Finland’s Working Holiday Visa for Australians

If you’re an Australian aged between 18 and 30 years old, you can apply for a residence permit for a working holiday in Finland.

The online application is a relatively simple process and this permit allows you to live in Finland for up to 12 months! However, as an Australian with a Finnish working holiday visa, you may only work for up to 3 months with any single employer, and up to 9 months in total during your stay in Finland.

This page contains information about the Finnish Working Holiday residence permit for Australian citizens. It was last updated on 21 November 2024.

Key facts about Finland

Population: Approx. 5.5 million
Official language: Finnish
Capital city: Helsinki
Largest cities: Helsinki, Espoo, Tampere, Vantaa, Oulu
Name of the country in the Finnish language: Suomi
Currency: Euro

Finland Working Holiday Visa requirements for Australians

To apply for a Finnish Working Holiday Visa as an Australian citizen, you must meet the following requirements:

Aged between 18-30 years old (inclusive) at the time of application
Your primary purpose of coming to Finland is a holiday; work is secondary (you may only work a maximum of 9 months anyway, and not more than 3 months for a single employer)
Have sufficient funds (at least €2,450, or approx. AUD4,000) to support yourself for the first 3 months

You cannot apply for this visa if you:

You’ll be travelling with a spouse and/or dependent children
You are considered a risk to public health or have a criminal record
You have already been granted a Working Holiday permit in Finland
You have been prescribed a prohibition of entry to Finland

Documents needed to apply for a working holiday residence permit for Finland

When applying for a Working Holiday Visa for Finland as an Australian citizen, you will need to provide the following documents:

Valid passport
A recent photograph that meets Finland’s passport photo requirements (these are different to Australia’s passport photo requirements; we suggest getting photos from Officeworks)
Colour copies of the passport page containing personal data, and all passport pages with notes/stamps
Document showing that you are legally staying in the country where you are submitting the application (if you are not a citizen of the country where you are applying)
Form MP_1 (if you already are in Finland and apply for your first residence permit)
A return ticket to Finland, or proof of sufficient funds to purchase one
Bank statement/s proving you have at least €2,450 (approx. AUD4,000)
A prepaid registered post envelope for the sending of your residence permit (if you don’t want to return to the embassy to collect it)

Australians are not required to have travel insurance as Australia and Finland have a reciprocal health care agreement. However, purchasing travel insurance is still highly recommended.

There is an electronic application fee of €380 (approx. AUD620) if you apply online, or a paper application fee of €480 (approx. AUD780) if submitting a paper form and documents at a Finnish embassy, consulate or a Finnish Immigration Service point. In 2021, this fee was €410 for electronic applications or €610 for paper applications, so the costs have actually reduced since then.

At the time of writing, the Finnish Immigration Service advises that it takes around 3 months to process the residence permit. In practice, it may be closer to one month. For a faster processing time, we suggest submitting an electronic application rather than a paper application. (Either way, you’ll still need to visit the embassy to provide biometrics.)

More information is available on the Finnish Immigration Service website.

How to apply for a Working Holiday residence permit for Finland

Although it may be technically possible to apply for a Finnish residence permit for a working holiday while you are in Finland, we recommend applying 3-5 months before you travel to Finland.

Note that you cannot travel to Finland while you are waiting for a decision. (If you travel to Finland before your application is approved, you’d need to cancel the application you made from abroad and submit a new one.)

If applying online (recommended), you can fill in an electronic application on the Finnish Immigration Service website. You’ll also need to pay for the application using the Enter Finland online service, or at a Finnish mission (if outside Finland) or Finnish Immigration Service point (in Finland).

After submitting the form and paying the fee, you’ll also need to visit a Finnish embassy (if abroad) or a Finnish Immigration Service point (if in Finland) to prove your identity. You must bring your passport and copies of the documents you submitted with your online application to this appointment.

If you’re in Australia, the Embassy of Finland is in Canberra and provides great service.

What happens after you submit your application and visit the embassy

You’ll then need to wait for a decision. This could take up to 3 months, but in practice should be much less than this if there are no issues with your application.

If approved, the Finnish Immigration Service will send your residence permit to the embassy where you applied for your visa. The embassy will then notify you when it is ready to collect, or send it to you if you provided a registered post envelope when you visited the embassy to provide biometrics.

The Finnish Immigration Service advises that you should wait in the same country where you applied and proved your identity. However, they do not retain your passport while they are processing your application.

See the Finnish Immigration Service website for more information about the residence permit application process.

While best efforts are made to keep this information updated, we do not guarantee its accuracy. If you spot an error, would like to suggest new information to be added or simply have a question, please let us know in the comments and we’ll endeavour to respond or update the article as quickly as possible!