In February 2026, the Finnish Immigration Service decided to partly suspend decision-making on asylum applications submitted by Iranians. The decision was made because of the changes in Iran’s security situation. Decision-making has been suspended regarding applications that cannot be decided before there is more information on how the security situation in the country develops.

We have assessed the situation on 30 April 2026 and decided that the decision-making will still be suspended until 30 June 2026. After that, we will assess again whether we can start issuing decisions normally.

If you have had an asylum interview, follow the instructions given to you at the interview. You can also find them on the page Processing of asylum applications.

If you have not yet had your asylum interview, you can bring the documents with you to the interview.

The requirements for international protection are assessed in relation to the country of nationality, in your case Afghanistan. The situation in Iran does not affect the processing of your case.

The police are responsible for removals from the country. If you have questions about removals from the country, contact the police.

The security situation in the country of departure is not as such a sufficient reason for making an exception to the residence permit requirements. However, when making a decision on your residence permit application, all facts and circumstances affecting your situation will always be taken into account. When we make a decision on your application, the protection of family life, when relevant, and a child's best interests will be taken into account.

The breaking of data connections in Iran may make it more difficult to receive and respond to requests for a hearing and requests for additional information. We cannot make a decision before we have obtained the necessary information required for the decision. In such cases, we wait until it is possible for you to receive our request and respond to it. 

We are monitoring the development of the situation and will take it into account as far as possible when processing applications. You do not need to send in a separate request to speed up the process.

The residence permit applications of unaccompanied minors and the applications submitted by family members of a minor (sponsor) who is already living in Finland with a residence permit are processed urgently. Other applications are processed in the order of arrival. If we need additional information concerning your application, we will contact you.

Decisions about where you can use identification services are made by the Finnish Ministry for Foreign Affairs. For more information, visit the websites of the Ministry for Foreign Affairs and Finland's missions (finlandabroad.fi). Select your country of origin on the home page. The pages on individual countries explain which mission or VFS centre you can visit to identify yourself. The Finnish Immigration Service has no say over the mission you need to visit.

For more information: Handling your matters at a Finnish mission.

Your application cannot be processed without you identifying yourself in person. During the identification, we will verify your identity. If you are unable to book an appointment for identification within 3 months, inform us about this by message using the Enter Finland service.

At present, hearings can be conducted in Tehran. However, the situation may change due to the security situation of Iran. The mission will inform you if your hearing is cancelled. You can follow the situation on the website of the mission (finlandabroad.fi) and on social media (facebook.com). If you have been invited to a hearing, we cannot make a decision on your residence permit application before a hearing has been conducted.

If you have questions about hearing locations, you can also contact the consular services of Finland’s Ministry for Foreign Affairs: visas.mfa@gov.fi.

The situation in Iran is difficult and we understand your concern about your family members. Unfortunately, as an authority we cannot make an exception to the permit processes laid down by law:

• A person moving to Finland needs a residence permit. Applications for the first residence permit should be submitted to a Finnish mission before arriving in Finland. To apply for a residence permit, the applicant needs to visit a mission to be identified. For more information about residence permit applications, visit the page First residence permit.
• In visa matters, you can contact the Finnish Ministry for Foreign Affairs. A visa is a permit to enter the country for a short-term or temporary period of residence of no more than 90 days. For more information about applying for a visa as well as periods of validity of visas and the fees charged for them, visit the website of the Ministry for Foreign Affairs (um.fi).
• An asylum application can only be submitted by a person who is already in Finland. For more information about applying for asylum, visit Asylum in Finland.

Delivering residence permit cards to the Finnish embassy in Iran was previously paused for approximately two months due to the deteriorated security situation in the country. At present, we are able to deliver residence permit cards normally to be collected from Teheran.

There are still some delays with the card deliveries due to the situation in the country.

We are not always able to make a decision on a customer's application before their visa issued by Iran expires. However, the expiry of the visa is not a sufficient reason for speeding up the processing of the application. You can ask the local authorities if the validity of the visa could be extended.

