Immigration|Sdp’s Ville Skinnari criticizes the law change, which means that even professional athletes have to submit a residence permit application in their home country.
Immigration policy extortion threatens Sdp MP Ville Skinnarin including Finnish professional sports. According to Skinnar, the change in the Aliens Act that came into force at the beginning of September makes it difficult for top international athletes to come to Finland and significantly weakens the competitiveness of Finnish sports clubs.
“It is difficult to understand why professional athletes who have signed a contract with a Finnish club are seen as a risk. This legislation makes it difficult for clubs to operate without reasonable justification”, says Ville Skinnari in his press release.
Skinnari writes that previously professional athletes could apply for a residence permit from Finland and start their work immediately after signing the contract.
Ville Skinnari.
In the future the first application for a residence permit must be submitted in the athlete’s home country, which makes it particularly difficult for transfers that take place in the middle of the season. Thus, for example, a hockey player or a basketball player may have to return to their home country with their family in order to apply for a residence permit at the Finnish embassy.
According to Skinnar, it makes it practically impossible for a professional player to move to Finland in many cases.
For example, in a basketball club, finances may be so tight that the club cannot afford to fly a player and his family to the United States to submit an application.
“Finnish clubs need top international talent to stay competitive. This decision makes it almost impossible”, Skinnari assesses.
He says that he has received worried inquiries from many clubs about the matter. Skinnari has submitted a written question to the government on the subject.
Already already in the Aliens Act it was required that the first residence permit had to be applied for from abroad. The residence permit application can be submitted electronically at the Immigration Office’s electronic transaction service, after which identification is done at the Finnish representative office or the VFS permit center. In this sense, there has been no change in the law, says the process owner of the Immigration Office Assi Puistolahti.
The changes that came into force at the beginning of September mainly concern the reasons on the basis of which a residence permit applied for in Finland can be refused. Section 36 of the law lists numerous reasons for refusal. These include, for example, if the foreigner has stayed in the country without the right of residence before submitting the residence permit application, or has made a clearly unfounded application for a residence permit or international protection in order to prevent or postpone his removal from the country.
In principle, for professional athletes, nothing has changed in the entries of the law, but in practice it still tightens the practices regarding obtaining a residence permit for them as well. It is likely that the former practice, where professional athletes submitted a residence permit application only in Finland, no longer works and may lead to the rejection of the applications. Athletes will also have to submit a residence permit application in their home country in the future.
Assi Puistolahti of the Immigration Office says that the agency has received some inquiries from sports clubs due to the change in the law.
“This may require more anticipation and preparation from the clubs than before,” says Puistolahti.
Ice hockey club At HIFK, the new residence permit policy is seen as problematic.
“The new practice makes it difficult to get players to Finland to practice their profession”, comments HIFK’s service manager Marjo Kuhta. According to him, there are currently no players in HIFK who are affected by the new practice.
“We believe that the tightening of the law hinders transfers made in the middle of the season in particular,” says Kuhta.
According to Kuhha, players can get to other European leagues almost immediately due to a more straightforward residence permit process.
“For Finland, the process takes longer, so the players may well choose another series,” says Kuhta. According to him, for example, the Swedish premier league SHL will have a competitive advantage over the SM league.
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