- 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
Legalisation of foreign documents
Foreign public documents (issued by authorities) that are presented to local register offices to justify register entries or some other official activity must be appropriately legalised and a translation into Finnish, Swedish or English must be attached to them.
The document must be original or a copy that has been reliably certified. A reliably certified copy means that the authority which issued the document has certified the authenticity of the copy or that a notary public in the country in question has notarised the authenticity of the copy of the original legalised document. The above-mentioned copy must also be legalised. However, if the copy of the original legalised document has been certified by a Finnish diplomatic mission, it does not need to be separately legalised.
The legalisation of a document is a measure that is related to the customer’s legal protection. It ensures that the party issuing the certificate has the right under the country’s legislation to issue such a certification and that its content is correct and it is a valid document in the country of issue. For example, as regards marriage certificates, it is important that the officiator has under the country’s legislation the right to officiate at weddings.
Key terms
Legalisation using an Apostille
The document is certified using an Apostille (a stamp or a certificate on paper) if the country has joined the Hague Convention of 19611. You will find more information on Apostilles and the countries that have joined this Hague Convention on the website http://www.hcch.net. The website also provides information on the authorities issuing such a certificate in the different countries that are party to the Convention.
Certain public documents issued by authorities in EU Member States are accepted without an Apostille. You will find the EU countries at europa.eu/european-union/about-eu/countries_fi.
Translations
Documents are accepted in Finnish, Swedish or English. Documents in other languages must be translated into one of the above-mentioned languages. You can have the document translated in Finland by an authorised translator. More information on this is available on the website of the Finnish National Agency for Education (register of authorised translators, in Finnish). The translation will then be accepted as such.
It is possible to attach a multilingual standard form as a translation aid to a public document issued by an EU Member State. You can request more information on these standard forms from the authorities of the state in which you obtain the certificate. Alternatively, you can have the document translated by an official translator in one of the EU Member States.
Other translations made abroad must be legalised according to the above instructions for legalisation.
Legalisation
The document is certified using an Apostille (a stamp or a certificate on paper) if the country has joined the Hague Convention of 19611. You will find more information on Apostilles and the countries that have joined this Hague Convention on the website http://www.hcch.net. The website also provides information on the authorities issuing such a certificate in the different countries that are party to the Convention.
Certain public documents issued by authorities in EU Member States are accepted without an Apostille.
As from 16 February 2019, a regulation (Regulation (EU) 2016/1191) according to which certain public documents issued by an EU Member State must be accepted without an Apostille when presented to a public authority in another Member State will be applied.
Such public documents are certificates the main purpose of which is to confirm one of the following matters: birth, a person being alive, death, name, marriage, capacity to marry, marital status, divorce, registered partnership, registered partnership status, dissolution of a registered partnership, parenthood, adoption, domicile and/or residence, or nationality.
The document must be the original document, a copy that has been certified as authenticby the issuing authority, or a copy issued by an authority that has the right to issue official copies in the EU country in question. You will find the EU countries at https://europa.eu/european-union/about-eu/countries_fi
If the document has been issued in a country that is not party to the Hague Apostille Convention, the procedure for legalising the document is the following: the ministry for foreign affairs of the country that issued the document legalises the document by certifying that the correct authority has issued it. After that, the competent Finnish diplomatic mission in the country in question legalises the document by attaching to it a certificate proving the right of the official at the country’s ministry for foreign affairs to issue such certificates.
In other words, the legalisation of the document takes place in three stages:
- The authority issuing the document signs the document and stamps it with its official stamp.
- The ministry for foreign affairs of the country of origin of the document certifies the authenticity of the signature and official stamp of the authority that issued the document.
- The Finnish diplomatic mission operating or authorised to operate in the country of origin of the document or an appointed consular official certifies the signature and official stamp of the official of the country’s ministry for foreign affairs.
Legalisation of a document in an embassy of another Nordic country
If the country in question does not have a Finnish embassy, the following applies: the Nordic countries (Finland, Sweden, Denmark, Norway and Iceland) have agreed that in the absence of a mission of their own in a particular country, the diplomatic mission of another Nordic country in the country in question can legalise the document. Alternatively, the document can be legalised at the nearest Finnish embassy. Please note that a different legalisation procedure is applied in Western Africa. Separate instructions are available for it.
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