Job-seeking in an EU/ETA country or Switzerland

If you are unemployed and travel to seek a job in another EU/EEA country or Switzerland, you can continue to apply for daily allowance from us. We can pay earnings-related daily allowance for the duration of your job-seeking in the following cases:

• Before leaving, you have been an unemployed job-seeker in Finland for at least four weeks.
• You have requested and received from us a document (PD U2).
• You have registered as a job-seeker in the country of job-seeking within seven days from when you stopped being available on the Finnish labour market.

We will give you on request a PD U2 document, stating for what period we can pay daily allowance for job-seeking abroad and the date by which you need to register as a job-seeker in the job-seeking country at the latest.

You can apply for daily allowance from us to support your job-seeking for a maximum of three months. The job-seeking shall not, however, extend the maximum payment period of the earnings-related daily allowance. So, if your maximum payment period expires while abroad, the payment will end, even if the three-month period of job-seeking had not yet elapsed.

The three-month job-seeking period may also consist of several shorter periods. Before the start of the first period you need to be an unemployed job-seeker in Finland for at least four weeks, but between shorter periods it is not required. So you can make shorter job-seeking trips abroad more often than at four-week intervals. Remember to request from us a new PD U2 document for each new job-seeking period and register as a job-seeker in the job-seeking country within seven days from your arrival there.

Congratulations! When you get a job abroad, let us know. If you get a full-time job, you no longer need to apply for daily allowance. You will nevertheless be covered by Finnish unemployment security for the duration of the three-month job-seeking period. So if you get a part-time job, you can apply for adjusted daily allowance from us up to the end of your job-seeking period. If you do not return to Finland, you will be transferred to the unemployment security system of your country of employment after that period.

If you cannot find a suitable job and return to Finland within three months, you can continue to apply for daily allowance from us.

Returning to Finland means that you really come back and register as a job-seeker at the TE Office by the due date. Check your due date from the PD U2 document you received. If you do not register as a job-seeker by the due date, you will lose your right to earnings-related daily allowance. In that case we cannot pay you daily allowance again until you have studied or been at work for four weeks after returning to Finland.

If you find a job and return to Finland later, you are entitled to earnings-related daily allowance, if you meet all general preconditions for the payment of earnings-related daily allowance. On certain conditions we can take into account your work in another EU/EEA country concerning your condition regarding employment in Finland.