No Investment Amount Anywhere, and the Decision Is Split in Two: a Regional Agency Judges the Business and the Immigration Service Grants the Permit
Answer
The general rule applies to you
No exception is recorded for citizens of Belize on this topic. That is the answer, not a gap - everything below is the rule you get, unchanged.
147 exceptions recorded across 54 countries · none match Belize to Finland · Residency through investment
Finland has no investor permit and names no sum of money. The two business routes are the entrepreneur permit and the growth entrepreneur permit, and both turn on somebody's opinion of the business rather than on capital. For the entrepreneur permit, section 79 makes the permit conditional on a favourable partial decision by the elinvoimakeskus, the regional agency, and section 79 a tells that agency what to check: that the company is registered in Finland, that it is assessed to have the conditions for profitable business, that it has sufficient resources, and that it has not substantially neglected taxes or charges. The same agency must also satisfy itself that the applicant's livelihood is secured by income from the business, with a start-up allowance for the early stage: employment income, the company's start-up financing or the applicant's own funds. The growth entrepreneur permit runs on a statement from Business Finland that the business model and the team would meet its own criteria for funding early-stage innovative high-growth companies. Nothing anywhere states a figure.
At a glance
- Minimum investment
- None in sections 79, 79 a, 80, 80 a or 80 b of the Aliens Act
The five sections that make up both business routes were read in full. No sum of money appears in any of them.
- Who decides the business question
- The elinvoimakeskus, by a partial decision binding on the Immigration Service
Sections 79 and 79 a of the Aliens Act, as substituted by Act 582/2025. The partial decision also fixes the permit's length and whether it is temporary or continuous.
- Growth entrepreneur test
- A Business Finland statement that the business model and the team meet its early-stage funding criteria
Sections 80(1) and 80 a. The statement must be no more than four months old when the application is lodged.
- Deadline on the partial decision
- One month, then one more month for the permit decision
Section 84(2) of the Aliens Act, as amended by Act 582/2025.
- Permit length
- Up to two years for a growth entrepreneur; for an entrepreneur, whatever the partial decision says
Section 53(10) allows two years for a section 80 permit; section 79 a(4) leaves the entrepreneur permit's length to the agency.
- Family
- A continuous permit for the growth entrepreneur's family members, applied for in Finland or abroad
Section 80(4) of the Aliens Act.
Requirements
- A company registered in Finland and a leading position in it
- A favourable partial decision from the elinvoimakeskus for the entrepreneur permit
- An assessment that the business has the conditions for profitability and sufficient resources
- No substantial neglect of statutory taxes or charges in the business
- Livelihood secured by income from the business, or in the early stage by employment income, start-up finance or the applicant's own funds
- For the growth entrepreneur permit, a Business Finland statement no more than four months old
In detail
Three Nordic answers to the investor question, none of which is a number
Denmark's record finds no investment threshold anywhere and one business route decided by a panel reading the plan, inside a quota of seventy-five a year. Sweden's finds no investor permit and an Act that asks only that you can run the business and feed yourself. Finland has no quota and no threshold either, but it splits the decision: the regional elinvoimakeskus answers the business question in a partial decision and the Immigration Service answers the immigration question, and section 79 a(4) lets the agency - not the Act and not the Service - fix how long the permit runs and whether it counts as temporary or continuous. That last point matters more than it looks, because a temporary permit does not build towards permanent residence the way a continuous one does.
Country-level policy
Åland is a province of Finland, inside the European Union and inside the Schengen area, and several of the statutes on these pages stop at its shore. The Health Care Act says in its own scope section that it does not apply in the province, except for a training compensation. Sections 60 and 61 of the Driving Licences Act both exclude Åland from what they say about accepting a foreign licence. And the Self-Government Act adds a status that exists nowhere else in Finland: kotiseutuoikeot, the right of domicile, granted to a Finnish citizen who has moved to the province, has had their actual dwelling and home there without interruption for at least five years, and has a satisfactory command of Swedish. Without it, the restrictions in the Åland Land Acquisition Act (3/75) on acquiring real property in the province apply to you, and provincial law may restrict your right to carry on a trade there - with a carve-out for a business run with no helper other than a spouse or one's own minor children and with no business premises.
A reader who opens the Finnish Aliens Act looking for the money will not find it. The general salary floor for a work-based permit is a cross-reference into chapter 5, section 4(2) of the Unemployment Security Act, a provision about how much a month of work must pay before it counts towards unemployment benefit; the amount there is 1,134 euros and the indexation clause two hundred sections later adjusts the subsection above it and not that one. The employee permit's extra floor is set by government decree and the decree, 860/2024, is two sections long and says 1,600 euros. The specialist permit asks for the average gross wage of a wage earner and names no figure and no publisher. The new four-year route to permanent residence asks for 40,000 euros of income in the last completed taxation, adjusted each January by the wage coefficient in section 96 of the Employees Pensions Act and expressed at 2026 level. Four thresholds, four mechanisms, and the only one a reader can look up inside the immigration statute is the one with no number in it.
