Job-seeking and working abroad

You can travel to an EU/EEA country or Switzerland to look for a job and receive earnings-related unemployment allowance for the duration of your job search, as if you were an unemployed jobseeker in Finland.

The earnings-related unemployment allowance can be paid for a job-seeking trip lasting up to 3 months. To receive unemployment allowance for the duration of your job-seeking trip, you must have been registered as an unemployed jobseeker in Finland for at least 4 weeks before you start your job-seeking trip.

If you are about to travel abroad to look for a job:

• contact the employment authority; they will check the conditions for a job-seeking trip and inform the unemployment fund if the conditions are met
• ask Sotekassa for a U2 form for your job-seeking trip well in advance of your departure
  • send your name, social security number, country of destination and your exact date of departure to the unemployment fund so that a certificate can be issued
• register with the local employment authority of the destination country within 7 days of departure (including the date of departure).

During your job-seeking trip, you can apply for daily allowance from Sotekassa in the same way as if you were in Finland.

You can continue to receive the earnings-related unemployment allowance even after your job-seeking trip, as long as you return to Finland within three months of your departure and register immediately as a jobseeker in the eServices of Job Market Finland. If you return later than this, you can only receive the earnings-related unemployment allowance after you have worked in Finland for a month or attended training organised by the employment authority for four weeks.

You must also comply with local job-seeking requirements during your trip.

Finding a job during a job-seeking trip

If you find a job during your job-seeking trip, you can still apply for adjusted earnings-related unemployment allowance if your job is part-time or full-time for up to two weeks. If you take up a full-time job for more than two weeks, your earnings-related unemployment allowance will be suspended for the duration of the work.

As a general rule, when moving from one country to another for work, the worker must comply with the laws of the country in which they are working. Unemployment insurance is also taken out in the country of employment.

Your work in the EU/EEA or Switzerland may count towards your employment condition if certain requirements are met.

• If you work in Sweden or Denmark, you must be covered by a local unemployment fund during your employment in order for your work to count towards your employment condition in Finland. There is no similar requirement in other EU/EEA countries.
• When your job ends, you must return to Finland and become a member of an unemployment fund within one month of the termination of your job. If you have had an acceptable reason for being absent from the labour market (for example, if you have been studying or ill), the period of one month is counted from the day you moved to Finland.
• After returning to Finland, you must also have worked for at least one month or have been self-employed for at least four months in Finland immediately before becoming unemployed.

One month’s work or four months’ self-employment is not required if:

• you lived in Finland during the time you worked abroad and your work abroad has ended completely, or
• your most recent job was in the Nordic countries and you have worked in Finland or received unemployment benefit in Finland in the last 5 years.
  • In that case, you have 8 weeks to join a Finnish unemployment fund instead of one month.

Although work carried out abroad can be counted towards the employment condition, the amount of the earnings-related unemployment allowance is usually calculated on the basis of your earnings in Finland.

If you have worked in another EU/EEA country or in Switzerland but lived in Finland during your employment, the amount of earnings-related unemployment allowance is calculated on the basis of the work in the most recent country of employment.

If you work abroad as a posted worker for a Finnish employer, you are covered by Finnish social security during your employment. You can accumulate work history that counts towards your employment condition in the same way as if the work were carried out in Finland. All you have to do is make sure that your membership of the unemployment fund remains valid and that you pay your membership fees in accordance with the fund’s instructions. In these situations, you must also apply in advance for an A1 certificate from the Finnish Centre for Pensions.

If you work outside the EU/EEA or outside another contracting country (in a so-called third country) as other than a posted worker, your work does not count towards the employment condition and the period of work cannot be taken into account in Finland.

You may be entitled to earnings-related unemployment allowance in Finland after you have completed up to one year’s employment in a third country if:

• you can be considered to be resident in Finland on your return, and
• you have fulfilled the employment condition and the amount of unemployment allowance was calculated for you in Finland before you travelled abroad, or
• you worked abroad for such a short period that you have at least 12 calendar months of qualifying work in Finland or another EU/EEA country or Switzerland within the 28-month reference period, and
• you have maintained your membership of the unemployment fund, and
• your work abroad has been sufficiently extensive and you have not been absent from the labour market for more than 6 months without an acceptable reason.

Otherwise, you will lose the unemployment benefit you have accumulated in Finland before travelling abroad. You can only receive earnings-related unemployment allowance after you return from a third country and meet the employment condition again as a member of an unemployment fund.