Finland has started to automatically issue positive decisions on student residence permit applications as of October 19 in a bid to make the process more efficient and uniform.
According to a press release of the Finnish Immigration Service (Migri), which is responsible for the processing of all types of residence permits, the automated decision-making service will be used to process the student applications that meet all criteria for obtaining such a permit.
This automated service will decide only on applications that meet all the required criteria and doesn’t include the negative decisions and decisions that require individual consideration, SchengenVisaInfo.com reports.
Automated processing will standardise the processing of applications, which promotes safe and seamless immigration. Automation also frees up specialists’ time to work on cases which need individual consideration or further clarification.
Migri authorities have made sure that this system does the same checks as their officials would do. In spite of the automated decision-making service, applicants remain obliged to identify at a Finnish mission or a Finnish Immigration Service service location.
After that, if the application was submitted by a university student or exchange student through the online service Enter Finland, the processing fee was paid, the application contained all the required information, and all the requirements for issuing the permit were satisfied, the Finnish Immigration Service could then make an automated decision.
However, officials will decide on applications submitted through the automated system that do not meet the requirements or require additional explanation.
Assistive automation has been used by the Finnish Immigration Service before as well, for example, to verify registers maintained by public authorities on behalf of its officials.
On September 28, the Finnish Immigration Service initiated automated post-decision monitoring of study-related residence permits. The general law, which went into effect in May, allows automatic decision-making when the application is approved and no other parties, like family members, are involved.
Now the use of automation will be extended to both automated decisions and post-decision monitoring. When the requirements laid down by law are met, a permit can be issued effectively, and it is also possible to monitor that the requirements are still met during the validity of the permit.
However, applications are still not processed entirely automatically. For instance, the identity of the applicant must be verified by an official. Also, officials must individually evaluate the outcomes of register checks, even though automated processing is used. According to Migri, this is important in terms of security.
Up until the end of July, Finland has granted a total of 7,039 first residence permits for studies to foreign nationals. The majority of students who applied for this permit were from Bangladesh, China, Sri Lanka, India and Russia.