What applies to you
Nothing changes for a citizen of Belize
We have no rule recorded that treats your citizenship differently here, so the general rule above is the one that applies to you. That is an answer, not a gap.
What the law says
«Ulkomaalaiselle, jonka tarkoituksena on johtavassa asemassa harjoittaa yritystoimintaa ja jonka hakemukseen elinvoimakeskus on tehnyt myönteisen osapäätöksen, myönnetään hakemuksesta yrittäjän oleskelulupa.»Our translation - not official
On application, a residence permit for a self-employed person is granted to a foreigner whose purpose is to carry on business activity in a leading position and on whose application the elinvoimakeskus has made a favourable partial decision.
About this source
Finland's state legal information service, run by the Ministry of Justice. It publishes the Suomen säädöskokoelma - the statute series, where an Act takes effect on publication - and, separately, the ajantasainen consolidated text of each Act with later amendments worked into it. Every statute carries an ELI identifier that states the date of the consolidated version, so the cut-off is on the page rather than inferred: the Aliens Act 301/2004 was read at http://data.finlex.fi/eli/sd/2004/301/ajantasa/2026-06-26/fin. The site is bilingual by law and serves Finnish and Swedish texts of the same statute at the same address; Finnish is the language quoted here. It also carries unofficial English translations under /lainsaadanto/saadoskaannokset/.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: The English translations are not the instrument and must never be quoted as one - they are produced by ministries, carry their own amendment cut-offs separate from the Finnish text's, and several are years behind it. The consolidated text is the right thing to quote for what the law is now, but it prints provisions that are not yet in force alongside those that are, each marked with its own commencement date: the Nationality Act consolidation of 16 June 2026 carries the 2027 citizenship-exam wording of section 13 directly beneath the wording in force. A reader who takes the first paragraph they see has a one-in-two chance of reading next year's law. The consolidation also lags the statute series, and each statute's page lists the government bills pending on it; those bills are not law and must not be cited as if they were. The original statute as enacted is a different document at a different address under /lainsaadanto/saadoskokoelma/ and does not carry amendments.
We re-read it every 60 days. More about this source
«Yrittäjän oleskeluluvan myöntäminen perustuu harkintaan, jossa tulee varmistaa, että: 1) yritystoiminta tapahtuu Suomeen rekisteröidyssä yrityksessä; 2) yrityksellä arvioidaan olevan kannattavan liiketoiminnan edellytykset; 3) yrityksellä on riittävät resurssit liiketoiminnan toteuttamiseen; 4) yritystoiminnassa ei ole olennaisesti laiminlyöty lakisääteisiä velvollisuuksia suorittaa veroja tai maksuja.»Our translation - not official
The grant of a residence permit for a self-employed person is based on an assessment in which it must be ensured that: 1) the business activity takes place in a company registered in Finland; 2) the company is assessed to have the conditions for profitable business; 3) the company has sufficient resources to carry on the business; 4) the business activity has not substantially neglected the statutory obligations to pay taxes or charges.
The whole of the entrepreneur test, and the place a capital requirement would sit if Finland had one.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
Finland's state legal information service, run by the Ministry of Justice. It publishes the Suomen säädöskokoelma - the statute series, where an Act takes effect on publication - and, separately, the ajantasainen consolidated text of each Act with later amendments worked into it. Every statute carries an ELI identifier that states the date of the consolidated version, so the cut-off is on the page rather than inferred: the Aliens Act 301/2004 was read at http://data.finlex.fi/eli/sd/2004/301/ajantasa/2026-06-26/fin. The site is bilingual by law and serves Finnish and Swedish texts of the same statute at the same address; Finnish is the language quoted here. It also carries unofficial English translations under /lainsaadanto/saadoskaannokset/.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: The English translations are not the instrument and must never be quoted as one - they are produced by ministries, carry their own amendment cut-offs separate from the Finnish text's, and several are years behind it. The consolidated text is the right thing to quote for what the law is now, but it prints provisions that are not yet in force alongside those that are, each marked with its own commencement date: the Nationality Act consolidation of 16 June 2026 carries the 2027 citizenship-exam wording of section 13 directly beneath the wording in force. A reader who takes the first paragraph they see has a one-in-two chance of reading next year's law. The consolidation also lags the statute series, and each statute's page lists the government bills pending on it; those bills are not law and must not be cited as if they were. The original statute as enacted is a different document at a different address under /lainsaadanto/saadoskokoelma/ and does not carry amendments.
