Are you about to apply for a new residence permit card? Or for a new residence card as an EU citizen’s family member? You do not always need to visit a service point of the Finnish Immigration Service
You can apply for a new residence permit card or residence card online in Enter Finland without needing to visit a service point if you apply for one of the following reasons:
- Your card will expire soon.
- Your card is lost or stolen.
- Your card is so worn out that the information on it is unreadable.
- You have a residence permit sticker on your passport and your passport is about to expire.
In some situations, a service point visit is always required
If you are under 18 years of age, you cannot renew your card in Enter Finland. Instead, you need to book an appointment at one of the service points of the Finnish Immigration Service in our appointment system.
If you need to renew your card due to changes in your name, you must visit a service point. You can, however, fill in the application form in Enter Finland in advance. If you do so, you do not need to state your details separately when you prove your identity at the service point. After submitting the application, book an appointment at a service point.
This is what you should do if you want to avoid a service point visit:
- Log in to your existing Enter Finland account.
- If you have previously used your email to log in, change your login method under ‘My account’ and select either online banking credentials, mobile certificate or citizen certificate as your new login method.
- You need to use the same account as you previously used to apply for a permit.
- Attach the retrieval code for your digital passport photo from the photo shop to your application. The retrieval code may not be more than 6 months old.
- Pay for the application in Enter Finland.
- Send the application. Enter Finland will tell you whether you need to visit a service point or not.
See the page Identification for the most common reasons for having to visit a service point of the Finnish Immigration Service to prove your identity even though you are using strong identification.
The possibility to avoid a service point visit has already been open to those who apply for an extended permit. As a result, more than 10,000 customers have saved time by not needing to visit a service point.
