Working for a American company with branch in Helsinki

[ox3b987sj]

Hi,
I moved to Finland in 2020 on a visa sponsored by my current Finnish employer. Last year, the residence permit was renewed for another 4 years and its valid until December 2025. I will be eligible for permanent residence in 2023 given my 4 years of work and residence in Finalnd.

I have now received an offer of employment from the Finnish branch/office of an American company. I was initially skeptical but they have a locally registered office (oy) in Helsinki and upon further research, it turns out they are already growing in Finland. My employment offer specifies a USD salary but it will be paid via a local entity in Euros. When I discussed with HR, they stated (and it says the same in the employment contract) that I will be an employee of the local company and all payroll processing will be done locally in line with local Finnish laws.

My question is - would this in any way harm my chances of a permanent residence? Can they, for example, raise an issue that the employer is not Finnish and I must have a Finnish employer to be able to continue to live in Finland or get permanent residence?

Thank you so much for your help.

[riku2]

If they have a Finnish registered legal entity then it's the same as working for a Finnish company. if you work for Oracle Finland you're working for a Finnish employer despite the fact that Oracle started business in the USA. I work for a Swedish company with Finnish Oy created to employ me and my other three colleagues in Finland. We follow Finnish employment law (plus any better bits that they have in Sweden like six weeks holiday instead of the Finnish five weeks).

[FinlandGirl]

My employment offer specifies a USD salary but it will be paid via a local entity in Euros.

What will be specified in the actual contract?

If the employment contract is specifying a salary in a foreign currency that would be very unusual for an employment in Finland, I do not know whether that might also cause problems at some point.

[agroot]

wouldn't there be conflicts with the collective agreement of your industry?

for example, if there is a minimum 1% percent increase every year, but usd drops next year against euro, you could have less salary in euro even with 1% more in usd?

[riku2]

wouldn't there be conflicts with the collective agreement of your industry?

I think collective agreements only apply to those employers who sign up for it (what is known in the UK as a "closed shop", ie everyone working there is subject to some union negotiated contract whether you like it or not - happily made illegal in 1990 in the UK).

In my case there is no collective agreement even though i'm employed by a company registered in Finland. Market forces set the pay and conditions, which is fine by me.

[FinlandGirl]

wouldn't there be conflicts with the collective agreement of your industry?

I think collective agreements only apply to those employers who sign up for it

That's not true, when a sector has an universally binding collective agreement it is binding for all employers.

[browndude]

Hi,
I moved to Finland in 2020 on a visa sponsored by my current Finnish employer. Last year, the residence permit was renewed for another 4 years and its valid until December 2025. I will be eligible for permanent residence in 2023 given my 4 years of work and residence in Finalnd.

I have now received an offer of employment from the Finnish branch/office of an American company. I was initially skeptical but they have a locally registered office (oy) in Helsinki and upon further research, it turns out they are already growing in Finland. My employment offer specifies a USD salary but it will be paid via a local entity in Euros. When I discussed with HR, they stated (and it says the same in the employment contract) that I will be an employee of the local company and all payroll processing will be done locally in line with local Finnish laws.

My question is - would this in any way harm my chances of a permanent residence? Can they, for example, raise an issue that the employer is not Finnish and I must have a Finnish employer to be able to continue to live in Finland or get permanent residence?

Thank you so much for your help.

It is a non-issue.