- Marriage
- Examination of impediments to marriage
- Marriage ceremony
- Prenuptial agreement
- Notification of a marriage concluded abroad
- Divorce granted abroad
- Registration of the act applicable to the matrimonial property regime
- Registration of a deed of division of property
- Dissolution of cohabitation
- Removal of marital rights to property
- Extracts issued of the register on the right to officiate at weddings
- Having or adopting a child
- Names
- Moving
- Elections and Right to vote
- Suomi.fi Web Service
- Citizen Certificate and electronic identity
- Guardianship
- Continuing power of attorney
- Appointment of a guardian
- Duties of the guardian
- Guardianship for a minor
- Who can act as a guardian?
- Actions that require the permission of the guardianship authority
- Permit to buy or sell a dwelling
- Permit for purchase or sale of real estate
- Permit for the partition or separation of property and the division of inheritance
- Renunciation of inheritance, for the surrender of one’s share of an inheritance or an agreement on the joint administration of an estate
- Engaging in trade or the establishment of a company
- Property management plan
- Pledging of property and for borrowing and lending
- Leasing or investing a client’s property
- Limited account or the management of the earnings
- Appointing a substitute guardian
- Termination of guardianship
- Giving up the guardian’s task
- Guardianship authority's means of supervision
- Looking after the interests of an absent person or the future owner of the property
- Restrictions to competency and declaration of incompetence
- Extracts from the Register of Guardianship Affairs
- Certificates from the Population Information System
- Population information in the Population Information System
- Registration of a gift notification
- Services of notary public
- Certification of purchase
- Citizens’ initiative
- Death and estate inventory
- Living abroad
- Moving
- Registration of citizenship
- Divorce granted abroad
- Death abroad
- Registration of a child born abroad
- Registration of a name change performed abroad
- Notification of a marriage concluded abroad
- Registration of the act applicable to the matrimonial property regime
- Legalisation of foreign documents
- Notification of retaining Finnish citizenship
- Moving to Finland
- Public Service Info
- Address service
- Forms
Registration of a child born abroad
When a child is born abroad, the child’s details should be notified to the Digital and Population Data Services Agency for recording the child in the Population Information System. The child’s original birth certificate must be attached to the notification. It may be necessary to have the birth certificate legalised and translated.
Notify the Digital and Population Data Services Agency of the birth of your child outside Finland. The child will then be registered in the Population Information System. A Finnish personal identity code can be issued to a child if the child lives in Finland and the prerequisites for the registration are fulfilled or if the child lives abroad but is a Finnish citizen.
A child born and living abroad but whose parent resides in Finland can be recorded as a child under the parent in the Population Information System. However, a personal identity code will not be issued until the child moves to Finland.
Under the law, the person who has given birth to the child is the child’s mother and guardian.
Child born in a marriage to parents of opposite sexes
If the child’s parents are of opposite sexes and married to each other and the child was born during their marriage, the mother’s spouse is the child’s father. Both parents are also automatically the child’s guardians. The child will automatically be given Finnish citizenship if one or both parents are Finnish citizens. To establish paternity on the basis of marriage, the parents’ marriage must have been recorded to the Finnish Population Information System. If the marriage has not been recorded in the Population Information System, the Digital and Population Data Services Agency must first be notified of it.
Child born out of wedlock to parents of opposite sexes
If the child is born out of wedlock, paternity must be confirmed before it can be recorded in the Finnish Population Information System. Subject to certain conditions, a decision on paternity and guardianship that has been issued abroad can be acknowledged in Finland without a separate confirmation. If the child and both parents reside in Finland and paternity has not been confirmed anywhere else, it can usually be confirmed in also Finland. If only the father is a Finnish citizen, the child will not be automatically be given Finnish citizenship even after paternity has been acknowledged and confirmed. A declaration of citizenship must be submitted to the Finnish Immigration Service for obtaining citizenship.
A child with two mothers
If the child has two mothers, the mother that gave birth to the child is the child’s parent and guardian. A decision issued abroad on the parenthood and guardianship of the non-birth mother can be recognised subject to certain conditions. The child will automatically receive Finnish citizenship from the birth mother. If only the non-birth mother is a Finnish citizen, the child can be given Finnish citizenship by declaration. A declaration of citizenship must be submitted to the Finnish Immigration Service for obtaining citizenship. When the child’ details have been recorded in the Population Information System, you will receive an extract from the system.
Do the following
- Fill the notification form
Notification form for a child born abroad
- Submit the child’s original birth certificate and the original documents confirming parenthood to the Digital and Population Data Services Agency.
- If you are a Finnish citizen, you can also deliver the documents to a Finnish diplomatic mission.
- Read the separate instructions for having documents translated and legalised.
Frequently asked questions
Scanned copies of documents alone are not sufficient. You must also submit the original documents for the Digital and Population Data Services Agency to see. See also separate instructions for the legalisation and translation of documents
Yes. If the parents are married when the child is born and their marriage has not yet been registered in the Population Information System, the parent’s marriage certificate must also be presented to the Digital and Population Data Services Agency.
If the child holds the citizenship of another state in addition to Finnish citizenship, evidence such a passport is required of the other citizenship. Read more about notifying your citizenship to the Population Information System.
Yes, you must also present the documents to the Digital and Population Data Services Agency.
Contact us
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Telephone service
Telephone service from Monday to Friday 9-12
Telephone number +358 295 536 320
Service locations
- Individuals
- Marriage
- Examination of impediments to marriage
- Marriage ceremony
- Prenuptial agreement
- Notification of a marriage concluded abroad
- Divorce granted abroad
- Registration of the act applicable to the matrimonial property regime
- Registration of a deed of division of property
- Dissolution of cohabitation
- Removal of marital rights to property
- Extracts issued of the register on the right to officiate at weddings
- Having or adopting a child
- Names
- Moving
- Elections and Right to vote
- Suomi.fi Web Service
- Citizen Certificate and electronic identity
- Guardianship
- Continuing power of attorney
- Appointment of a guardian
- Duties of the guardian
- Guardianship for a minor
- Who can act as a guardian?
- Actions that require the permission of the guardianship authority
- Appointing a substitute guardian
- Termination of guardianship
- Giving up the guardian’s task
- Guardianship authority's means of supervision
- Looking after the interests of an absent person or the future owner of the property
- Restrictions to competency and declaration of incompetence
- Extracts from the Register of Guardianship Affairs
- Certificates from the Population Information System
- Population information in the Population Information System
- Registration of a gift notification
- Services of notary public
- Certification of purchase
- Citizens’ initiative
- Death and estate inventory
- Living abroad
- Moving
- Registration of citizenship
- Divorce granted abroad
- Death abroad
- Registration of a child born abroad
- Registration of a name change performed abroad
- Notification of a marriage concluded abroad
- Registration of the act applicable to the matrimonial property regime
- Legalisation of foreign documents
- Notification of retaining Finnish citizenship
- Moving to Finland
- Public Service Info
- Address service
- Forms
- Marriage
- Organisations
- Certificates
- Updating customer registers
- Sampling and analysis services
- Search services of the Population Information System
- Local Register Office Register search services
- Extracts from registers
- Maintaining the Population Information System
- Suomi.fi services
- Services to promote digitalisation
- Digital security services
- Services of notary public
- Certification of purchase
- Right to officiate weddings
- E-services
- About the agency