Residence permit for voluntary work
Residency route facts
Identity
| Official name (local) | Oleskelulupahakemus vapaaehtoistoimintaan as of 2026-08-22[6] Heading of the Finnish-language edition of this route's own page on migri.fi, transcribed as published. Migri's Finnish headings are application-form titles rather than permit names; this field carries the statutory permit name where an act supplies one, and the authority's published heading where it does not. |
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| Official name (English) | Residence permit for voluntary work as of 2026-08-21[6][7] |
| Legal basis | Laki kolmansien maiden kansalaisten maahantulon ja oleskelun edellytyksistä tutkimuksen, opiskelun, työharjoittelun ja vapaaehtoistoiminnan perusteella 719/2018 (consolidated to 22 December 2025), section 9 as of 2026-08-22[1] Section 9 is the voluntary-work permit and sets a one-year ceiling on it. The section number comes from a reading of the consolidated act; the operative wording is not reproduced here. |
| Instrument type | residence permit as of 2026-08-21[5][7] |
Who can apply
| Nationals not served by this route | EU, EEA, EFTA as of 2026-08-21[2][5] 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 | up to 1 year as of 2026-08-21[6] Issued as a temporary residence permit for a maximum of one year. |
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| Maximum total duration | up to 1 year as of 2026-08-21[6] |
| Work rights | own activity only as of 2026-08-21[6] The right to do the voluntary work; Migri states in terms that the permit gives no right to do other work, and that the voluntary work cannot start before the permit is granted. |
Permanent residence and citizenship
| Counts toward permanent residence | Not established from a qualifying source |
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Requirements
| Job offer required | Yes as of 2026-08-21[6] A place on an organisation's volunteer programme – the European Solidarity Corps, or an NGO exchange programme such as Maailmanvaihto ry – ICYE Finland or AIESEC – evidenced by a signed agreement describing the scheme, its duration, location and supervision. A holder of EU long-term resident status in another Member State, and a person coming as a paid trainee on an intra-corporate transfer, are both excluded. |
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| Labour-market test | No as of 2026-08-21[4] Migri's labour market test page carries an exhaustive list of the permits to which labour market testing applies – the residence permit for an employed person, and the residence permit for seasonal work where the work lasts 6-9 months. This route is not on it. Recorded false on that enumeration, not on this route page's silence. |
| Own means requirement | Recorded at the source, but not reducible to a single value[3][6] |
| Job-search route | No as of 2026-08-21[6] |
Process
| Where to apply from | either as of 2026-08-21[6] Migri's page contemplates proving identity either at a Finnish mission abroad or at a Migri service point in Finland, and asks for form MP_1 from an applicant already in Finland. |
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Physical presence
| none stated | to keep the permit as of 2026-08-21[6] 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 bites later, at the permanent-residence and naturalisation stages, which are recorded at country level. |
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Family inclusion
| Family members may be included | Not established from a qualifying source Not established; Migri's page says nothing about family members. |
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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 | 7 |
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| of which official (tier 1) | 7 |
| Oldest as-of date | 2026-08-21 |
| Newest as-of date | 2026-08-22 |
| Reviewed on | 2026-08-22 |
| Schema version | 1.1 |
Sources
- [1] Laki kolmansien maiden kansalaisten maahantulon ja oleskelun edellytyksistä tutkimuksen, opiskelun, työharjoittelun ja vapaaehtoistoiminnan perusteella 719/2018 (consolidated text)
Oikeusministeriö / Finlex · statute · Tier 1 · Published 2025-12-22 · Accessed 2026-08-22 - [2] First residence permit
Finnish Immigration Service (Maahanmuuttovirasto, Migri) · official portal · Tier 1 · Accessed 2026-08-20 - [3] 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 - [4] Labour market test
Finnish Immigration Service (Maahanmuuttovirasto) · official guidance · Tier 1 · Accessed 2026-08-21 · Archived copy - [5] Residence permit types
Finnish Immigration Service (Maahanmuuttovirasto, Migri) · official guidance · Tier 1 · Accessed 2026-08-20 - [6] Residence permit application for voluntary work
Finnish Immigration Service (Maahanmuuttovirasto) · official portal · Tier 1 · Accessed 2026-08-21 - [7] Residence permits on the basis of work
Finnish Immigration Service (Maahanmuuttovirasto) · official portal · Tier 1 · Accessed 2026-08-21