Information about moving to and integrating into Vantaa

Assessment of integration service needs and competence

The assessment of skills and integration service needs is intended for you if you are not a job seeker, i.e. you are outside the workforce. The assessment of skills and integration service needs is carried out together with an integration expert. 

• Your family situation
• Health condition affecting work ability
• Your previous education and work experience  
• Your reading and writing skills  
• Your Finnish or Swedish language skills  
• Your study skills  
• Your career and future goals.
   

Integration plan

An integration plan will support you as you adjust to life in Finland. The integration plan must be made within three years of receiving your first residence permit.

The plan is made for you personally, taking into account the needs of your family. You and the authority make the plan together. It records your goals and agrees on what services and activities you will participate in to support your integration. The plan can be changed if your life situation or needs change.

The plan supports you in:

• in Finnish and Swedish language studies
• in job search and
• in applying for education.

The plan for unaccompanied minors who have arrived in Finland will be drawn up in the welfare area in cooperation with the municipality.

Integration period

When an integration plan is made for you, your integration period begins. The integration period is the period during which you will receive support for integration from statutory integration services. From the beginning of 2025, the integration period will be two years from the time the plan is made. During this period, you are entitled to statutory services and benefits that support your integration.

You can find more information about the integration plan and how to prepare it from the integration services.

Multilingual social orientation is a course that provides important basic information about Finland. Social orientation is intended to support good integration, inclusion and the opportunity to influence one's own work and life in the early stages of integration. 

The course is organized in your native language or another language that you know well. The civic orientation teacher is a competent professional who often has the same native language as the course participants. The teaching is conversational, so participants can ask questions and learn together. The group also gives you the opportunity to meet new people.  

The course lasts 70 hours. Civic orientation can be carried out on-site, remotely or as a combination of both. The course covers topics such as Finnish history, services, work and housing issues, one's rights and responsibilities, and other important issues for living in Finland. Civic orientation helps to understand Finnish society.

More information about the courses

For more information, please contact the employment or integration experts of the City of Vantaa, or send an email to kotoutuminen@vantaa.fi.

A person can receive integration services for those outside the workforce if the following conditions are met:

• The municipality of residence is Vantaa.
• Job search is not active / the person has not registered as a job seeker.
• The person has a valid residence permit or a verifiable pending extension of residence permit.
• The person is of legal age, unless the person is a child or young person who entered the country as a minor without guardianship.

A person may be either in the integration period or have already completed it. 
A person may also have Finnish citizenship.

Register as a job seeker at Vantaa Employment Services. You will receive support in finding a job and a place to study.  

Read more: I have moved to Finland and I want to work.

The Fintegrate.fi online service provides a comprehensive collection of information about events, courses, groups and other activities that support your integration. You can find information about, for example, language teaching groups, guidance and counselling services, mentoring programmes, children's and youth activities and hobbies.

Activities are organized both on-site and online. Most of the activities are free of charge.

Check out: fintegrate.fi

1. Make and review your integration plan together with your specialist.

2. Participate in the services agreed upon in the plan. 

3. Apply for and accept full-time employment or training.

4. Notify your specialist when the agreed matters have been completed.

5. Report any changes in your situation or contact information immediately.

Your obligation is to participate in making your integration plan and also in reviewing the plan.  As a customer, your obligations also include participating in the services agreed upon in the customer plan with the specialist.  As an integration customer, your obligation is to apply for job opportunities.

Our customers also have an obligation to notify us as soon as the tasks agreed upon with the specialist have been completed. Your obligations also include notifying us immediately if there are any changes in your situation as a customer or if your contact information changes.  Such changes may include, for example, employment and obtaining an internship or study place.

Our jobseeker customers who are integrating have the right to unemployment benefit as stated in §3.1 of the Unemployment Security Act (Unemployment Security Act | 1290/2002 | Legislation | Finlex).

As our client, you are entitled to creating an integration plan with a specialist, if possible, in the manner required by the Integration Act. Please read the obligations that apply to you carefully.