We re-read it every 60 days. More about this source
«Elinvoimakeskuksen tulee osapäätöstä tehdessään varmistaa, että ulkomaalaisen toimeentulo on turvattu yritystoiminnasta saatavalla tulolla oleskeluluvan voimassaolon ajan. Yritystoiminnan alkuvaiheessa toimeentulo voi olla turvattu ansiotyöstä saatavalla tulolla, yrityksen käytössä olevalla alkurahoituksella tai hakijan käytettävissä olevilla omilla rahavaroilla.»Our translation - not official
In making the partial decision the elinvoimakeskus must ensure that the foreigner's livelihood is secured by income from the business activity for the period of validity of the residence permit. In the early stage of the business activity the livelihood may be secured by income from employment, by start-up financing available to the company or by the applicant's own funds at his or her disposal.
The nearest thing to a money test, and it is about living on the money rather than about putting it in.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
Finland's state legal information service, run by the Ministry of Justice. It publishes the Suomen säädöskokoelma - the statute series, where an Act takes effect on publication - and, separately, the ajantasainen consolidated text of each Act with later amendments worked into it. Every statute carries an ELI identifier that states the date of the consolidated version, so the cut-off is on the page rather than inferred: the Aliens Act 301/2004 was read at http://data.finlex.fi/eli/sd/2004/301/ajantasa/2026-06-26/fin. The site is bilingual by law and serves Finnish and Swedish texts of the same statute at the same address; Finnish is the language quoted here. It also carries unofficial English translations under /lainsaadanto/saadoskaannokset/.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: The English translations are not the instrument and must never be quoted as one - they are produced by ministries, carry their own amendment cut-offs separate from the Finnish text's, and several are years behind it. The consolidated text is the right thing to quote for what the law is now, but it prints provisions that are not yet in force alongside those that are, each marked with its own commencement date: the Nationality Act consolidation of 16 June 2026 carries the 2027 citizenship-exam wording of section 13 directly beneath the wording in force. A reader who takes the first paragraph they see has a one-in-two chance of reading next year's law. The consolidation also lags the statute series, and each statute's page lists the government bills pending on it; those bills are not law and must not be cited as if they were. The original statute as enacted is a different document at a different address under /lainsaadanto/saadoskokoelma/ and does not carry amendments.
We re-read it every 60 days. More about this source
«Ulkomaalaiselle kasvuyrittäjälle myönnetään jatkuva kasvuyrittäjän oleskelulupa, jos se toimii tai sen tarkoituksena on toimia päätoimisesti vastuuasemassa sellaisessa Suomeen rekisteröidyssä tai rekisteröitävässä yrityksessä, jonka liiketoimintamalli ja yrityksessä toimivien henkilöiden henkilökohtainen osaaminen täyttävät Innovaatiorahoituskeskus Business Finlandin antaman lausunnon mukaan sen alkaville innovatiivisille nopean kasvun yrityksille myöntämää rahoitusta koskevat edellytykset.»Our translation - not official
A continuous residence permit for a growth entrepreneur is granted to a foreign growth entrepreneur if he or she acts, or intends to act, full-time in a position of responsibility in a company registered or to be registered in Finland whose business model and the personal competence of the persons working in it meet, according to a statement given by the Finnish Funding Agency for Innovation Business Finland, the conditions for the funding it grants to start-up innovative high-growth companies.
About this source
Finland's state legal information service, run by the Ministry of Justice. It publishes the Suomen säädöskokoelma - the statute series, where an Act takes effect on publication - and, separately, the ajantasainen consolidated text of each Act with later amendments worked into it. Every statute carries an ELI identifier that states the date of the consolidated version, so the cut-off is on the page rather than inferred: the Aliens Act 301/2004 was read at http://data.finlex.fi/eli/sd/2004/301/ajantasa/2026-06-26/fin. The site is bilingual by law and serves Finnish and Swedish texts of the same statute at the same address; Finnish is the language quoted here. It also carries unofficial English translations under /lainsaadanto/saadoskaannokset/.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: The English translations are not the instrument and must never be quoted as one - they are produced by ministries, carry their own amendment cut-offs separate from the Finnish text's, and several are years behind it. The consolidated text is the right thing to quote for what the law is now, but it prints provisions that are not yet in force alongside those that are, each marked with its own commencement date: the Nationality Act consolidation of 16 June 2026 carries the 2027 citizenship-exam wording of section 13 directly beneath the wording in force. A reader who takes the first paragraph they see has a one-in-two chance of reading next year's law. The consolidation also lags the statute series, and each statute's page lists the government bills pending on it; those bills are not law and must not be cited as if they were. The original statute as enacted is a different document at a different address under /lainsaadanto/saadoskokoelma/ and does not carry amendments.
