Ombudsman slams Finland’s Immigration Service over chronic processing delays

Finland’s Deputy Parliamentary Ombudsman released a stinging inspection report on 13 November 2026 that highlights systemic backlogs at the Finnish Immigration Service (Migri). After receiving hundreds of complaints, inspectors visited Migri headquarters in October and concluded that the agency is routinely breaching statutory deadlines for residence-permit, citizenship and permanent-residence decisions. The worst bottlenecks concern family-based residence-permit applications. At the time of the visit, 22,000 such cases were pending and 4,346 had already exceeded the nine-month legal limit. Only 61 percent of family-tie decisions met the deadline in 2026; for dependants of international students the figure was 45 percent. Staff told investigators that repeated legislative changes, hiring freezes and IT upgrades had outpaced Migri’s capacity to adapt. While acknowledging the workload pressures, Ombudsman Susanna Lindroos-Hovinheimo reminded ministries that resource shortages do not absolve authorities from obeying the law. She ordered both the Interior and Economic Affairs & Employment ministries to outline corrective measures by 1 March 2027. Suggested remedies include targeted recruitment, expanded automation confined to clear-cut cases, and closer co-operation with embassies on remote interviews and DNA testing. For employers and universities that rely on predictable immigration processing, the findings reinforce concerns that Finland’s talent-attraction strategy is being undermined by administrative bottlenecks. The business lobby EK renewed calls for a legally guaranteed two-month processing time for work- and study-related permits, warning that delays are already pushing foreign specialists toward rival Nordic countries. Migri says a two-year modernisation project launched in October will simplify online forms, improve data exchange with the police and foreign missions, and increase staff training. Whether those steps will be enough to satisfy the Ombudsman – and applicants – remains to be seen.