Medical, dental or pharmacy student trained in an EU or EEA Member State
Valvira registers student rights in medicine, dentistry and pharmacy for students studying in Finland and abroad.
This guideline concerns applying for student rights in medicine and dentistry. If you wish to apply for student rights in pharmacy, please contact the advisory service for the right to practise (below) for information on how to apply.
You cannot take up temporary employment until you have been registered.
This right is granted on a fixed-term basis, beyond which the right can be extended, if your studies continue, simply by notifying Valvira.
Applying for the right to practise
Fill in the application form (pdf). Send the application and appendices to Valvira as e-mail attachments or by mail. The processing period is calculated from the time when Valvira has received all the required documents.
Send your completed application and appendices by e-mail to: [email protected].
Please note that e-mail is not recommended for sending confidential information. You can send a secure e-mail via the Valvira secure message service. Further information on how to deliver material to Valvira by e-mail can be found on our website.
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 A fee is also charged for a withdrawn application.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”.
OR send your completed application and appendices by mail to:
National Supervisory Authority for Welfare and Health (Valvira)
PO Box 43
FI-00521 Helsinki
Append copies of the following documents to your application:
- Passport or ID card issued in an EU/EEA Member State (i.e. document verifying 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 on when you began you studies and the date on which your studies will be acceptably completed in full
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. 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 and 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 with an 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, the processing of your application will be significantly slowed down.
If you wish to apply for an extension of a study right previously granted to you (medicine 4 or 5 years / dentistry), notify Valvira by e-mail at kirjaamo(at)valvira.fi. If you have a fourth year study right and you wish to apply for a fifth year of study, you must submit a new application. (See instructions above.)
- 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 to your e-mail a translation into Finnish, Swedish or English of the aforementioned document if it is not originally in Finnish, Swedish or English. The translation 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.
Your study right 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 are denied an extension to your study right, you will receive an appealable decision to that effect.
The basic minimum processing time for an application is 30 working days 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 are processed in the order of arrival. Contacting us will significantly slow down the processing of your application.
Valvira charges a fee for every decision concerning licences 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.
Types of fee include:
- Entering a foreign student into the register EUR 165
Once the registration is completed, the registration certificate will be mailed to the address you gave on the application form. The registration includes a unique ID and registration number. The registration certificate is issued in Finnish or Swedish. The invoice will be sent separately by post after the decision.
Although Valvira does not verify 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.