Confirmation of gender
Confirmation of gender means that your gender entered in the Population Information System will be corrected to correspond to your gender identity.
We can confirm that you belong to another gender if the following conditions are met:
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you are an adult
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you are a Finnish citizen or have a place of residence in Finland
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you write a separate account of your feeling of permanently being of the gender to be confirmed in the application.
Your personal identity code changes at the same time when your gender is confirmed.
Confirmation of gender requires you to submit an application and confirm it later
You can apply for confirmation of gender with an application from us. After that, you must confirm your application. You can do this at the earliest 30 days and no later than six months after submitting the application. If you do not confirm your application, we cannot confirm your gender and the matter will lapse. In this case, you can submit a new application if you wish.
Follow these instructions
1. Apply using our online form
You will need online banking codes or a mobile certificate to use it.
Are you unable to handle your matter online?
Contact us by calling our national service number +358 295 536 220. We serve on weekdays between 9:00 and 12:00 am.
2. Read the information package
We will send you information on the impacts of confirmation of gender and changing your personal identity code either by post or in Suomi.fi Messages, if you have enabled it. Please read the information package carefully.
3. Confirm your application using the online form
Confirm your application at the earliest 30 days and no later than six months after submitting the application. The easiest way to do this is by using our online form.
Online form to confirm the application (in Finnish)
Are you unable to handle your matter online?
Contact us by calling our national service number +358 295 536 220. We serve on weekdays between 9 am and 12 noon.
4. We will make a decision.
If the decision is positive, we will register the data in the Population Information System and change your personal identity code. Your new personal identity code can be found on an extract from the Population Information System which is attached to the decision.
If you are married or in a registered partnership at the time of confirmation of gender, your form of partnership remains unchanged. We will notify your spouse of the confirmation of your gender.
Need help?
See frequently asked questions at the bottom of the page.
Telephone service number is +358 295 536 220
Service hours:
- Mon 9-15
- Tue-Fri 9-12
Processing time
We will send you an information package without delay when your application has arrived.
We will resolve your confirmed application in about two weeks.
Frequently asked questions
The report is free-form. The most important thing is that you write it yourself and that it indicates that you permanently feel that you belong to the gender that will be confirmed.
No, it cannot. It is possible to enter woman or man as one’s gender in the Population Information System.
Submit your application for a change of forename either by using the online form or the downloadable form. In the application for a change of name, mention that you have a pending application for confirmation of gender at the same time.
The forename change in connection with gender confirmation is free of charge when you change your forename for the first time to match your gender identity. Therefore we do not recommend that you submit your application in the electronic name change service since it charges the processing fee in advance when submitting the application.
As a rule, a confirmed gender is considered a person's gender when applying legislation such as the Conscription Act. The person's conscription is determined by the confirmed gender.
We will tell you more about the impact in the information packet we send you when you submit your application. You can also find an information package at the end of this page.
Provisions on the determination of parenthood are laid down in the parenthood act (775/2022).
The mother is married to a man
If the mother's spouse is a man of their legal gender when the child is born, they are automatically the child's father.
The mother is married to a woman
If the mother's spouse is a woman of their legal gender when the child is born, they are not automatically the child's second mother. Instead, they must acknowledge their parenthood and we will confirm it if the spouses have received fertility treatment together and no father is identified or confirmed for the child.
If the mother’s spouse is a person assigned male at birth who has impregnated the mother, they will be confirmed as the father even if their legal gender is female.
The mother and the father are not married
If the mother and the child's father are not married when the child is born, paternity is confirmed by a decision of the Digital and Population Data Services Agency or a court of law. The father of the child is then regardless of their legal gender:
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the person who has impregnated the mother or
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the person whose sperm has been used for maternal fertilisation other than by impregnating and the child was born as a result of this (e.g. by a so-called home insemination).
The child is born through fertility treatment
If the child is born through fertility treatment, parenthood is determined by the parent's legal gender when they have consented to fertility treatment:
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If the parent's legal gender was male, they become the child's father.
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If the parent's legal gender was a woman, they become the child's mother.
An exception to this is, however, a situation in which the treatment has been given to a female couple or only to the mother who gave birth to the child, and the person whose sperm has been used in the treatment has agreed to confirm paternity. In this case, the person whose sperm has been used for treatment is confirmed as the child's father, regardless of their legal gender at the time of consent.
Maternity or paternity recorded in the Population Information System does not change when the child’s parent confirms their gender. This is legal family status information that cannot be changed.
For this reason, a parenthood title will be added to the Population Information System, i.e. information on whether the parent is the child’s mother or father. You can apply to change the title at or after confirmation of gender from 1 March 2024. You can also apply for a change for children born before 1 March 2024.
If you are married or in a registered partnership at the time of confirmation, your form of partnership remains unchanged.
We will notify your spouse of the confirmation of your gender.
You can submit a new application to confirm gender at the earliest once one year has passed since the previous confirmation of gender. However, you can submit a new application to confirm gender for a particularly weighty reason before the end of the one-year period.
Your original personal identity code cannot be returned even if you return to your gender specified at birth. Instead, you will receive a new personal identity code.
Read more
Information package: Information on the impacts of confirmation of gender
Relevant legislation
Confirmation of gender act (295/2023) (in Finnish)
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