Guide: Moving from Finland

Moving abroad from Finland requires you to take care of a number of administrative matters before you leave. This guide is a collection of clear instructions on how to make a notification of move, update population data, social security and tax arrangements, unemployment fund membership, customs clearance of removal goods, etc. Good preparation makes it easier to settle in your new home country.

For a temporary move lasting more than three months, a notification of move must always be made to the Digital and Population Services Agency and Kela. A notification of move must naturally also be made if you move permanently.

Under the Nordic agreement on population registration, all persons living in the Nordic countries must be registered in a population register in one place only in the Nordic countries. Registration always follows the rules of the country you are moving to. The same rules on population registration apply in Åland as in Finland.

You must register with the population register in the new country if:

• you go to Greenland for over 3 months
• you go to Denmark, the Faroe Islands, Iceland or Norway for over 6 months
• you go to Sweden for over 12 months

If you live in two countries at the same time, you must register in the country where you spend most of your time (at least 183 days a year).

You can find more information on population registration in the sections Population registration in Denmark, the Faroe Islands, Greenland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden.

If you move to another country, you always need to make a separate notification to Kela. Based on your notification, Kela decides whether you can still be covered by Finnish social security during your stay in the other country.

You can find more detailed information on which country’s social security you are covered by if you move abroad on the page Which country's social security system are you covered by?

If you have been covered by social security in Finland previously and you go to another country for work, you can transfer unemployment insurance periods accumulated in Finland to your new country of employment. Read more on the page Unemployment benefits in Finland.

National pension, guarantee pension and housing allowance for pensioners can only be paid to people living in Finland. However, national pension and guarantee pension recipients can stay abroad temporarily without losing their right to their pension.

If you receive a pension from Finland and move to another Nordic country, you will receive the same amount of earnings-related pension as before you moved.

Read more on the Suomi.fi service.

As a general rule, taxes are paid in the country where you work or receive income. If you live in a different country from where you work, your income may also affect the tax in your country of residence. For this reason income must be declared for tax purposes both in your country of residence and your country of employment.

If you move abroad and are a Finnish citizen, you will normally be treated as a resident taxpayer in Finland for the year of your move and the following three years. Your general tax liability may, however, end earlier if you prove that you have no material ties to Finland in the tax year. 

You can read more about taxation on the Nordic tax portal Nordisk eTax or on the pages on taxation in the different countries.

Below you will find information on removal goods, vehicles and driving.

Removal goods

If you move from Finland to another country, check what the guidelines are for the country you are moving to. Find out whether your removal goods include items that cannot be imported and how they are cleared through customs. Moving to Åland is considered an internal move within Finland.

If you move from Finland outside the EU (Norway and Iceland and the non-EU territories of the Faroe Islands and Greenland), you must make an export declaration to Finnish Customs. Within the EU, there is free movement of removal goods and they do not have to be declared to customs. 

Find out more about the customs rules in your destination country and on the Finnish Customs website.

Cars

If you move to another Nordic country with a car or other vehicle, the vehicle will often have to be registered in your new country of residence. If you live abroad and stay in a country temporarily, you can use a vehicle registered abroad under certain conditions. Read more about the conditions below.

If you leave your car in Finland and do not drive it at all outside Finland, you do not have to register it in your new country of residence. A vehicle must always have valid motor insurance. You should note that some insurance companies will not insure a vehicle if the owner is not a permanent resident of the country.

Driving licences

A Finnish driving licence entitles you to drive the vehicle categories on your licence in all the Nordic countries. Read more below.

If you move to Denmark, the Faroe Islands, Greenland, Iceland, Norway, Svalbard, Sweden or Åland, the guides below will definitely be useful.