Requesting review of a visa decision

  1. The recipient of a decision made by a Finnish mission by virtue of the Visa Code to refuse or annul a visa or to revoke a visa (otherwise than at the request of the visa holder) may request an administrative review of the decision from the Ministry for Foreign Affairs. Instructions for requesting an administrative review are appended to the decision. The request must be submitted within 30 days from the receipt of the decision on the visa application, and it must be made in writing in Finnish or Swedish.
  2. The processing fee for a request for an administrative review is EUR 255. Payment of the fee is a prerequisite for processing the request.
  3. A decision of the Ministry for Foreign Affairs on a request for an administrative review of a visa matter may be appealed to the Helsinki Administrative Court. The appeal document must be delivered to the Ministry for Foreign Affairs.  Abroad, the appeal document may be delivered to a Finnish mission.  
  4. The Ministry or the mission submits the appeal file to the Helsinki Administrative Court. The appeal must be submitted within 30 days from the receipt of the decision on the request for an administrative review. The appeal must be made in writing in Finnish or Swedish. The Administrative Court fee for appellate proceedings is EUR 270.

EU Community Code on Visas(Link to another website.) (Opens New Window), Regulation (EC) No 810/2009(Link to another website.) of the European Parliament and of the Council

Refusal, annulment and revocation of a visa

If the conditions for issuing a visa are not met, the visa will be refused. A decision to refuse a visa and the grounds for the decision will be supplied on a decision form, which complies with the EU Visa Code.

A visa may be refused on certain grounds mentioned in the Schengen states' common Visa Code. Examples include:

  • you do not have an approved, valid travel document
  • you do not provide justification to prove the purpose and conditions of your stay
  • you do not have sufficient means of subsistence for the duration of the stay
  • you are not entitled to return to the country of origin or to continue to a third country
  • the mission has well-grounded reasons to doubt that you do not intend to exit the Schengen area before the expiry of the visa that you are applying for
  • you may have an entry ban to Finland or to some other Schengen state or be considered to be a danger to a member state's public order, internal security or international relations.

The visa that has already been granted to you will be annulled if the conditions for issuing it were not met at the time when it was issued.

The visa that has already been granted to you will be revoked, if the conditions for issuing it are no longer met.

In visa matters relating to the free movement of EU citizens and their family members(Link to another website.), the applicant may appeal to the Administrative Court without first requesting an administrative review.

Payment in Iran

The fee for handing in a request for an administrative review of a visa decision is 170 euros. This fee can be paid in cash only to the Embassy of Finland in Tehran.​​​​​​​