A fifth of annual address changes are registered in August and September

Late summer is a busy time for notifications of move at the Digital and Population Data Services Agency, as tens of thousands of students and families with children move house to start studies or the school year. When you are moving, one of the most important things is to submit a notification of move. Below are tips for submitting a notification. 

The Digital and Population Data Services Agency registers a fifth of all annual address changes, or about 160,000 notifications of move, during August and September. Normally about 50,000 notifications of move are registered each month, with over 730,000 notifications annually. 
The number of notifications affects the processing time. While registration normally takes two weeks, it will now take between four and five weeks. The processing time is calculated from the date of the move, not from the submission of the notification. 

Address change can be registered on the date of the move at the earliest

Notifications of move should be submitted in good time, meaning one month before and at the latest one week after moving. When you follow the instructions for submitting a notification of move, the information is updated as soon as possible after your move date to the Population Information System, so your post will arrive at the correct address from the start.
The Digital and Population Data Services Agency can register the change of address in the Population Information System on the date of the move at the earliest. This is because the Population Information System must always contain up-to-date information on residents living in a set of rooms, which is why the information cannot be entered in advance. 
Some of the processing is done automatically. Especially in the early autumn, most of the moves consist of students moving to another municipality, which requires an official to manually process the change in the municipality of residence. Delays in registration are particularly caused by missing information and having to check it.

Tips for submitting a notification of move 

• Submit a notification of move at the earliest one month before the date of the move or at the latest one week after the move in the joint online service of the Digital and Population Data Services Agency and Posti. To identify yourself, you need Finnish online banking codes or a mobile certificate. 
• Submit a permanent notification of move if you are for example permanently moving out from your childhood home to study in another municipality, and you do not intend to move back to your childhood home within a year. Also read more about a temporary notification of move on our site. 
• Enter the address information and fill in the form carefully. If necessary, explain your situation in more detail under Additional information. This way, you can avoid requests for additional information and the processing goes more easily. 
• Only submit one notification of move. If your upcoming address changes after you have submitted a notification but before the move date, submit a notification of move for the new address. In the additional information field, you can explain that the previous notification of move is unnecessary and can be rejected.
• Once we have processed your notification of move, your new address will be updated in the Population Information System. You can check your information in the Suomi.fi Personal Data service. If you have blocked notifications of move at any point, you can disable the block in the same service before filling in a notification of move.