We prioritise applications submitted by unaccompanied minors and applications submitted by families of unaccompanied minors when the minor (the sponsor) already lives in Finland with a residence permit. Other applications are processed in the order of arrival. If we need additional information concerning your application, we will contact you.

The Finnish Immigration Service cannot comment on how you should deal with authorities in other countries. 

Unfortunately, there is a backlog of applications for family reunification. We process applications as urgent if they are submitted by unaccompanied minors or by family members of unaccompanied minors (sponsors) who already live in Finland with a residence permit. You do not need to separately request us to speed up the processing of the application. Other applications are processed in the order they arrive. We will contact you if we need any additional information for your application.

We are not necessarily able to decide a customer’s application before his or her visa to Iran expires. Expiry of visa is not considered to be sufficient grounds to request expedited processing.

As an applicant, you are most likely to get a decision on your application within the expected processing time if you fill in your application carefully and make sure it has all the required attachments. You should not compare your processing time to the processing time of other applicants, because the processing time varies depending on the amount of investigation needed for each application. The processing time may be longer if:

• we need to ask you to send additional information
• you do not have legalised documents
• closer inspection is required to establish your identity 
• your application is incomplete
• we need to invite you to an interview
• you have requested that we make an exception to the requirements that you should meet in order to get the permit.

For more information, see the page What affects the processing time of your application?

You can submit a residence permit application without a passport. However, you can be granted a residence permit only if you are able to travel to Finland and stay in Finland legally. This means that you need a passport or some other travel document with which you can travel to Finland and which is valid for the entire duration of the residence permit. A travel document can be a passport, an alien's passport, or a refugee travel document, for example.

The Finnish Ministry for Foreign Affairs is responsible for determining which travel documents are accepted by Finland. There are different types of extension stickers and stamps in passports issued by Afghanistan, but Finland only accepts some of them.

You can ask the Finnish Immigration Service if your passport extension is of a type that is accepted by Finland. Send a photo of the passport page containing your personal data and of the extension sticker to migri@migri.fi as encrypted email using the Securemail service of the Finnish Immigration Service (securemail.migri.fi). Please make sure that the photograph is clear and sharp and clearly shows the sticker. We will reply to you by encrypted email.

When you send us email, use the Securemail service of the Finnish Immigration Service (securemail.migri.fi). The Securemail service will encrypt your message. Messages sent via the service will reach us reliably. For instructions on how to use the Securemail service, see the page Contact information. 

An alien’s passport can be issued if you have been granted a residence permit in Finland on the basis of subsidiary protection and you either do not hold a valid travel document or decide to give up the passport of your home country.

If you do not have a residence permit on the basis of subsidiary protection but are for some reason unable to obtain the passport of your country of nationality, the Finnish Immigration Service may consider issuing you with an alien’s passport. In other words, you can apply for an alien’s passport but the decision of the Finnish Immigration Service may be either positive or negative. Each application for an alien’s passport will be considered individually.

When you apply for an alien’s passport, add to your application a written statement or document on why you are applying for an alien's passport. The statement or document can be:

• A certificate issued by the authorities of your country of nationality on the fact that you cannot be granted a passport.
• A free-form written statement containing the following information:
  • A description of how you have tried to obtain the passport of your country of nationality. You can attach, for instance, messages from the mission of your country of nationality as proof. 
  • An explanation of how and when you intend to obtain the passport of your country of nationality and which documents you will need for that.
  • Reasons why you should be granted an alien’s passport.

See the expected processing time and the processing fee on the page Alien’s passport.

The person who has custody of you does not need to meet the income requirement if:

• you have not yet turned 18, or
• you have been granted asylum or refugee status as a quota refugee, and the parent’s or guardian’s residence permit application has been submitted within 3 months of the date when you were served the decision that you have been granted asylum or been admitted to Finland under the refugee quota.

