Asylum and international protection in Finland

You can apply for international protection if you have a well-founded fear of persecution because of origin, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion, or face a real risk of serious harm such as the death penalty, torture or danger from an armed conflict. Applications are made in person in Finland; there is no form to send in advance and no application by letter or e-mail. The land border between Finland and Russia is closed and asylum cannot currently be sought there.

Tell the police or the Border Guard as soon as you arrive. They usually register the application on the same visit. If you make the application at a Migri reception centre, detention unit or service point, you must register it with the police or Border Guard within five days, or it will not be processed.

Under the Pact the procedure has three steps before examination: making, registering and lodging the application. People who crossed the border without authorisation first go through screening of three to seven days by the Border Guard, Customs or the police, with identity, health and security checks and fingerprinting. In some cases a border procedure applies: Migri then examines the case in an accelerated procedure or as inadmissible, and you must stay at the assigned reception centre.

Migri checks your identity and travel route and holds an asylum interview, the most important step, where you explain why you left. An interpreter is provided, and a legal aid lawyer may attend. Migri also examines whether a residence permit on other grounds is possible. The legal time limits are six months for the normal procedure, three months for the accelerated procedure and twelve weeks for the border procedure.

Applicants are placed in a reception centre, where they can live during processing; living elsewhere is allowed at your own cost. The centre pays a small reception allowance for necessary expenses. Asylum seekers are not covered by Kela social security. Unaccompanied children get a representative and the right to schooling. Legal advice and assistance are available from the state legal aid offices.

The right to work starts three months after registration if you handed over a valid travel document verified as genuine, and after six months otherwise; no separate permit is needed. While the asylum application is pending you cannot obtain a work, study or business-based residence permit in Finland.

A positive decision gives refugee status or subsidiary protection and a residence permit. A negative decision can be appealed to an administrative court; in the normal procedure the appeal period is 30 days from service of the decision, and the decision becomes final if no appeal is made. Your right to work continues during the appeal period and, if you appeal, until the court’s decision is served. Since the 2026 changes an appeal against a removal decision not based on crime no longer automatically stops enforcement, which may take place 30 days after service.

EU responsibility rules decide which state examines a claim. If you applied for asylum or held a residence permit in another EU or Schengen state before coming to Finland, your application is usually not examined in Finland and you are transferred to that state. Finland also admits quota refugees selected abroad, usually with UNHCR, under an annual refugee quota.