From Refusal to Stability – 4-Year Residence Permit Card Granted!

Some cases are important not only because of the result, but because of what the case shows about how immigration matters are sometimes assessed.

Our client had received a negative decision from the Finnish Immigration Service. The residence permit extension based on employment was refused, and the decision also included removal from Finland. The reason was connected to the way the previous work and income had been assessed. The authority considered that the conditions of the previous permit had not been fulfilled as required, and that the income had not been secured in the correct legal form during the whole permit period.

The case was appealed to the Administrative Court, but the result remained negative. The court accepted the strict interpretation that the income received through light entrepreneurship could not be taken into account in the same way as salary from employment, even though the factual work had been performed for the same company and under circumstances that required a much deeper legal assessment.

Our position was that the case could not be assessed only from the surface. The real nature of the work had to be examined. When a person is working continuously for the same company, doing the same work, within the same business, and the arrangement is later corrected into a normal employment contract, the authority should not ignore the factual reality of the work merely because the earlier form was incorrect or misunderstood.

We therefore brought the matter before the Supreme Administrative Court through an application for leave to appeal and a request to prohibit enforcement. At the same time, a new residence permit application was submitted, because waiting passively while removal was approaching would not have protected the client’s position.

The legal issue was clear. The case concerned proportionality. Removing a person who has worked, paid taxes, and continued in a real employment relationship because of a rigid interpretation of an earlier work arrangement would have been an unreasonable result.

The outcome finally changed.

On 23 June 2026, the Finnish Immigration Service granted our client a continuous A-type residence permit based on employment, valid until 23 June 2030. The permit was granted for work in the restaurant and catering field, with the additional right to work in labour shortage sectors.

This decision gave our client four years of stability.

A case that had gone through a negative decision, removal, an unsuccessful Administrative Court stage, and the need to approach the Supreme Administrative Court ended with a positive residence permit decision.

For our client, the pressure is now over. They can continue working, continue contributing, and continue building their life in Finland with the stability that should have been recognised from the beginning.