Registration of citizenship
You can have several citizenships recorded in the Population Information System. We can record your citizenship in the Population Information System based on a valid passport, an original decision on naturalisation or some other reliable evidence.
If you are a Finnish citizen, you have the obligation to notify the Finnish Population Information System of the foreign citizenship you have received.
Read more about losing and retaining Finnish citizenship.
If you are applying for Finnish citizenship, contact the Finnish Immigration Service.
Which documents can I use to prove my citizenship?
- We will enter the date on which you received your citizenship as the reseption date of citizenship.
- Verify whether you need to have the decision legalised and/or translated. Read more about the legalisation of documents. Legalisation is not required if you present the decision and your new passport to us at the same time.
- Submit the original document or a certified copy of it.
- Do not send your passport to us by post.
- If you are a Finnish citizen, you must present a decision on naturalisation or equivalent document issued by official authority. Acquiring a citizenship of another country may affect your Finnish citizenship. The decision on naturalisation does not need to be legalized and you do not need to show us the original document. Present a translation if required.
- A certified passport copy issued by another EU country does not need to be legalised. However, copies issued by other countries need to be legalised. Read more about the legalisation of documents.
- If you are a Finnish citizen, you must present a decision on naturalisation or equivalent document issued by official authority. Acquiring a citizenship of another country may affect your Finnish citizenship. The decision on naturalisation does not need to be legalized and you do not need to show us the original document. Present a translation if required.
- The passport must be valid.
- We will enter the date on which you received your citizenship as the reception date of citizenship.
- The certificate does not need to be legalised.
*We accept photo identity cards from the following countries:
• EU countries, Iceland, Norway, Liechtenstein, Switzerland, or San Marino
- If you are a Finnish citizen, you must present a decision on naturalisation or equivalent document issued by official authority. Acquiring a citizenship of another country may affect your Finnish citizenship. The decision on naturalisation does not need to be legalized and you do not need to show us the original document. Present a translation if required.
If you are unsure what information about you is registered in the Finnish Population Information System, first check your personal and address details.
Do the following
-
Get the necessary document to show your citizenship.
-
Find out whether the document must be legalised and/or translated
Present the document to us either as an original or as a certified copy.
- If your document must be legalised, and you do not want to submit the original, first request legalization for the original document. Then request a certified copy of it. After that, legalise the certified copy as well.
- A certified copy can be issued either by a notary public or by the same authority that issued the original document.
-
Fill out the online form
You can use this form to request:
- the addition of a new citizenship
- the removal of a lost citizenship
- the deletion of incorrect citizenship information
- the addition or correction of your place and country of birth
If you are not able to use the online form, fill in and print out the paper form and deliver it together with your original documents.
-
Deliver the original documents within 1 month of submitting the online-form
A) By post
- Send the form and documents to Digital and Population Data Services Agency, PL 1003, 00531 Helsinki, FINLAND. If your current or most recent municipality of residence is in Åland, send the documents to Statens ämbetsverk på Åland.
- Note! Do not send your passport or idnetity card by post.
B) By bringing the documents to our service location
- You can leave documents at the Agency´s lobby service or mailbox. Book an appointment in advance, if you want personal customer service.
NOTE. You may submit an electronic document via the online form or by email only if it was originally issued in electronic format by a foreign authority. The document must be verifiable through a QR code or a web link. If necessary, the electronic document must also be legalised. An electronic document does not mean a scanned document.
If you do not present the documents within the time limit, the information provided on the form will not be registered in the Finnish Population Information system. In such a case, you will receive a negative decision.
See more detailed instructions for submitting documents.
Submitting documents through the Finnish embassy
If you are a Finnish citizen or a foreign citizen permanently residing in Finland, you may also submit the documents to us through a Finnish embassy abroad in person or by mail. Otherwise, you can ask the embassy whether it is possible to submit documents through them.
Fill in the paper form Citizenship and Foreign Place of Birth at the embassy or in advance. This way, all documents related to your matter will be kept together.
This is how you get the document:
Once your data has been recorded you will receive a notification of registration
- in Suomi.fi Messages, if you are using it
- by post to the address registered in the Finnish Population Information System. Please make sure your address is up to date
- by secure email to the email address you have provided, if you have a Finnish phone number
Check that the information has been entered correctly.
Please note that inquiries and email messages will not speed up the processing of the notifications. We will contact you if we need more information.
Acts related to the matter
Acceptance of documents issued by authorities in EU Member States
Act on the Population Information System and the certificate services of the Digital and Population Data Services AgencyLink to an external website, Opens in a new tabyja-external-link-opens-in-a-new-tab (661/2009) (in Finnish)
Didn’t find what you were looking for on our website?
Contact us
You can find the average processing times on our website.
Telephone service
Telephone service: 0295 536 320
Service hours: Mon–Fri 9–15
If your message contains personal or other confidential information, remember to use secure messaging service. Choose International registrations, [email protected] as the recipient.