Finland Work Permit for a Cook: Labour Market Test, 2026

Cooks are not on Uusimaa's list of occupations with reduced labour availability, so a Helsinki restaurant sponsoring a chef from Japan faces the full labour market test: a two week posting on Job Market Finland and a recruitment report before Migri will grant a residence permit for an employed person. Pay at least EUR 1,600 a month, but set the real offer from the MaRa collective agreement, which puts a licensed restaurant's cook at EUR 2,179 to 2,392 a month by experience and a head chef (keittiömestari) at EUR 2,624 to 2,855. Getting your business certified as an employer with Migri in advance is the one thing that speeds up every hire that follows.

1. The labour market test, and why it decides everything

A Japanese chef hired by a Finnish restaurant applies for a residence permit for an employed person (TTOL). Every first application goes through labour market testing, and Migri judges it from four sources: the regional work permit policy, your job posting on Job Market Finland, your recruitment report, and the Labour Force Barometer.

The Uusimaa Economic Development Centre's regional policy for 1 June to 1 December 2026 lists only healthcare occupations, such as doctors, nurses and practical nurses, as having reduced labour availability. No restaurant or cook occupation is on it, and the same document reports almost 115,000 unemployed jobseekers in Uusimaa in April 2026, with unemployment rising especially among service and sales workers. That combination means a Helsinki restaurant gets the full test every time: run the two-week Job Market Finland posting, then file a recruitment report explaining why the applicants who came forward did not fit.

2. What to pay: the permit floor and the collective agreement

The permit condition is a total gross salary of at least EUR 1,600 a month in 2026 for the whole permit period, checked retrospectively on extension. That figure is a Migri condition, not a market wage, and pay must also meet whatever collective agreement covers your restaurant.

Most Finnish restaurants apply the MaRa (Matkailu-, ravintola- ja vapaa-aikapalvelut) agreement between PAM and Matkailu- ja Ravintolapalvelut MaRa ry. Its published wage table, from 1 June 2026, sets a licensed restaurant's cook (palkkaryhmä 4) and, under the separate supervisors' agreement, a head chef (keittiömestari, palkkaryhmä 5):

These are collectively bargained minimums, not ceilings. A specialist Japanese cuisine role, the kind that survives the labour market test, is exactly the kind of role that should be priced above the table, not at it. Evening and night supplements are excluded from the EUR 1,600 permit calculation but are still owed under the agreement; up to half of the EUR 1,600 may be fringe benefits such as employer-provided accommodation, counted at taxable value.

3. Employer certification: the one thing worth doing early

Migri runs a voluntary employer certification scheme for companies that regularly hire from outside the EU/EEA. Certification lasts two years at first, then three years on renewal, and it changes the process in your favour: a certified employer files the terms of employment on the chef's behalf rather than each employee completing that section alone, and a chef hired by a certified employer can apply for a D visa at the same time as the residence permit, travelling to Finland one to two weeks earlier than the standard route allows.

Certification does not apply to intra-corporate transfers, seasonal work, research posts or internships, so a straightforward restaurant hire is exactly the case it is built for. Apply through Enter Finland for Employers before you need it; it is one of the few genuinely free levers an employer has over Migri's own timeline.

4. Job posting and offer letter templates

The Job Market Finland posting and the permit application must state the same requirements. Use a version close to this, adapted to your restaurant:

5. Cost total and backward schedule

6. Hiring without a new permit

Japan's foreign ministry counted 2,545 Japanese nationals in Finland as of 1 October 2025, 1,484 of them permanent residents. Some can work for you without any permit process. Japan and Finland also run a working holiday programme, started in 2023, with no published cap; see our European working holiday guide. Given the Uusimaa test, the practical plan for many Helsinki restaurants is to build the permanent kitchen around people already entitled to work, training them under a Japanese head chef, and reserving a sponsored hire for a genuinely specialist role the test can actually survive.

General information checked against official Finnish and Japanese government sources in September 2026, not legal or immigration advice. Regional work permit policies change every six months and collective agreement rates are renegotiated on their own cycle; confirm current figures with Migri, the Economic Development Centre and PAM/MaRa before applying.