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1. Getting Offer
Before you can study in Finland, you need to apply to Finnish Universities or UAS. There are three ways of getting into the universities or UAS. First is the direct application which gives you an application based on your marks in high school and your English proficiency test. In this type of application, usually, applicants with good marks and academics are selected, though there are bound to be exceptions.
Another method is to sit for entrance exams. Finland regularly organizes UAS exams where you can showcase your skills in mathematics, logical reasoning, English, etc. If you score good marks in the entrance exams, the universities will offer you admission.
In this type of process, there are joint applications and separate applications. A joint application allows you to submit your application to 6 different university courses. While a separate application allows you to sit for the exam for the course in a single university.
2. After the offer
After receiving the offer from the University, you need to accept the offer. You might get offers from several universities. The thing you need to be careful about is that you can accept only one offer in an academic session. For instance, if you accepted admission to X university, you cannot receive an offer for Y university in that specific academic session. You will need to wait for another semester. Hence, be careful where you want to study.
After accepting the offer, you need to pay the fees. The fees in Finland range from 6000 euro to 1300 euro, though exceptions exist.
Each university provides early bird discounts which range from 10% to 50%. To get the discount, you need to pay the fees within the early bird discount deadline set by the university.
If you're not able to pay the fees by the deadline, you will not get the discount. Now, you'll have to pay the full fees without discount.
3. Annual Income
After your fees are paid, you need to apply for a resident permit for Finland. One of the most important requirements for applying resident permit is showing your annual income which guarantees that you have a sufficient source of income to be able to study in Finland.
You need to show your sponsor's annual income here. Your sponsors could be anyone like father, mother, uncle, aunt, maternal uncle, brother, sister, cousin. But, you must be able to verify the relationship for which you need to make a relationship certificate in your ward.
The annual income should be 18 lakhs annually. This should be verified by the ward office. In some cases, a student just provides their sponsor's salary certificates and payslips excluding annual income certificates from the ward.
4. Living Expenses
Another important aspect is providing proof of living expenses. You need to show 6720 euros in your bank account as your source of living expenses whilst you stay in Finland. This amount must have a source of origin. This could be savings from your sponsors and the amount from sales of assets.
This amount must be in your bank account from the day of the interview to the day of the visa decision.
5. Insurance
To apply for a residence permit, you must possess an insurance policy. This insurance policy can be bought from international companies as well as domestic companies. It usually costs 25k to 35k.
6. Notary
If any of the documents that you plan to present to VFS or at the time of the interview is in Nepali, they should be converted into English.
7. Interview date booking
After you complete all the documentation, it is time for you to apply for an interview date. The date booking costs around 10k to 11k right now. When you get the date for the interview, clearly depends on the number of applicants and the available interview slots. But, usually, students get interview dates within a month.
8. Interview and VFS
When the date arrives, you need to go to the VFS centre with your original documents. The VFS centre will conduct your interview in two ways, a written interview and an oral interview. The interview questions are generally about your choice of study and your sponsors.
9. Biometrics
After the interview is over, you need to pay the visa processing fees. And, the VFS center will take your biometrics.
10. Visa Decision
Visa decisions or resident permit decisions usually take 1 to 30 days. When you get the positive resident permit decisions, you will get a call from the VFS center within 15 days to collect your Resident permit card.
From the author
Hi there, this was an article for someone who wants to understand the surface level process for studying in Finland. That's why I have omitted some points here and there. I will keep adding those points. But, if you want to understand each process in detail, there are articles on this blog from where you can get this information.
If you think I missed anything, please comment down below, it will help everyone.
