Residence permit in Finland on the basis of family ties

What Migri actually decides

A family-ties permit is not granted because a marriage certificate exists. Migri decides a set of separate questions, and the application fails on the weakest one.

• Is the applicant a family member under the Aliens Act? A spouse, a registered partner, a cohabiting partner who has lived with the sponsor for at least two years or has a child in joint custody with them, a child under 18, or the guardian of a minor in Finland.
• Is the family life genuine, and is the purpose of the application family life rather than entry? Migri assesses this, and a marriage entered into to obtain a permit is a refusal ground.
• Does the age rule apply? For spouse and partner applications filed on or after 16 June 2025, both spouses must generally be at least 21 when the permit becomes valid. A Finnish-citizen sponsor is exempt from the sponsor-side age requirement, but the applicant spouse must still be 21.
• Does an income requirement apply to this exact route, and is the household threshold met from income Migri accepts?
• What is the sponsor's status? For beneficiaries of international protection, a two-year residence requirement can apply to certain family reunifications, subject to statutory exceptions.
• Are identity and civil status reliably established, with documents in the form Finland accepts?
• Is there a ground for refusal: incorrect information, a circumvention of entry rules, or a public-order consideration?

The figures that decide it

Where an income requirement applies, Migri calculates it from net household income — income after tax and mandatory pension and insurance contributions — using the municipality group and the family composition. The amounts below have applied since 1 November 2024 and are the ones in use in 2026.

• Helsinki metropolitan area (Espoo, Helsinki, Kauniainen, Vantaa): first adult EUR 1,210 net per month, second adult EUR 610, first child EUR 610, second child EUR 480, third and each later child EUR 360.
• Other large municipalities: first adult EUR 1,090, second adult EUR 550, first child EUR 550, second child EUR 430, third and each later child EUR 320.
• Other municipalities: first adult EUR 1,030, second adult EUR 520, first child EUR 520, second child EUR 410, third and each later child EUR 310.
• Worked example, Espoo: two adults need EUR 1,820 net per month. Two adults and one child need EUR 2,430. Two adults and two children need EUR 2,910.
• Income cannot be based on social assistance, labour market subsidy, basic unemployment allowance or the general social security benefit. Child benefit, child care allowance, child maintenance allowance, study grant and housing allowance are treated differently and can reduce the amount required.
• Age rule: 21 when the permit becomes valid, for applications filed on or after 16 June 2025. The application can normally be filed at the earliest nine months before the applicant turns 21, or three months before for a family member of a student.
• Cohabiting partners: at least two years of shared life, unless there is a child in joint custody or another sufficiently serious reason.
• Statutory maximum processing time: 9 months for most family-ties applications, 3 months for a family member of a student or researcher, and 2 months for a family member of an EU Blue Card holder.
• Migri processing fee: first permit EUR 750 online and EUR 800 on paper for an adult applicant, EUR 400 online and EUR 430 on paper for a minor applicant; extended permit EUR 230 online and EUR 430 on paper.
• Migri can deviate from the required sums case by case where the income is slightly below the threshold and there are exceptionally weighty reasons, or where a derogation is in the best interest of a child. This is an exception, not a plan.

The evidence, and what is most often missing or wrong

The document list is public. The reasons family files fail are not, because the authority sees the refusal ground rather than the mistake that produced it. These are the ones we see most.

• Income shown gross, when the requirement is net. A gross salary that looks comfortable can fall short once tax and pension contributions are deducted.
• Income made up partly of a benefit that cannot form the basis of the requirement, so the household falls below the threshold when Migri removes it.
• A marriage or birth certificate that is not legalised or apostilled for use in Finland, or a translation that is not accepted. This is the single most common reason a family file sits at the request-for-further-information stage.
• A name spelled differently across the passport, the marriage certificate and the birth certificate, with no document explaining the difference.
• Cohabitation evidence that is a folder of photographs and messages, with nothing showing a shared address over two years — no lease, no registration, no bills.
• Custody or guardianship documents for a child that do not show the consent of the other parent, where consent is required.
• A wrong municipality used for the threshold: the calculation follows where the family will actually live, not where the sponsor lived when the job started.
• The 21-year rule discovered late, after documents have been paid for, when the application could simply have been filed at the right time.

The order of steps, and where each one happens

• 1. Establish the sponsor's status and the exact family relationship, and confirm whether an income requirement applies. Nothing else is worth doing before this.
• 2. Calculate the household threshold for the municipality the family will live in, and check the sponsor's net income against it.
• 3. Collect and legalise the civil-status documents. This step takes the longest and is outside anyone's control in Finland, so it starts first.
• 4. The family member files the application in Enter Finland — a first family permit is generally filed from abroad — and pays the fee there.
• 5. The applicant proves their identity at a Finnish mission or an external service provider. The processing time is counted from when identity has been proved.
• 6. The sponsor supplies income and relationship evidence in Finland. Migri can interview the sponsor and the applicant separately.
• 7. Decision. A D visa can be requested with an eligible first application, so travel need not wait for the card.
• 8. After arrival: DVV for the personal identity code and municipality of residence, then Vero for a tax card if the family member will work, then Kela, then school or daycare places, then the bank. A family-ties permit generally carries an unrestricted right to work once it is granted.

