Guide: moving away from Finland

When you move from Finland to another country, there are many things you need to take into account. In this guide you can find information about notifying a move, population registration, social security, taxation, membership of an unemployment fund and removal goods.

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. The registration requirements will depend on the rules in the country that you are moving to.

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

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

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.

The general rule is that taxes are paid to the country where you work or get your income. If you live and work in different countries, your income may also affect your taxation 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.

Read more about taxation on the Nordic tax portal Nordisk eTax or the pages on taxation in the individual countries.

You can find information on removal goods, cars and driving in the sections below.

Removal goods

You can find information on taking removal goods to your new country of residence in the sections below. Moving to Åland is considered a move within Finland.

If you move outside the EU from Finland (Norway and Iceland as well as the Faroe Islands and Greenland, which are non-EU territories), you need to make an export declaration for your removal goods to Finnish Customs. Removal goods within the EU are covered by freedom of movement, so they do not have to be declared to customs.

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.

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 Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Åland, Greenland or Svalbard, the guides below will definitely be useful.