The Finnish Immigration has announced that the automatic post-decision monitoring of student residence permits has started on September 28, and it aims to check that students are still eligible for the residence permit granted to them.
In a press release, the Finnish Immigration Services pointed out that the validity of student residence permits that started on June 1, 2022, and that are granted for studies that lead to a degree, will have to be monitored post-decision.
The Finnish Immigration Services will track the studies status, when they started, have much they progressed, if the student’s right to study is still valid and other matters related to holders of student residence permits.
The post-decision monitoring is our statutory obligation but it also benefits Finnish society and our customers from the perspective of internal security. It enables us to detect labour abuse and human trafficking, for example.
According to a legislative amendment made in 2022, authorities enable residence permit holders for study purposes to have longevity for the entire duration of their studies. Prior to this amendment, the requirements were checked when a student applied for an extension of the residence permit.
The automatic post-decision monitoring is based on automatic register checks, and the Finnish authorities will be able to run register checks on different national registers. Automation will be applied to some of the processes of the post-decision monitoring but the decision to withdraw a residence permit will be made by an officiant the Finnish Immigration Service.
Automation enables periodic monitoring with better coverage, and ensures our officials can focus on the tasks that demand their full expertise.
Cases of automated post-decision that will be monitoring register checks need a closer review and will be referred to a Finnish Immigration Service official. The customer’s situation will be estimated and decided upon, based on specific cases. If there are grounds for considering the withdrawal of the residence permit, the customer will be
If a customer’s residence permit is withdrawn, the customer has 30 days from the date they receive the decision to request a review of the decision. Usually, the customer’s right to work continues applying, and they can reside in Finland until their request for review is processed.
The Finnish Immigration Service has carried out post-decision monitoring since 2017. The targets for post-decision monitoring are chosen by the agency every year.
