Background:

Since 2017, the Finnish Immigration Service has been conducting systematic post-decision monitoring of valid residence permits in order to survey whether a residence permit holder still fulfills the criteria of his/her residence permit. Until last year, the post-monitoring process has been fully manual, and thus, time-consuming. Since the end of 2022, the Finnish Immigration Service launched a project to create and develop automatic tools to conduct post-monitoring en masse. The Finnish authorities wish to know more about the processes in place across EMN Member and Observer Countries.

Respondents:

20 EMN Member and Observer Countries (including BE) provided a public answer to this ad hoc query.

Findings:

A preliminary analysis of the results of the ad hoc query shows that:

• Out of 20 responding countries, only 5 countries (EE, FI, GE, LV, SE) have reported conducting systematic post-monitoring of valid residence permits. Depending on the country, this monitoring mainly concerns temporary permits granted on the basis of work and studies, and in some cases even permanent residence permits.
   
• In countries where this process is conducted systematically, this is mostly done manually, though some information is available automatically through various databases. In FI, which launched the query, the scope of applicable grounds for automatic post-decision monitoring is constantly being widened.
   
• The objectives of systematising and automating this process are to strengthen control on immigration, ensure up-to-date awareness of third-country nationals staying in the country, and thereby improve authorities’ ability to react to abuse of stay or situations of irregularity.
   
• In all other countries, the monitoring of valid residence permits is conducted (i) on an ad-hoc or random basis, (ii) if the authorities receive information that could be grounds for revoking the permit, or (iii) only at a specific stage of the process. This is the case of BE for instance, where the competent authorities check that the beneficiary of a residence permit meets the conditions of his/her permit only if/when the person introduces a request for renewal of their permit. The objective in these cases is only to check that the applicant continues to meet the criteria for his/her permit.

For further details, please read the compilation of answers attached above.