August 10, 2017
The Fulbright Transatlantic Roundtable on Finnish residence permit process related challenges brought together representatives from the Ministry of Education and Culture, Ministry for Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment and Ministry of the Interior as well as from the University of Helsinki and the Finnish Immigration Service in addition to the Fulbright Finland Foundation representatives.
The Fulbright Finland Foundation called the roundtable together to discuss the Finnish residence permit application process and to come up with ideas and possible alternatives on how to make the process less cumbersome for international scholars, specialists and students. The Fulbright Finland Foundation has received feedback from several of the U.S. Fulbright scholars arriving to Finland on the difficulties related to the residence permit application (requirement to travel to one of the three Finnish missions in the U.S. for the fingerprints) and the high total cost of the application process.
The roundtable participants are currently working at their respective organizations on the follow-up action points agreed upon in the meeting to look for solutions to improve the situation. Any updates that become available and information on the further progress in the roundtable questions that become public will be posted on this website.
March 8, 2018
Consulate General of Finland, New York
According to the Consulate General of Finland, New York there will be altogeter six Finnish residence permit application centers in the U.S. by fall 2018. So far, there has been three application centers in the U.S. Finland is outsourcing the submission of Schengen visa applications and study or employment based residence permit applications in the United States. Application centres maintained by VFS Global will be opened in Washington, D.C, New York, Houston, Chicago and San Francisco in April and in Los Angeles in August 2018.
Please see the full announcement here.
