Seasonal work in Finland and Norway: the permit now turns on the employer, not the worker

What the 2026 Finnish season actually proved

In the 2025 season the Finnish Ministry for Foreign Affairs granted around 2,600 seasonal work visas to foreign wild-berry pickers and refused about 60. In the 2026 season the same channel produced a different number: more than 2,100 applications were handled by the Finnish embassy in Bangkok, and 123 permits were granted. In the ministry's 7 July statement, roughly 1,400 of about 1,600 decided applications had been refused.

The stated ground for refusal was not about the applicants. The director of the ministry's visa unit, Katja Luopajarvi, put the primary reason as the mission not being satisfied that the employer would be able to fulfil its obligations as an employer. The ministry also cited indications of a risk of exploitation, gaps in employers' compliance with statutory duties, and ongoing criminal proceedings in the wild-berry sector.

The distribution of the 123 is the part worth reading twice. 107 of them went to one company, Pohjola Foods. Its chief executive attributed that to paying the whole travel cost of each worker, roughly 1,500 euros per person in airfare, insurance and visa fees, where the company had previously covered 30 percent. It also had no criminal suspicions attached to it in a sector where competitors did.

Nothing in the law changed in 2026. Wild-berry picking was brought under the Seasonal Workers Act on 17 February 2025, which ended the old tourist-visa model and made pickers employees with a contract, a wage and occupational safety supervision. What changed in 2026 is how hard the mission tested the employer behind the application. That is the shift European employers need to plan around, and it is not confined to berries.

Finland: two permits, one nine-month ceiling

Thai nationals are not visa exempt, so the certificate route that visa-free nationalities use does not apply. There are two doors. For work of under three months the worker applies for a seasonal work visa at the Finnish mission. For three to nine months the worker applies to Migri for a residence permit for seasonal work.

The ceiling is nine months of seasonal work within any twelve-month period, counted backwards from the end date of the permit. Seasonal work in Finnish law means work in agriculture, forestry and tourism that is tied to a time of year: agricultural and garden work, forestry, wild-berry picking, and hotel and restaurant work in the tourism season. Temporary agency work is inside the Act as well.

Pay follows the collective agreement that applies to the job. Where no collective agreement covers it, the gross wage must be at least 1,463 euros a month in 2026. For contracts of six to nine months Migri also runs a labour market test, which means it assesses whether the work could be done by someone already in Finland or the EU and EEA. Under six months, no test.

The permit names one employer and the worker may only work for that employer. Migri undertakes to decide within 90 days of a complete application; an electronic first application costs 530 euros. Family members cannot get residence on the basis of a seasonal worker.

The employer's side is a form, and the form is the file. Terms of employment go in through Enter Finland for Employers or on the TY6_plus form: duration, wage, the applicable collective agreement, and the accommodation if the employer provides it. Accommodation has to be warm, fire-safe, with adequate sanitary facilities and hot water, and enough space to sleep. A permit can be refused where the employer has not met its obligations on social security, tax, workers' rights, working conditions or terms of employment, or has not cooperated with the authority.

Norway: six months on, six months off

Norway runs a shorter and stricter clock. A seasonal work residence permit lasts up to six months, and a worker who has used a full six months must stay outside Norway for six months before a new seasonal permit can be granted. Time on a seasonal permit does not count towards permanent residence, and family members cannot join.

The worker needs a concrete offer of full-time work, which normally means 37.5 hours a week, and the employer files the offer of employment before the worker applies. Agriculture, forestry, horticulture, fish processing, restaurant work and tourism all qualify. Odd jobs do not: carpentry, painting and general maintenance are outside the definition.

The labour market test depends on the sector. The Labour and Welfare Directorate sets an annual quota for seasonal work in agriculture and forestry, and posts inside that quota do not need NAV confirmation. Everything else does: the employer has to obtain confirmation from NAV that the position cannot be filled from Norway or the EEA. If you are hiring for a hotel or a fish plant rather than a farm, budget for that step.

