Relocating to Finland as a developer
Looking for a job is always a complicated task. And this is particularly true if you are moving for a job. There are several crucial points worth considering when you prepare for relocation. Let’s look at Finland that was ranked as the most attractive country for expats in a William Russell survey.
Taxes and cost of living
If you don't know your exact salary, as a rough estimate you should expect to pay somewhere between 25% and 35% in taxes. If you already know the sum, you can get an accurate estimate for the taxes with the help of the table on this site - the first column is your yearly salary and the third is tax percentage.
When it comes to the cost of living, you can check out Numbeo. In general, rent is quite reasonable, especially if you’re willing to find a place further away from the city center, public transport isn’t that expensive and very efficient and while dining is not the cheapest, lunches are pretty inexpensive.
Work permit
If you’ve managed to get an offer from a Finnish company, the next step is to apply for a work permit. To do this, you should register at EnterFinland and fill a special expert application (provided that your salary is higher than 3k euro gross per month and you have a higher education OR proven related job experience). It is very important to choose this particular type, as applying for any other one in this case (e.g. Residence permit for other employment) you can end up in the standard queue where processing can take considerably longer and from which you cannot be easily moved to the specialist one.
Finding a new home
In Finland, most apartments are rented for a minimum 6-12 months, with a deposit of two months. It's practically impossible to agree to rent an apartment remotely, so it's best to find temporary accommodation for the first one to two weeks you're in Finland and use this time to attend apartment viewings and find an apartment to rent.
Bringing your family with you
Finland is a great place to bring up kids and have a family as education is free and there's all sorts of support for families. Finland has one of the best education systems in the world according to the World Economic Forum. There are English and other language kindergartens and schools. Education, school food and school books are free for earlier grades.
There are of course many details which you should consider before moving. But, all in all, Finland is an easy place to relocate to with a high standard of living for expats.