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Income requirement

The granting of a residence permit usually requires that the foreigner's income is secure. The objective of the income requirement is that foreigners living in Finland are able to support themselves economically by their own means.

A foreigner's income is considered to be secure if his stay in the country is funded by remunerated employment, private enterprise, pensions, own capital or other sources of available income. The level of income is calculated from the applicant's income after tax, i.e. net income. For the granting of a first residence permit, an extension of residence permit, EC residence permit and a permanent residence permit the applicant must provide clarification of his income.

Certain social benefits, such as child benefit, child care support, maintenance support, educational grants and housing subsidy can reduce the level of income demanded. Such benefits are described as expense offsetting social security benefits. Income support must not be the only source of livelihood of the applicant applying for a resident permit.

A secure income is not required when granting a residence permit to, for example,

• a native Finn and his or her family member
• Finnish family member, his or her underage unmarried child
• other close relative of a Finnish citizen
• a family member of a refugee or equivalent person, if the family has been formed before the sponsor arrived in Finland
• other close relative of a refugee or equivalent person

An exception may be made to the income requirement if there is a very pressing reason or if the interests of the child demand it.

If the applicant feels he or she should not be subject to the income requirement, the necessary reasons and clarifications should be attached to the residence permit application.

The below table gives a guide of the sums required for a secure income in Finland.

Person	€//month	€/year
1. adult	900	10 800
2. adult belonging to the same household	630	7 560
underage family member	450	5 400
student	500	6 000
student's adult family member	630	7 560
student's underage family member	450	5 400
au-pair	250

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