An integration plan is a personal plan made together by the customer and a specialist.  Its purpose is to help you find employment and integrate. The plan consists of services, goals, progress, and necessary changes related to you.  The right to an integration plan usually has a maximum total duration of two years, but it can be extended for justified reasons.  The integration plan also has obligations.

Failure to comply with the integration plan may have an impact on other benefits, for example, failure to comply with the integration plan may result in a 20% reduction in the basic part of social assistance as of February 1, 2026.  Read more about the change in social assistance that will enter into force as of February 1, 2026.

The general obligation of the beneficiary is to actively seek work and training. In addition, the customer must provide the employment authority with information and reports regarding his/her professional skills, work history, education, and work ability. 

The customer must implement an employment plan drawn up in conjunction with the employment authority and, if necessary, apply for and participate in services and measures that promote employment.

Failure to comply with these obligations may affect the customer's right to receive unemployment benefit or social assistance.  The customer's right to receive unemployment benefit is laid down in the Unemployment Security Act, whereas The Social Security Act defines the customer's right to receive social assistance. 

1. Draw up and review the integration plan together with the specialist.

2. Participate in the services agreed upon in the integration plans.

3. Notify your specialist when the agreed matters have been completed.

4. Notify immediately if your situation or contact details change. 

Your obligation is to participate in making your integration plan and also in reviewing the plan. As a customer, your obligations also include participating in the services agreed upon in the customer plan with the specialist. 

Our customers also have an obligation to notify us as soon as the tasks agreed upon with the specialist have been completed. Your obligations also include notifying us immediately if there are any changes in your situation as a customer or if your contact information changes. Such changes may include, for example, employment and obtaining an internship or study place. 

Assessing your need for skills and integration services

The right to a skills and integration service-need assessment, integration plan, and social orientation is applied to customers who 

1. receive home-care allowance, and it has been less than three years since the first residence permit was granted
2. receive long-term social assistance, and it has been less than three years since the first residence permit was granted
3. are victims of human trafficking.

Other people outside the workforce (for example, children who came to the country as minors alone, pensioners, disabled people, and full-time students) also have the right to request a skills and integration service-need assessment. 

 In these cases, the assessment of the need for skills and integration services is made according to need and discretion.

Integration plan for people integrating outside the workforce

The right to an integration plan is available to customers who 

1. receive home-care allowance, and it has been less than three years since the first residence permit was granted 
2. receive long-term social assistance (more than two months), and it has been less than three years since the first residence permit was granted 
3. are victims of human trafficking.
4. children and young people who entered the country alone as minors, upon consideration.

As our customer, you are entitled to draw up an integration plan with a specialist in the manner required by the Integration Act (Act on the Promotion of Integration, Section 23: Act on the Promotion of Integration | 681/2023 | Legislation | Finlex). The Act on the Promotion of Immigrant Integration| 681/2023||). The plan is made according to need, taking your life situation into account.

When an integration plan is made for you, your integration period begins.  The integration period is two years.  During this period, you are entitled to statutory integration services and benefits that support your integration.

Read more about the integration plan.

Multilingual social orientation course for integration customers outside the workforce

Multilingual social orientation is a course that provides important basic information about Finland in the immigrant's own mother tongue or another language they are well versed in.

The right to participate in social orientation in their own language is available to customers who:

1. receive home-care allowance, and it has been less than three years since the first residence permit was granted
2. receive long-term home-care allowance (more than two months), and it has been less than three years since the first residence permit was granted
3. are victims of human trafficking and are not currently seeking employment, or
4. children and young people who entered the country alone as minors.

It is also possible to participate in social orientation if you have already moved to Finland and the integration period has ended. Moreover, other people outside the workforce, such as pensioners and students, can also participate in social orientation, to the extent possible. 

Social orientation in their own language is also organized for integration customers who are currently seeking employment.

Read more about multilingual social orientation.