Finnish citizenship

You will also find information on the rights and duties of a citizen and on dual citizenship. The terms of citizenship are determined by the Finnish Citizenship Act. The Act also lists the rights and obligations of a Finnish citizen. Read more on the Finlex website.

The Finnish Immigration Service decides on the acquisition, retention and loss of Finnish citizenship within the meaning of the Act and on the determination of citizenship status. Read more about Finnish citizenship on the Finnish Immigration Service website.

The child of a Finnish citizen receives citizenship at birth from his or her parents. 

Finnish citizenship is automatically transferred on the basis of the parents' Finnish citizenship to a child born on or after 1 June 2003

• whose mother is a Finnish citizen
• whose father is a Finnish citizen and is married to the child’s mother
• who is born in Finland and whose paternity by a Finnish citizen father has been confirmed on or after 1 June 2003, or
• who is born in Finland and whose maternity has been confirmed on or after 1 April 2019 to a Finnish citizen who is not the childbearing mother.

If you do not know whether your child has Finnish citizenship from his or her mother or father, you can ask the Finnish Immigration Service to determine the child's citizenship status. Read more on the Finnish Immigration Service website.

You can obtain Finnish nationality by declaration if you are:

• a former Finnish citizen
• a Nordic citizen
• a child born abroad and out of wedlock to a Finnish man or a Finnish non-birth mother
• an adopted child between 12 and 17 years of age
• a young person between 18 and 22 years of age who has lived in Finland long enough

If you are a citizen of Denmark, Iceland, Norway or Sweden and you have reached the age of 18 years, you are granted Finnish citizenship by citizenship declaration if your permanent residence and domicile have been in Finland for the last five years without interruption and you have not been sentenced to imprisonment in this period.

If you are a Nordic citizen but you do not meet all the conditions for applying for citizenship by declaration or if you want to acquire Finnish citizenship already after residence in Finland for two years, you can apply for Finnish citizenship by application.

If you have lost Finnish citizenship, you can obtain citizenship by a simple declaration procedure, which does not require residence in Finland.

Read more about citizenship declaration on the Finnish Immigration Service's website.

If you are a foreign national, you may be granted Finnish citizenship if you have reached the age of 18 years and your permanent residence has been in Finland either for the last five years without interruption or for seven years after reaching the age of 15 years, the last two years of which without interruption. If you can demonstrate satisfactory skills in the Finnish or Swedish language, you can obtain citizenship already after four years’ residence in Finland.

A further condition for obtaining Finnish citizenship is that you have not committed a punishable act and have not materially failed to provide maintenance or to meet your pecuniary obligations under public law. You must moreover be able to provide a reliable account of your livelihood, and prove that you have satisfactory oral and written skills in Finnish or Swedish or similar skills in Finnish or Finland-Swedish sign language.

Derogations can be made to the general requirements for naturalisation on certain grounds that are listed on the Finnish Immigration Service’s website.

Finnish law permits dual nationality, i.e. a Finnish citizen does not lose his or her Finnish citizenship on acquiring citizenship of another state. A citizen of another Nordic country also does not lose his or her citizenship on acquiring Finnish citizenship. Read more on the Finnish Immigration Service website.

You can ask the Finnish Immigration Service to determine your nationality if you do not know whether you are or your child is a Finnish citizen or you do not know what citizenship you are considered to hold in Finland. Read more on the Finnish Immigration Service website.