Decision mandating completion of additional studies

When you apply for the right to practise as a health care professional and you have completed your training in a country in the EU/EEA, the Finnish Supervisory Agency will investigate whether your training qualifies for the same profession as the corresponding Finnish training. Work experience, supplementary professional training and continuing education may be considered in the comparison and may compensate for any differences in the training between countries. If differences are found between the applicant’s training and the current Finnish training, the Finnish Supervisory Agency may mandate the applicant to complete additional studies.

In such a decision, the Finnish Supervisory Agency specifies the additional studies that you will need to complete in order to be granted a licence to practise as a professional in Finland. This does not apply to physicians and dentists. Instructions for how to apply if you are a physician or a dentist can be found on our website.

If you are undergoing additional studies in order to gain the right to practise in a social welfare profession, please contact the customer service for rights to practise (contact details below). 

How to complete the additional studies

When you wish to complete the additional studies mandated by the Finnish Supervisory Agency, please directly contact an educational institution in Finland that provides the appropriate training. The educational institution will advise you how to complete the studies mandated in the decision. Please note that the educational institution may require you to apply for the right to study or to submit a certificate of language proficiency.

How to apply for the right to practise in a profession once you have completed the additional studies mandated by the Finnish Supervisory Agency

If you are applying for legalisation as a registered nurse, fill in the electronic application form.
If you are applying for another licence to practise, please fill in this application form (pdf).  The processing period is calculated from the time when the Finnish Supervisory Agency receives all the required documents.

Send your completed application and the documents listed below by e-mail to: kirjaamo(at)lvv.fi.

Please note that e-mail is not recommended for sending confidential information. You can send secure e-mail via the Finnish Supervisory Agency secure messaging service. Further information on how to deliver material to the Finnish Supervisory Agency by e-mail can be found on our website (link).  

Or send your completed application and attachments by post to:
Finnish Supervisory Agency
P.O. BOX 20
13035 LVV 

Courier mail (e.g. DHL or Fedex) is submitted to:
Finnish Supervisory Agency
Wähäjärvenkatu 6
FI-13100 Hämeenlinna, Finland

Document format requirements

Send documents drawn up outside the EU or EEA as officially certified copies by mail to the Finnish Supervisory Agency. An ordinary copy of a document issued in Finland or another EU or EEA Member State is sufficient. Officially certified copies are issued by a notary public in Finland or in another EU or EEA Member State, or by a Finnish mission in other countries. Copies issued by a notary public outside the EU/EEA and furnished with an Apostille or Grand Legalisation are also acceptable. You must submit to the Finnish Supervisory Agency, by mail, the copies that bear the original stamp and signature of the notary public or Finnish mission. The Finnish Supervisory Agency may request additional clarification if necessary. 

Please do not append any original documents that you may need later to your application. The application documents will remain in the Finnish Supervisory Agency, and it is not possible to get them back after a decision has been made. If you request for documents to be returned to you before a decision is made, we can return them. In this case, you must submit corresponding documents that meet the document format requirements. However, this will significantly slow down the processing of your application.

Attach the following documents to the application

1. Certificate of completion of additional studies

You must also attach copies of the following documents to the application if you have not submitted them before: 

2. Certificate of sufficient language proficiency

Acceptable certificates of sufficient Finnish or Swedish language proficiency can be found on our website (link). These include the Civil Service Language Certificate and the National Certificate of Language Proficiency. For more information on language certificates, please visit the Finnish National Agency for Education’s website.

3. Certificate of your right to practise the profession  

• A certificate verifying that your right to practise the profession in question has not been restricted or revoked (e.g. Certificate of Good Standing). 
• This certificate must be no more than three months old when received.  
• You must submit such a certificate from every country where you have been legalised to practise your profession.  
• If you have practised your profession in a country where practitioners of that profession are not registered, then you need to submit an affidavit from the competent authority in that country stating that practitioners of your profession are not registered in that country, or some other reliable testimonial of the matter.

4. Translations of the document referred to in point 3

• If the original documents are not in Finnish, Swedish or English, please also provide official translations. 
• The translations must have been produced by an authorised translator in Finland or in another EU/EEA Member State. You can search for authorised translators operating in Finland in the Finnish National Agency for Education’s online service. 
• The translation must be accompanied by the document in the original language certified by the translator. 
• If the translator is not an official or authorised translator in an EU/EEA Member State, the translation may nevertheless be acceptable if the translator’s status is confirmed in the translation by Apostille or Grand Legalisation (link).

Contact information

E-mail: [email protected] 
Telephone: +358 295 256 932 (Monday–Friday 9:00–15:00)
Application documents to the address: [email protected]