Finland to streamline residence permit for startup entrepreneurs

The government has taken an initiative to bring changes to streamline the residence permit process for startup entrepreneurs. The Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment prepared a draft proposal to bring amendments to the respective law in this regard and sent out for comments on Wednesday, said the ministry in a press release. The deadline for submitting comments is July 8, 2026. The proposal is scheduled to be submitted to the Parliament during the autumn session this year and the amendments would enter into force in early 2028. The government said that the aims are to prevent abuse of the system and allocate the resources of authorities to those applicants that genuinely plan to establish a growth company in Finland. Under the current rules, an applicant for a residence permit for a startup entrepreneur must obtain in advance a statement from Business Finland evaluating whether the startup company shows potential for international growth. A significant number of these statements have been negative, and have failed to result in a residence permit being granted or the applicant moving to Finland as a startup entrepreneur. Abuse has been suspected in some cases. According to the proposed change, there would no longer be a separate advance application for Business Finlands statement. The evaluation would be included in the residence permit application subject to a fee. The change is expected to prevent incomplete and low-quality applications and thereby save the resources of the authorities. At the same time, the conditions for granting a residence permit for a startup entrepreneur would be clarified and laid down in law. A foreign national applying for the first residence permit as an entrepreneur could apply for a Finnish business identity code after the permit has been granted. The present rules require the applicant to have a business ID already before submitting the application, even though the permit will not necessarily be granted. The ministry said that the changes are not expected to considerably impact Finlands ability to attract international startup entrepreneurs. Instead, the aim is to create a seamless residence permit process for applicants who genuinely plan to establish a company or a startup business in Finland.