For more information, see the page Income requirement for family members of a person who has been granted international protection.

A sister or brother who resides abroad is not required to have sufficient financial resources if the following conditions are met:

• you have not yet turned 18; or
• you have been granted asylum or refugee status as a quota refugee and the residence permit application has been submitted within three months of the date on which you were served the decision that you have been granted asylum or been admitted to Finland under the refugee quota.
• For more information, see Income requirement for family members of a person who has been granted international protection.

Yes, you can. In December 2022, the Finnish Immigration Service updated its guidelines regarding asylum applications from Afghans. All Afghan women and girls will be granted asylum.

This practice is in line with the guidelines issued by the European Union Agency for Asylum (EUAA) in May 2024. 

If you wish to return to Syria, you need to cancel your asylum application first. For instructions, see the page Cancelling an application.

If you have international protection status and you move permanently to your country of origin, you can ask the Finnish Immigration Service to cancel your residence permit. Notify the Finnish Immigration Service of this by completing and submitting the form Notice of voluntary return to home country (pdf). If you do so, your protection status will end, too. 

For instructions on how to ask for cancellation of your residence permit, see the page Withdrawal of residence permits. See the page Ending of refugee status and subsidiary protection for more information about ending your protection status.

Your wellbeing services county may grant you financial assistance for returning to Syria if you have a municipality of residence. Contact the social services of your wellbeing services county to apply for the assistance. You will find the contact details in the following file: Wellbeing services counties (pdf). The return assistance granted by the wellbeing services counties covers the following costs:

• Travel and relocation costs. 
• Essential expenses arising from obtaining a travel document.
• Other expenses that are necessary for the journey to Syria.
• A discretionary return assistance of up to EUR 1,187.10 for a person returning alone and of up to EUR 2,374.20 for a family.

Your wellbeing services county may also provide you with guidance on the arrangements for returning to Syria. Before the wellbeing services country can assess whether you are eligible for the return assistance, you must first request the Finnish Immigration Service to end your protection status.

This is how you can apply for the return assistance granted by the wellbeing services counties:

1. Contact your local wellbeing services county. If you are considering returning to Syria, you will be provided with guidance and support.
2. Submit an application for return assistance to your wellbeing services county.
3. The wellbeing services county decides whether or not you can be granted the return assistance. 
4. The wellbeing services county will give guidance and instructions on the different stages of the return arrangements.

If there is a large number of people returning to Syria voluntarily, they may be assisted by arranging a charter flight. The police will assist with arranging the possible charter flight.

If you have a pending asylum application and you live in a reception centre, you cannot be granted financial assistance to cover the costs of returning.

This is how you can apply for a travel document independently:

1. Email the Syrian Embassy in Stockholm, Sweden.
2. State in your message that you need a travel document for travelling to Syria.
3. Attach to the message a copy of your old Syrian passport or ID card. If you do not have them, mention this in your message to the embassy.

The embassy will arrange a telephone interview with you and confirm that you are returning to Syria voluntarily. You do not need to travel to Stockholm.

The embassy can grant you a temporary travel document that is valid for 30 days. The document will be sent to you by post.
For contact details of the embassy, see the website of the Syrian Embassy in Stockholm.

Pakistani citizens applying for a residence permit are required to visit the VFS Global application centre in Doha, Qatar. At the moment, there are no other service points that Pakistani citizens applying for a residence permit could visit.

The Finnish Immigration Service does not have influence over which Finnish mission applicants are required to visit. Such decisions are made by the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland. For more information on service points, see the website of the Ministry for Foreign Affairs and the missions (finlandabroad.fi).

The processing of your application cannot start before you have proved your identity. Your identity will be verified when you prove your identity. If you are unable to prove your identity within three months of submitting your application in the online service Enter Finland, use the ‘Send additional information’ tab in Enter Finland to send us a message about your situation.

In addition, contact your educational institution if you have received a student place in Finland and intend to begin your studies in the autumn.