Seasonal work in Finland: certificate, visa or residence permit, and the employer's part

The permit form for seasonal work follows the length of the work and the worker's nationality. The Finnish Immigration Service (Migri) states at migri.fi/en/seasonal-work (2026) that work under three months needs a seasonal work visa or a seasonal work certificate, and work of 3 to 9 months needs a seasonal work residence permit. The cap is nine months in any 12 month period.

Three permit forms, and who issues them

Under the Seasonal Work Act 907/2017 and Migri's guidance, seasonal work means duties tied to a season in agriculture, forestry and tourism. Berry picking, greenhouse work, nursery work and a ski resort season are the standard examples. The sector decides whether the work falls within the seasonal system at all; construction and manufacturing do not, even where the contract is fixed term.

The form is set where two variables meet.

Three forms also mean two authorities. The seasonal work visa is issued by the Finnish mission in the origin country, on that mission's own appointment queue. The certificate and the residence permit are issued by Migri. For an employer recruiting under three months from Nepal or the Philippines, the calendar is therefore held by the mission, not by Migri.

Availability consideration and what the employer files

Migri (migri.fi/en/seasonal-work, 2026) applies availability consideration, that is labour market testing, to seasonal work of 6 to 9 months. Shorter periods are not tested. The threshold matters in planning: an eight month season requires the labour authority to assess whether workers are available from the Finnish or wider EU and EEA labour market, while a five month season does not. The same two stage structure is described in the employed person permit and availability consideration.

The employer files the same core material as in any work based application: the contract or a binding offer, pay and working hours, the applicable collective agreement and an account of accommodation. In seasonal work accommodation is supervised as a separate item, because the work is often rural and the employer arranges housing. The price and standard of the accommodation are assessed as part of the application, and rent may not be charged in a way that pushes net pay below the agreed level.

Fees follow the permit form. The certificate, the visa and the seasonal residence permit each carry their own application fee, and the current figure should be read from Migri's price list, or the mission's, on the day of filing. An electronic application is cheaper than a paper one, and the fee is charged on a negative decision too. For a crew of thirty, the fee is thirty times the unit price, and one wrong permit form multiplies at the same rate.

An employer may file several applications at once. Migri states that it aims to process one employer's applications at the same time, which in seasonal work matters more than the speed of any single file: a crew of 30 pickers is of little use if 6 of them arrive three weeks after the rest.

The annual clock that decides the season

One point in the seasonal calendar costs more than any other. Migri's guidance states that applications filed after the middle of August remain in a queue that clears only into the following March peak. An employer preparing spring season applications in the autumn, after the harvest, is therefore already late even though the season starts in May. Applications belong in early summer of the preceding year, or immediately after the March opening.

Where that queue stands is published rather than left to guesswork. Migri states at migri.fi/en/seasonal-work that during the high season, which begins in March, the processing situation for seasonal work applications is updated every Tuesday. From March onwards that page is worth reading weekly, because it is the only public figure on the season that actually moves while the crew is being assembled.

The second recurring error is counting the nine month cap by calendar year. The Seasonal Work Act 907/2017 and Migri's guidance count the maximum within any 12 month period, not within a calendar year. A worker who did the previous season from August to December cannot do a full season from April to September, because the rolling 12 month window fills mid season. This is usually noticed only once the worker is in Finland and the contract has been signed to the end of the season. The cap is counted per worker, so it belongs in the plan before the crew is assembled: one picking crew routinely mixes first time arrivals, whose window is untouched, with returners who have already spent part of theirs.

The third point concerns changing the permit form mid season. A worker who arrived on a visa or certificate for under three months cannot continue simply by extending the contract. Continuation requires a seasonal work residence permit, which is a separate application with its own processing time. Where the length of the season is uncertain, the longer form from the start is cheaper than two applications in sequence.

Seasonal work is its own system, and certified employer status does not change its tiers; the effect of certification is limited to Migri's own processing and is described in the certified employer route in Finland. At EU level, seasonal work sits outside the single permit directive in a directive of its own, and the structural difference is set out in the single permit directive explained.

Three numbers decide a seasonal plan: the length of the season in months, the worker's seasonal days in the preceding 12 months, and the filing date relative to the middle of August. With those settled before contracts are signed, the permit form selects itself.