We re-read it every 60 days. More about this source
«Elinvoimakeskuksen on tehtävä osapäätös viimeistään kuukauden kuluessa 1 momentissa tarkoitetusta hakemuksen vastaanottamisesta. Innovaatiorahoituskeskus Business Finlandin on annettava kasvuyrittäjän jatkolupaa koskeva lausunto viimeistään kuukauden kuluessa Maahanmuuttoviraston 80 b §:n 2 momentin nojalla tekemästä pyynnöstä. Maahanmuuttoviraston on osapäätöksen tai lausunnon saatuaan tehtävä hakemukseen päätös viimeistään kuukauden kuluessa.»Our translation - not official
The elinvoimakeskus must make the partial decision at the latest within one month of the receipt of the application referred to in subsection 1. The Finnish Funding Agency for Innovation Business Finland must give its statement on an extended permit for a growth entrepreneur at the latest within one month of the request made by the Finnish Immigration Service under section 80 b(2). After receiving the partial decision or the statement the Finnish Immigration Service must decide the application at the latest within one month.
About this source
Finland's state legal information service, run by the Ministry of Justice. It publishes the Suomen säädöskokoelma - the statute series, where an Act takes effect on publication - and, separately, the ajantasainen consolidated text of each Act with later amendments worked into it. Every statute carries an ELI identifier that states the date of the consolidated version, so the cut-off is on the page rather than inferred: the Aliens Act 301/2004 was read at http://data.finlex.fi/eli/sd/2004/301/ajantasa/2026-06-26/fin. The site is bilingual by law and serves Finnish and Swedish texts of the same statute at the same address; Finnish is the language quoted here. It also carries unofficial English translations under /lainsaadanto/saadoskaannokset/.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: The English translations are not the instrument and must never be quoted as one - they are produced by ministries, carry their own amendment cut-offs separate from the Finnish text's, and several are years behind it. The consolidated text is the right thing to quote for what the law is now, but it prints provisions that are not yet in force alongside those that are, each marked with its own commencement date: the Nationality Act consolidation of 16 June 2026 carries the 2027 citizenship-exam wording of section 13 directly beneath the wording in force. A reader who takes the first paragraph they see has a one-in-two chance of reading next year's law. The consolidation also lags the statute series, and each statute's page lists the government bills pending on it; those bills are not law and must not be cited as if they were. The original statute as enacted is a different document at a different address under /lainsaadanto/saadoskokoelma/ and does not carry amendments.
We re-read it every 60 days. More about this source
Practical notes
The negative claim rests on reading sections 79, 79 a, 80, 80 a and 80 b in full in the Finlex consolidation of 26 June 2026. No monetary figure occurs in any of them.
Business Finland's own funding criteria, which section 80 incorporates by reference, were not read. What the statement is actually judged against is therefore not stated here.
The government decree naming the competent elinvoimakeskus, promised by section 79 a(5), was not read.
Nothing published by the Finnish Immigration Service was read for this record.
- consolidatesUlkomaalaislaki, consolidated text of 26 June 2026
Finlex, oikeusministeriö · consolidated to 2026-06-26
About this source
Finland's state legal information service, run by the Ministry of Justice. It publishes the Suomen säädöskokoelma - the statute series, where an Act takes effect on publication - and, separately, the ajantasainen consolidated text of each Act with later amendments worked into it. Every statute carries an ELI identifier that states the date of the consolidated version, so the cut-off is on the page rather than inferred: the Aliens Act 301/2004 was read at http://data.finlex.fi/eli/sd/2004/301/ajantasa/2026-06-26/fin. The site is bilingual by law and serves Finnish and Swedish texts of the same statute at the same address; Finnish is the language quoted here. It also carries unofficial English translations under /lainsaadanto/saadoskaannokset/.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: The English translations are not the instrument and must never be quoted as one - they are produced by ministries, carry their own amendment cut-offs separate from the Finnish text's, and several are years behind it. The consolidated text is the right thing to quote for what the law is now, but it prints provisions that are not yet in force alongside those that are, each marked with its own commencement date: the Nationality Act consolidation of 16 June 2026 carries the 2027 citizenship-exam wording of section 13 directly beneath the wording in force. A reader who takes the first paragraph they see has a one-in-two chance of reading next year's law. The consolidation also lags the statute series, and each statute's page lists the government bills pending on it; those bills are not law and must not be cited as if they were. The original statute as enacted is a different document at a different address under /lainsaadanto/saadoskokoelma/ and does not carry amendments.
We re-read it every 60 days. More about this source