Registered nurse trained outside the EU or EEA
Only persons duly legalised by the Finnish Supervisory Agency are allowed to perform the duties of legalised health care professionals. The Finnish Supervisory Agency grants the right to practise the profession of registered nurse on application to nurses trained in Finland and abroad.
The right to use any other protected occupational title such as practical nurse cannot be granted based on a registered nurse’s training. Other people who have sufficient education, experience and professional skills can also work as a practical nurse. However, only persons granted the right to use a protected occupational title by the Finnish Supervisory Agency may use that title.
Applying for the right to practise
Fill in the application form. If you have been admitted to a Finnish university of applied sciences for qualification training in nursing, state this in your application and append a document that verifies your participation in that training (e.g. your letter of admission).
Send your application with the documents listed below by post to the Finnish Supervisory Agency. Submitting all the relevant documents with your application will speed up the application process. The processing period is calculated from the time when the Finnish Supervisory Agency has received all the required documents and reports. Please do not send your application or documents by email. This will slow down the processing of your application.
The processing of an application in the Finnish Supervisory Agency is subject to a fee. By submitting an application, you agree to the fees. Please check the prices at the bottom of the page under Fees.
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
Requirements for documents
Submit documents issued outside the EU or EEA as officially certified copies by post to the Finnish Supervisory Agency. For documents issued in Finland or another EU or EEA country, a standard copy is sufficient. Copies can be officially certified by a notary public in Finland or in another EU or EEA Member State, or by Finnish missions 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 the copies that bear the original stamp and signature of the notary public or Finnish mission by post. The Finnish Supervisory Agency may request further clarifications if necessary.
Please do not attach any original documents that you may need later to your application. The application documents will remain at the Finnish Supervisory Agency, and it is imossible to get them back after a decision has been made. If you request documents to be returned to you while the application process is ongoing, you must send corresponding documents that meet the formal requirements. This will significantly slow down the processing of your application.
Please attach the following documents to your application
1. Document proving identity and citizenship
- a passport or
- an identity card issued in an EU or EEA Member State or
- an alien’s passport or
- a refugee travel document
If you do not have a Finnish personal identity code, please check the Finnish Supervisory Agency website for further instructions (link).
2. Degree certificate and the contact details for your educational institution
- your degree certificate and
- the official email address and mailing address of your educational institution
Have your degree certificate legalised directly in your country of education, using either the Apostille or Grand Legalisation procedure. The procedure must prove the authenticity of the degree certificate. Please contact the foreign ministry or another relevant body in the country where you completed your training to find out how your degree certificate should be legalised in that country.
If legalisation fails, and if you have provided the contact information of your educational institution, the Finnish Supervisory Agency may check the correctness of your degree directly with the educational institution if possible. In such a case, an ordinary copy of the degree certificate is sufficient. However, this review may delay the processing of the application. Please also note that in some cases, the Finnish Supervisory Agency is unable to verify the correctness of the degree from the educational institution, in which case the only option is to legalise the degree certificate using the Apostille or Grand Legalisation procedure.
3. Certificate of the 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 by the Finnish Supervisory Agency.
- 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, 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 another reliable testimonial on the matter.
The certificate of the right to practise the profession must be submitted no later than with the final legalisation application once you have completed any additional studies.
4. Translations of the documents listed in points 2 and 3
- If the original documents are not in Finnish, Swedish or English, please provide official translations as well.
- Translations must be provided by an official or authorised translator in Finland or another EU or EEA country. Authorised translators in Finland can be found through the online service of the National Agency For Education.
- The translation must be accompanied by a source document 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).
5. Certificate of sufficient language proficiency
- You can find information about the accepted certificates demonstrating sufficient proficiency in Finnish or Swedish on our website (link). These include Civil Service Language Proficiency Certificates and National Certificates of Language Proficiency. Further information about language examinations can be found on the website of the National Agency for Education.
The certificate of sufficient language proficiency must be submitted no later than with the final legalisation application once you have completed any additional studies.
If you are not attending qualification training, you need to attach not only documents 1–5 referred to above but also documents 6–11. The documents listed below in points 8–10 are not always mandatory. They are mandatory if it is impossible without them to determine any differences from the training required in Finland.
6. Degree certificate appendix
- e.g. a transcript of records or an academic transcript
7. Consent document
- Free-form consent stating that the Finnish Supervisory Agency has your permission to submit your application documents to a Finnish educational institution for a fee-based expert opinion if necessary. When you give your consent, you agree to pay a statement fee in addition to the processing fee.
8. A more detailed description of the training
- A report issued by the educational institution detailing the learning outcomes, content and scope in hours of the units included in your degree and the operating environments in which you completed your practical training and your duties therein.
- If the educational institution supplies a general study programme to provide this information, the institution must separately confirm that you have completed the units required. The educational institution may deliver the confirmation directly to the Finnish Supervisory Agency by email.
