Medical, dental or pharmacy student trained outside of the EU/EEA
Students who are studying medicine, dentistry or pharmacy abroad must register in the register of health care professionals if they wish to work as a temporarily legalised health care professional in Finland. Valvira registers student rights to practise in medicine, dentistry and pharmacy for students studying in Finland and abroad.
If you wish to apply for the right to practise as a student of dentistry or pharmacy, please contact the advisory service for the right to practise (below) for information on how to apply.
To register as a student of medicine, you must have acceptably completed your fifth-year studies in full, and you must have acceptably passed the first part (clinical examination) of the three-part examination held by the University of Tampere. You can take the clinical examination during your fifth-year studies. You do not need to take that examination again after graduation if you complete the second part of the three-part examination (health care administration) within 3 years of taking the first part.
Please note that you must apply for recognition of your medical degree after graduation. What this means is that you will need to take a break from practising your profession after your student right to practise expires, until Valvira has issued the decision to recognise your degree and you have then completed the required internship. Applications are processed in the order in which they are received.
After receiving the decision recognising your degree, you can begin the workplace training or internship required by Valvira, which will last for at least six months. Valvira will not credit any practical training that you have done before the recognition of your degree. If you have worked temporarily performing the duties of a physician as a medical student registered by Valvira in Finland, the time worked may be credited towards your six-month internship service.
Applying for the right to practise
Application form for student registration (pdf). Send your application with attachments to Valvira. The processing period is calculated from the time when Valvira has received all the required documents. Please do not send your application or attachments by e-mail in advance, because this will slow down the processing of your application.
The processing of an application in Valvira is subject to a fee. A fee is also charged for a withdrawn application. By submitting an application, you agree to the fees. Please check the prices at end of the instructions, under “Fees”.
Send your completed application and appendices by mail to:
National Supervisory Authority for Welfare and Health (Valvira)
PO Box 43
FI-00521 Helsinki
You must supply officially certified copies of the documents listed below. Copies can be officially certified 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 Valvira, by mail, the copies that bear the original stamp and signature of the notary public or Finnish mission.
Please attach the following documents to your application:
- Passport, identity card issued in an EU/EEA Member State, alien’s passport or refugee travel document (proof of your identity and nationality). Please read the instructions on our website if you do not have a Finnish personal identity number.
- Academic transcript of studies completed
- If you do not use the Valvira application form, please append an official statement from your university confirming that the studies you have completed are equivalent to 4th-year or 5th-year studies.
This statement must include:
a) details of when you began your studies and the date on which those studies were fully and acceptably completed
b) your estimated date of graduation
c) contact details of the university
Valvira recommends that the university send its statement or the filled-out application form directly to Valvira by e-mail: [email protected]. In other cases, Valvira will verify your right to study on the basis of the information you supply. You may give several contact details to ensure that this verification can be performed even during holidays. This will significantly slow down the processing of your application. - Translations into Finnish, Swedish or English of the documents listed in points 2–3.
The translations must have been produced by an authorised translator in Finland or in another EU/EEA Member State. Authorised translators in Finland can be found through the online service of the National Agency For Education. 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 by Apostille or Grand Legalisation.
Valvira may request further clarifications if necessary. The application documents will remain in Valvira, 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 while the application process is ongoing, you must send in replacing documents that meet the formal requirements. This will significantly slow down the processing of your application.
Your student right to practise may be extended by no more than 30 days beyond your graduation or estimated graduation.
Please note that your study rights will expire 30 days after graduation, even if the JulkiTerhikki service shows your status as an active student. Valvira does not receive information on the graduation of students studying abroad, which is why JulkiTerhikki may erroneously show an active student status beyond the aforementioned 30-day limit. If an institution issues a temporary degree certificate, then the date indicated on the temporary certificate will be considered your graduation date.
If you wish to apply for an extension of a student right to practise previously granted to you (medicine 5 years), notify Valvira by e-mail at: [email protected].
- The subject of your e-mail message should be: “Notification of extension of study right [your last name] [your first name]”.
- Give your full name and date of birth in the e-mail.
- You must attach to your e-mail a statement from the university confirming that your studies are ongoing and what your estimated date of graduation is. The statement from the university must be signed by an authorised representative of the university, or the university may send the statement directly to Valvira by e-mail. The statement from the university must show your full name and date of birth for purposes of identification.
- Attach translations into Finnish, Swedish or English of the documents listed in points 2–3 to your e-mail. The translations must have been produced by an authorised translator in Finland or in another EU/EEA Member State. Authorised translators in Finland can be found through the online service of the National Agency For Education.
If you are denied an extension to your student right to practise, you will receive an appealable decision to that effect.
The basic minimum processing time for an application is 2 months from the date on which all the required documents have been received. In other words, sending only the application form or only a passport copy will not speed up the processing of your application. To ensure equal treatment of all applicants, applications will be dealt with on a first-come first-served basis. Contacting us will significantly slow down the processing of your application.
Valvira 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.
There is no fee for granting an extension to registration.
Entering a foreign student into the register EUR 165
Once your registration is complete, the registration certificate (including a unique ID and registration number) will be mailed to you at the address you gave on the application form. The registration certificate is issued in Finnish or Swedish. The invoice will be sent separately by post after the decision.
Although Valvira does not check your language proficiency when you register, you must have the oral and written skills in Finnish or Swedish that are required for your job duties.
Employers hiring students must ensure that the students have sufficient language proficiency for carrying out their job duties.
You will find the information on the rights to practise granted to you in JulkiTerhikki or JulkiSuosikki.
Rights to practise granted may be viewed in the public information services for social welfare and health care professionals (JulkiSuosikki and JulkiTerhikki, respectively) after the decision is issued or the registration is made. The register data are 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, as with the registration for an adaptation period.
More information on the official registers of professionals underlying the public information service is available on our website.
Valvira may send you any requests for further information, certificates and decisions electronically as a Suomi.fi message if you have registered in that service. Suomi.fi messages may only be used for matters that are currently pending. You may register for Suomi.fi messages at 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 e-mail 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 said document unless specifically requested.