The Aliens Act Amendment bill was approved on Thursday with the provisions for issuing residence permits to start-up entrepreneurs and extending the tenure of the first residence permit from one year to two years.

At the same time, the application process for an extended permit would be simplified, said an official press release.

The President of the Republic is to approve the bill on January 30 and the legislative amendments will enter into force on April 1, 2018.

The aim is to make it easier for entrepreneurs and experts to move to Finland and thereby to promote economic growth and employment. The amendments are scheduled to enter into force as soon as possible.

Residence permits would be issued by the Finnish Immigration Service, but an applicant should obtain a business assessment from the Finnish Funding Agency for Innovation (Tekes) before applying for a residence permit.

Finland has followed the example set by other countries such as Denmark in introducing the provision for issuing residence permits for start-up entrepreneurs. Several EU countries have introduced the system of issuing separate residence permits for growth entrepreneurs. Studies show it is not the residence permit-issuing system that attract entrepreneurs but good business opportunities.

Residence permits other than those for growth entrepreneurs would be changed so that in the future it would also be possible to issue residence permits to entrepreneurs operating on a limited liability basis. At present, the permits can only be issued to self-employed people who have full personal liability for their business activities, for example, self-employed people operating under a trade name.

At the same time, the current name ‘residence permit for a self-employed person’ would be changed to ‘residence permit for an entrepreneur’.

In the future, there would be two kinds of residence permits for entrepreneurs — residence permits for growth entrepreneurs and residence permits for entrepreneurs.

A first residence permit for a specialist could be issued for a period of two years instead of the current one year. This would also apply to their family members. The requirement for issuing the permit is that the employment relationship is continuous and valid for at least two years.

The residence permit process would be streamlined so that applicants would no longer be fingerprinted when applying for an extended permit. It would thus be possible to apply for an extended permit online without visiting the Finnish Immigration Service.