- We need sufficiently comprehensive information about your training to determine any differences from the training required in Finland.
9. Employment certificates
- Any employment certificates for work in the profession following completion of your training.
- Employment certificates must have been issued by your employer, and they must state at least your job title, your job duties and the duration of your employment.
- Please note that employment contracts are not accepted as certificates of employment.
10. Certificates of further and continuing education
- Certificates of any supplementary professional training and continuing education.
11. Translations of the documents listed in points 6 and 10
- If the original documents are not in Finnish, Swedish or English, please provide official translations as well.
- Translations must be provided by an official or authorised translator in Finland or another EU or EEA country. Authorised translators in Finland can be found through the online service of the National Agency For Education.
- The translation must be accompanied by a source document 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).
- Applying for the right to practise
- Request for further information if necessary
- Request for expert opinion if necessary
- Hearing if necessary
- Decision mandating additional studies
- Completion of additional studies
- Applying for the right to practise after completing additional studies
- Decision on the right to practise
Finnish universities of applied sciences provide various qualification training modules and legalisation paths (SAILA) for persons who have completed a registered nurse’s degree. There are 20 universities of applied sciences around Finland participating in the projects. Please check with your university of applied sciences to confirm whether the training you are undergoing is such a module. More information about and instructions on applying for training is available from universities of applied sciences and the Studyinfo service.
Please apply to the Finnish Supervisory Agency for the right to practise as soon as possible, even if you are pursuing qualification training or a legalisation path. If you are undergoing training that was planned in collaboration with the Finnish Supervisory Agency, this can be taken into account in the legalisation process. In practice, this means that the Finnish Supervisory Agency may issue a decision on additional studies but will not request an expert opinion; instead, your competence will be evaluated comprehensively at your university of applied sciences. In this case, you do not need to submit the documents listed in points 6 to 11 to the Finnish Supervisory Agency with your legalisation application.
If you have already received a Finnish Supervisory Agency decision mandating additional studies, you may complete those studies in accordance with the new evaluation made at your university of applied sciences. You may apply for final legalisation when you have completed the studies that were considered necessary. Please note that the assessment of the university of applied sciences may differ from the studies mandated in the Finnish Supervisory Agency decision.
When you apply for the right to practise as a health care professional and you have completed your training in a country outside 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 issue a decision that mandates you to complete additional studies.
In such a decision, the Finnish Supervisory Agency specifies the additional studies that you will need to complete to be granted a licence to practise as a professional in Finland. When you have completed the additional studies mandated by the Finnish Supervisory Agency, please read the application instructions on our website (link).
The application processing period is at least 4 months. The processing period is calculated from the time when the Finnish Supervisory Agency has received all the required documents. If a request for further information needs to be sent to you, or if the Finnish Supervisory Agency has to verify your qualification, processing your application will take significantly longer.
The Finnish Supervisory Agency charges a fee for every decision concerning rights to practise a profession, including when an application is denied. Half the processing fee is payable if you withdraw your application.
Possible fees include:
- Fee for an expert opinion 200–600 euros.
- Decision mandating additional studies 520 euros.
- Legalisation after completing additional studies 870 euros.
- Legalisation without a decision mandating additional studies 1390 euros.
The decision on the right to practise a profession is issued in Finnish or Swedish. The invoice for the decision will be sent by post after the decision has been issued. If the Finnish Supervisory Agency has requested an expert statement, an invoice for the statement fee will be sent after the Finnish Supervisory Agency has received the statement.
Rights to practise that have been granted may be viewed in the public information services for social welfare and health care professionals (JulkiTerhikki and JulkiSuosikki) after the decision is issued or the registration is made. The register data is updated once a day.
A right to practise granted for a fixed term will be visible in the public information service only while it is valid. This includes rights such as the registration of the adaptation period.
More information about the official registers of professionals underlying the public information service is available on our website (link).
The Finnish Supervisory Agency may send you any requests for further information, certificates, decisions and invoices electronically as a Suomi.fi message if you have registered for that service. Suomi.fi messages may only be used for matters that are currently pending. You may register for Suomi.fi messages on the suomi.fi website or by downloading the Suomi.fi mobile app.
In application matters, we will only deal with the applicants themselves. However, an applicant may authorise an agent or an assistant to act on their behalf in the matter of their application. In this case, the agent or assistant must present a power of attorney authorising them to act for the applicant. The power of attorney may be an email or physical document sent by the applicant, stating that the applicant authorises the person in question to act for them in the matter of the application. However, attorneys-at-law and public legal aid attorneys do not need to present a power of attorney unless specifically requested.
Contact information
E-mail: [email protected]
Telephone: +358 295 256 932 (Monday–Friday 9:00–15:00)