How long it takes

The Aliens Act sets a maximum of nine months for most family-ties applications, three months for a family member of a student or researcher and two months for a family member of an EU Blue Card holder. Migri also publishes current estimates and states that where processing has not begun within the shorter published estimate, the longer estimate applies to that case. The clock starts when identity has been proved, not when the fee is paid. ENB does not promise a decision date.

• Makes a case slower: documents that have to be legalised after filing, an income calculation Migri has to rebuild, an interview that has to be arranged, or a request for further information answered late.
• Makes a case slower and is often overlooked: a sponsor whose own permit is up for extension at the same time, and a household that changes size while the application is pending.

What goes wrong

• Net household income is below the applicable threshold, or is made up of income Migri does not accept.
• Migri is not satisfied that the family life is genuine, or considers the purpose of the application to be entry rather than family life.
• The age-21 rule was not met when the permit would have become valid.
• Civil-status documents are unlegalised, inconsistent or untranslated.
• The two-year cohabitation requirement is not evidenced, and no exception applies.
• A protection-family application runs into the two-year sponsor-residence requirement.
• Information given in the application turns out to be incorrect, which is a refusal ground in its own right.

If the decision is negative

A refusal is appealable. The binding appeal period and the competent Administrative Court are stated in the appeal instructions attached to the decision. The period runs from service of the decision — the day it is deemed to reach you — and under the Act on Judicial Procedure in Administrative Matters the general period is 30 days from service. Once it has passed it cannot be extended, and the decision is final.

The court fee is EUR 310 at an Administrative Court and EUR 610 at the Supreme Administrative Court, as set for 2025–2027, with no fee where the court changes the decision in the appellant's favour. Reaching the Supreme Administrative Court requires leave to appeal, which is not granted in every case. Where an appeal succeeds, the matter returns to Migri for reprocessing rather than the court granting the permit.

Because a first family permit is generally filed from abroad, a refusal usually does not interrupt a right to stay in Finland. Where the applicant is in Finland and the refusal comes with a removal decision, the right to stay and work turns on the decision text and on whether a court prohibits enforcement — read the appeal instructions the day the decision arrives.

A fresh application is not an appeal, and filing one does not reopen the old decision. If income was the refusal ground, a new application with the same income will meet the same answer.

What ENB does, and what ENB does not do

• Does: identifies the correct family-ties route from the sponsor's status and the relationship, and says when another route is stronger.
• Does: calculates the household income threshold for the right municipality and family composition, and reviews the evidence against it line by line.
• Does: reviews marriage, birth, custody and identity documents, and tells you what has to be legalised or retranslated before filing rather than after.
• Does: builds the Enter Finland document structure, plans the identity step and prepares responses to requests for further information.
• Does: sets out the arrival sequence — DVV, Vero, Kela, school, bank — so the family is not held up after the permit is granted.
• Does not: decide anything. ENB is not an authority, holds no delegated power from Migri and promises no outcome.
• Does not: accept or verify a family relationship. That is Migri's assessment, and Migri can interview both parties.
• Does not: legalise documents on your behalf in the country of issue, or act as your representative before a court where qualified legal representation is required.

What it costs: two separate payments to two separate parties

ENB's fee is paid to ENB. Migri's processing fee is paid to Migri in Enter Finland and is not refunded if the application is refused. Legalisation, apostille and translation costs are paid to the authorities and translators who provide them.

• ENB family reunification service, spouse: EUR 750 excluding VAT, paid to ENB.
• ENB family reunification service, child: EUR 250 excluding VAT, paid to ENB.
• ENB residence permit extension service: EUR 350 excluding VAT, paid to ENB.
• ENB appeal review after a Migri decision: EUR 1,000 excluding VAT, paid to ENB.
• Migri first family permit, adult applicant: EUR 750 online, EUR 800 on paper — paid to Migri.
• Migri first family permit, minor applicant: EUR 400 online, EUR 430 on paper — paid to Migri.
• Migri extended family permit: EUR 230 online, EUR 430 on paper — paid to Migri.
• Migri D visa with an eligible first application: EUR 95 online, EUR 120 on paper — paid to Migri.
• All ENB fees exclude Finnish VAT, where the standard rate is 25.5%. Authority fees are set by the authority and should be re-checked on its own page before payment.