At the start of the year, the Finnish Immigration Service (Migri) will take over the processing of work-based residence permits.
The change is part of broader reforms shifting employment services from the state to municipalities.
Previously, the employment service (TE) office made partial decisions on work permit applications, after which cases were transferred to Migri for further processing.
From 1 January the partial decision process will be eliminated, and the Finnish Immigration Service will be fully responsible for work-based residence permits.
The stated aim of the changes is to simplify the process.
At the end of this year, Migri reported a slowdown in work-based immigration to Finland. The agency recorded a five percent overall drop in applications for work-based residence permits in the first nine months of this year, with specialist work visa applications down 24 percent.