Tuesday 6 January is Epiphany (Loppiainen) in Finland, and the public holiday is shuttering not only government offices at home but also dozens of Finnish embassies, consulates and visa-processing centres abroad. Posts in Riga, Dublin, London, Copenhagen, New Delhi and several other capitals have all confirmed that their customer-service counters for passports, residence-permit biometrics, visa collection and notarisation are closed for the day.
Although many corporate mobility teams plan around predictable holiday shutdowns, Epiphany can still catch travellers unawares because it is not observed in most of the Anglosphere. Any business traveller who loses a passport today, for example, will have to wait until Wednesday 7 January for emergency documents, and residence-permit applicants collecting cards after Christmas face an extra 24-hour delay.
For travellers who suddenly find their plans upended by these closures, VisaHQ can offer a useful buffer. Through its portal (https://www.visahq.com/finland/), the service tracks consular holiday calendars, alerts users to unexpected shutdowns like Epiphany and helps them assemble visa or passport-renewal packets in advance, so applications are ready to submit the moment Finnish missions reopen.
![Epiphany public-holiday closures hit Finnish consular and immigration services worldwide]()
The Finnish Immigration Service (Migri) remains reachable only through its Enter Finland e-portal, but case officers are not issuing decisions until offices reopen on Wednesday. Employers waiting for last-minute approvals on work-based residence permits should therefore avoid booking inbound flights before 8 January, especially with the new six-year residence requirement for permanent permits due to enter into force the same week.
For companies with distributed workforces, the broader implication is that today’s closure affects ancillary services as well. VFS Global centres handling Finnish visas in third countries mirror embassy hours; Digi-logistics such as DHL and FedEx will still collect passports but cannot deliver them to closed missions. Mobility managers should update assignment calendars to include Finnish public holidays wherever their expatriates are based and build in buffer days when setting start-work dates.
Travellers already in Finland should note that municipal registration offices and many Kela social-security desks are also closed. Essential services such as border-control checkpoints at Helsinki-Vantaa Airport continue to operate, but staffing is at Sunday levels, meaning longer queues for manual passport inspection for non-EU nationals.
Although many corporate mobility teams plan around predictable holiday shutdowns, Epiphany can still catch travellers unawares because it is not observed in most of the Anglosphere. Any business traveller who loses a passport today, for example, will have to wait until Wednesday 7 January for emergency documents, and residence-permit applicants collecting cards after Christmas face an extra 24-hour delay.
For travellers who suddenly find their plans upended by these closures, VisaHQ can offer a useful buffer. Through its portal (https://www.visahq.com/finland/), the service tracks consular holiday calendars, alerts users to unexpected shutdowns like Epiphany and helps them assemble visa or passport-renewal packets in advance, so applications are ready to submit the moment Finnish missions reopen.
The Finnish Immigration Service (Migri) remains reachable only through its Enter Finland e-portal, but case officers are not issuing decisions until offices reopen on Wednesday. Employers waiting for last-minute approvals on work-based residence permits should therefore avoid booking inbound flights before 8 January, especially with the new six-year residence requirement for permanent permits due to enter into force the same week.
For companies with distributed workforces, the broader implication is that today’s closure affects ancillary services as well. VFS Global centres handling Finnish visas in third countries mirror embassy hours; Digi-logistics such as DHL and FedEx will still collect passports but cannot deliver them to closed missions. Mobility managers should update assignment calendars to include Finnish public holidays wherever their expatriates are based and build in buffer days when setting start-work dates.
Travellers already in Finland should note that municipal registration offices and many Kela social-security desks are also closed. Essential services such as border-control checkpoints at Helsinki-Vantaa Airport continue to operate, but staffing is at Sunday levels, meaning longer queues for manual passport inspection for non-EU nationals.
