Guidelines for matters concerning aliens

Appeal and annexes

• When filing an appeal you should always carefully follow instructions for lodging appeals
• Identify the decision challenged in the appeal document (name of the authority as well as the date and decision number)
• Any annexes must be submitted at the same time as the appeal
• You should submit the appeal, including the annexes, only once
• Submit the appeal through the e-services of administrative and special courts (does not apply to authorities; available only in Finnish and Swedish), by mail, regular mail, or fax, or bring the appeal to the registry of the Supreme Administrative Court in person. The sender bears the responsibility when using e-services, email, mail and fax.
• If you do not use the e-services, for the purpose of service you should always indicate an e-mail address, if possible, as well as other contact information to the extent possible
• If the appeal does not contain all the relevant annexes, the Supreme Administrative Court may reserve the appellant an opportunity to supplement the appeal – the time limit for submitting such supplements is always short
  

Legal aid

• If you wish to present an attorney's invoice, it should always be uploaded to the electronic system (Romeo) when the appeal is submitted. It is not necessary to state the file number of the matter at the Supreme Administrative Court. If you do not know the file number of the matter at the Supreme Administrative Court, you can use the decision number or file number of the administrative court.
• If the invoice or any other document concerning legal aid has not been submitted at the same time as the appeal, the Supreme Administrative Court will, as a rule, not reserve more than one opportunity to submit it – this will be done by telephone, e-mail, or other suitable means. The matter may also be resolved without reserving the opportunity to submit additional documents. According to established case law (e.g. KHO 2014:177 and KHO 2014:178), fees and expenses may, as a general rule, not be determined based on a claim made after the main matter has been concluded.
• The time limit for submitting the missing document will not be longer than one working day
• If the document has not been submitted within the time limit, the fee payable to the attorney may not be determined
• If the invoice includes expenses incurred, you should present an account concerning these expenses (such as interpreting invoice) together with the invoice
• The interpreting invoice should, to the extent possible, contain the following information: the name and/or client number of the client, the name of the interpreter and the languages involved, as well as the date and time of the interpretation.
• If legal aid has been granted against a deductible, you should either indicate in the electronic form (Romeo) that your client has approved the invoice, or submit, together with the invoice, the client's comment concerning the invoice, or indicate that you do not wish for the Court to order the client to pay the deductible to the attorney
• If you wish to request replacement of the attorney in the case, you should submit the approval of the previous attorney together with the request
• A request concerning replacement of an attorney must be reasoned

General questions concerning the procedure

• The procedure before the Supreme Administrative Court is mainly written
• It is not possible to present additional information to the Court at the customer service of the Registry or over the telephone
• The appellant cannot personally visit the referendary responsible for their case or the Justices
• You should always notify the Supreme Administrative Court without delay if the circumstances of the appellant change in a way that affects the proceedings
• If the appeal is subject to the requirement of leave to appeal, the leave to appeal will usually be granted in the same decision as the decision in the main proceedings
• Statistics concerning the average length of proceedings in decided cases are available on the website of the Supreme Administrative Court
• The Supreme Administrative Court endeavours to decide all cases as quickly as possible
• Frequent inquiries concerning the state of proceedings will not expedite the proceedings