Accessed 2026-08-20 - [8] Hallitus uudistaa kasvuyrittäjän oleskelulupaa (Government to reform residence permits for start-up entrepreneurs)
Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment of Finland (työ- ja elinkeinoministeriö) · official portal · Tier 1 · Published 2025-12-19 · Accessed 2026-08-20 - [9] Ulkomaalaislaki 301/2004 (Aliens Act, consolidated text)
Oikeusministeriö / Finlex · statute · Tier 1 · Published 2025-12-22 · Accessed 2026-08-22