The Governments of Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden have agreed to conclude the following Agreement on the implementation of the provisions of section 10 of the Danish Nationality Act No. 252 of 27 May 1950, cf. Consolidation Act No. 28 of 15 January 1999, as amended by Act No. 1102 of 29 December 1999, of section 10 of the Finnish Nationality Act (No. 401) of 28 June 1968, as partially amended by the Act of 10 August 1984 (584/1984) and the Act of 3 February 1995 (155/1995), of section 9 (b) of the Icelandic Nationality Act No. 100 of 23 December 1952, as amended by Act No. 49 of 11 May 1982, Act No. 62 of 12 June 1998 and Act No. 82 of 16 June 1998, of section 10 of the Norwegian Nationality Act of 8 December 1950, as amended by the Act of 20 December 1968, and of sections 17-19 of the Swedish Nationality Act (No. 82) of 1 March 2001.

Article 1

In the application of section 3 of the Danish, Icelandic, Norwegian and Swedish Nationality Acts and of section 5 of the Finnish Nationality Act, residents in another Contracting State shall be placed on an equal footing with residents in the State whose nationality the applicant wishes to acquire, but only to the extent that such period of residence occurred before the applicant attained the age of sixteen years and more than five years before the application was made.

Article 2

In application of section 4 of the Danish, Icelandic, Norwegian and Swedish Nationality Acts and of section 6 of the Finnish Nationality Act, residence in another Contracting State before the applicant attained the age of twelve years shall be placed on an equal footing with residence in the State whose nationality the applicant wishes to acquire.

Article 3

The provisions of section 8, paragraph 1, of the Danish, Icelandic and Norwegian Nationality Acts, of section 8 (b), part 1, of the Finnish Nationality Act and of section 14, paragraph 1, of the Swedish Nationality Act shall not apply to persons who have resided in another Contracting State for a total of seven or more years.

Article 4

A national of one Contracting State may acquire the nationality of another Contracting State by submitting a written application with a declaration to the authority designated for the purpose by the latter State, provided that:

(1) He did not acquire the nationality of the former State by naturalization,

(2) He has completed his eighteenth year,

(3) He has been a resident of the other State for the past seven years; and

(4) He has not during that period been sentenced to a term of imprisonment or received a sentence entailing measures which in this respect have the same consequence as imprisonment under the law of the latter State. In the application of the provisions of subparagraph 1 of the first paragraph, a person who has acquired his nationality through the naturalization of one of his parents shall also be deemed to have acquired the said nationality by naturalization. In the application of the provisions of subparagraph 3 of the first paragraph, any Contracting State may establish a shorter period of residency, which shall not be less than five years.

Article 5

A national of one Contracting State who has previously been a national of another Contracting State may, after having first taken up residence in the latter State, regain the nationality of that State by submitting an appropriate written application to the authority designated for the purpose by the said State.

Such application may, however, be made only if the applicant, since losing the nationality which he wishes to regain, has continuously had the nationality of one or more of the Contracting States.

Article 6

Where, under article 4 or article 5, a national of one Contracting State acquires the nationality of another Contracting State, his unmarried children under the age of eighteen years shall acquire the same nationality in accordance with the regulations in force under the nationality legislation of the State in question.

Any Contracting State may, in that regard, establish that the provisions of article 7 shall be applied in a corresponding manner.

Article 7

In the application of the provisions of articles 4 and 5, any Contracting State may decide that nationality may be acquired in accordance with these provisions, provided that the applicant making the declaration proves that by doing so he loses his nationality in other States.

Article 8

Each Contracting State shall, at the earliest opportunity, inform the other Contracting States of any amendments to its Nationality Act which might affect this Agreement. The Contracting States shall, at the earliest opportunity thereafter, jointly decide to what extent such amendments shall give rise to an amendment to this Agreement.

Article 9

This Agreement shall enter into force 30 days after the date on which all the Contracting States have informed the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs that they have approved the Agreement. The Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs shall inform the other Contracting States of such confirmation and of the date on which the Agreement shall enter into force. As from that date, the Agreement concluded at Copenhagen on 23 October 1998 between Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden on the implementation of certain provisions concerning nationality shall cease to have effect.

Article 10

A Contracting State may denounce the Agreement by submitting written notification to that effect to the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which shall inform the other Contracting States of receipt of such notification and its content. Denunciation shall affect only the Contracting State in question, and shall take effect six months after the date on which the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs received notification of such denunciation.

Article 11

The original text of this Agreement shall be deposited with the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which will circulate certified copies of the Agreement to the other Contracting States. In witness whereof the undersigned, being duly authorized for the purpose, have signed this Agreement.

Done at Copenhagen, on 14 January 2002, in quintuplicate in the Danish, Finnish, Icelandic, Norwegian and Swedish languages, each text being equally authentic.

Unless otherwise indicated, the translation of this text into English has been made by the Secretariat of the United Nations, See 2092UNTS36317.

Signing of agreement

Date: Jan 14, 2002

Location: København