Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland (hereinafter referred also as "MFA", “Contracting Authority” or “Customer”) requests Candidates to submit a request to participate for a procurement of Finland MFA Entry Permit Application Submission Services.

The procurement concerns providing entry permit and visa application submission services globally. The object is to have a concession agreement on the outsourcing of visa and entry permit application services. The concession agreement will consist of a main agreement having common terms and conditions, including service descriptions, and local sub-contracts defining local amendments and deviations. Additionally, the concession agreement may also include other consular services.

The Service Provider is entitled to obtain application fees as compensation for providing the service. The Service Provider is not entitled to separate compensation from the MFA.

The contract period is no more than 120 months. The total contract period is chosen to enable the Service Provider to recoup the costs of investments made for the performance of the contract. The contract period starts from the signing of the contract.

The procurement is arranged in compliance with the Finnish Act on Public Procurements and Concession Contracts (1397/2016). The procurement procedure is a restricted procedure. Interested Candidates may request to participate by submitting their request to participate through the Supplier Portal. The requests must be submitted in English.

The tender documents are available in English language excluding the agreement on the processing of personal data, its appendix and the main contract ("Palvelusopimus") that are available in Finnish language. Should the Candidate wish to obtain the tender documents in another language, they shall themselves arrange for their translation and bear the costs thus incurred.

Any Candidate may participate independently or use sub-contractors. Group of Candidates may also form a consortium. In such a case, all members of consortium are juridically and economically responsible for the services and all members must fill in the ESPD form. In case of a consortium, one member shall be nominated as the Lead Company coordinating the tender and representing the Consortium in contractual terms.

If, during the tendering stage, any changes are made to the relevant EU legislation or technical and security requirements related to residence permits and visas, the selected tenderers must adjust their suggested processes to reflect the changes.

Five (5) Candidates will be selected for the procedure. If there are more Candidates, the five (5) participants for the procedure will be selected on the basis of the criteria specified in this Request to Participate.

The Candidates must have facility security clearance (FSC) vetting and have the FSC certificate. The personnel must have personnel security clearance (PSC) vetting.

The Call for Tenders will be opened only for the participants selected to the procedure. In the tender phase, tenders will be compared according to comparison criteria described in call for tenders. Information on the award criterion set on the Call for Tenders phase is given on Attachment 3.

As a result of the procurement, the Contracting Authority will award the contract to one (1) Supplier.