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Registering an EU citizen's right of residence

Residence card of a family member of an EU citizen in Finland

Apply for the residence card of a family member of an EU citizen if:

  • you are a family member of a citizen of the European Union, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway or Switzerland;
  • you yourself are not an EU citizen; and
  • you will be staying in Finland for over 3 months.

As a rule, a residence card will be issued by the Finnish Immigration Service for 5 years. If you plan to stay in Finland for less than 5 years, the residence card will be issued for the duration of your stay.

  • Expected processing time for electronic application
    6 months

  • Expected processing time for paper application
    6 months

  • Electronic application fee
    52 €

  • Paper application fee
    52 €

Remember to apply for a new residence card before your current card expires. After living in Finland legally and without interruption for 5 years, you can apply for a permanent residence card as a family member of an EU citizen.

This is what you should do:

Make sure you meet the following requirements:

Make sure you have all the attachments needed:

You must present the original documents when you visit the service point. If the documents are not in Finnish, Swedish or English, they must be accompanied by a translation into one of these languages made by an authorised translator.

A document that has been issued by an authority in an EU Member State concerning birth, marriage, registered partnership or death does not need to be translated, if you attach to the document a multilingual standard form issued by the authority.

Apply for the residence card:

Right to work

As an EU citizen’s family member, you have the right to start working immediately after you have arrived in Finland if your family member is already living in Finland. You have an unrestricted right to work, meaning that you are allowed to work in any field without restrictions.

Residence card in Finland for a family member of an EU citizen, EU_KORTTI

Fill in an electronic application