Pay and working conditions must not be poorer than is normal in Norway, and several of the relevant sectors have collective agreements that have been made generally applicable, which turns them into binding hourly floors. On the Labour Inspection Authority's published rates, in force since 15 June 2025, seasonal and harvest work in agriculture and horticulture for workers over 18 runs at 162.90 NOK an hour for the first twelve weeks and 168.40 NOK after that, with permanent unskilled staff at 182.80 NOK. Hotels, restaurants and catering sit at 204.79 NOK for workers over 20, or over 18 with four months of experience. These rates are revised periodically, so confirm them before they go into a contract.

One thing worth knowing before dismissing Norway as exotic: it has been running this channel from Asia for years. Of roughly 3,700 seasonal permits granted to non-EEA workers in 2019, around 70 percent were in agriculture and about half of the workers came from Vietnam. Thailand plugs into an existing route, not a new one.

What the missions are actually reading

If the decision now turns on the employer, it is worth being precise about what that means in a file. Five things carry the weight.

Who paid. Recruitment fee, airfare, insurance, visa fee, equipment, accommodation deposit. A worker who arrives in debt is the single clearest indicator of exploitation risk, and it is the one a consular officer can test on paper. The employer that won 107 of 123 permits in 2026 is the one that moved from paying 30 percent of travel to paying all of it.

The contract. A named rate against a named collective agreement, named hours, a named employer, and a start and end date consistent with the permit sought. Vague piece-rate arrangements in a sector with open criminal proceedings read badly.

The accommodation. Stated in the filing, meeting the standard, and inspectable. In Norway, rented housing needs a written lease.

The employer's own record. Tax, social security, wages paid on time, occupational safety, and whether there are proceedings against the company or against the part of the sector it operates in. This is why a clean company in a dirty sector still has to make its own case rather than rely on the sector's history.

Consistency across two jurisdictions. What the employer files in Helsinki or Oslo has to match what the worker was told and signed in Thailand. A licensed Thai agency files the employment contract on the Thai side, and the Department of Employment clears the departure against it. When the two versions agree, the file is coherent; when they do not, the mission has found its reason.

The honest cost of a compliant season

It is more expensive than the model that just collapsed, and that is the point. Budget for travel at roughly the figure the successful 2026 employer quoted, about 1,500 euros a head for a Finnish season in airfare, insurance and visa fees. Add the permit fee, 530 euros for a first electronic residence permit application in Finland. Add the wage floor, whether that is the Finnish collective agreement or 1,463 euros a month where none applies, or the Norwegian hourly rate for the sector. Add accommodation built to the standard rather than to the minimum you can get away with.

Subtract nothing from the worker. No recruitment fee, no deposit, no deduction on arrival, no charge for equipment or transport. In our placements that is fixed, because Thai overseas-employment law caps what a worker can be charged and the DOE clears the departure against the contract. It is also, as of the 2026 season, the difference between a file that gets permits and one that does not.

Set against that: a season that is actually staffed. The Finnish rural employers' association put the 2026 requirement at roughly 3,000 seasonal workers, and retail chains warned publicly that Finnish wild berries would be thin on the shelves. The employers who invested in a defensible file got their people. The rest got refusals in July, when there is no time left to fix anything.

Beyond berries, and the calendar

Berries are the lane under the brightest light, and if you are in that sector you should assume every application is read with the criminal proceedings in mind. But the same permits cover a much wider set of work. In Finland: greenhouse and garden work, agriculture, forestry, and the tourism season in Lapland, where hotel and kitchen staffing is the constraint every winter. In Norway: horticulture, fish processing, forestry, restaurants and the fjord season.

The two clocks can also be planned as a rotation rather than a scramble. Norway's six-on, six-off rule and Finland's nine-in-twelve ceiling are different enough that a worker's year can be structured legally across a season in one country and a rest period at home, with the same people returning to the same employer. Returning workers are the cheapest workers you will ever have: they are trained, they are known to the authority, and their file is already clean.

On timing, work backwards from the first day of the season. In Finland, Migri decides within 90 days of a complete application, and a six to nine month contract adds the labour market test on top. On the Thai side, selection, documents, medicals and DOE clearance take three to five weeks before that. Two quarters ahead is realistic; one quarter is a gamble.

In Norway, the sequence starts with you: the offer of employment is filed by the employer, NAV confirmation is obtained where the sector requires it, and only then does the worker apply from Thailand. Every week you spend deciding is a week the worker cannot use.