How to calculate the period of residence
Only the time you have been living in Finland will be counted towards your period of residence. Your residence in Finland must have been legal the entire time.
If there are gaps between your residence permits, the gaps are not counted towards the period of residence.
Before you apply for citizenship, you should count whether you have lived in Finland for a sufficient time. To calculate your period of residence, you need to know the following:
- The date when you moved to Finland.
- The date when you were granted your first residence permit or the date when your right of residence began.
- The number of days you have spent outside Finland.
- If there have been gaps between your residence permits.
- If there is a reason why the required period of residence would be less than 8 years in your case. See above for a list of the situations where a shorter period of residence is sufficient.
Start date of period of residence depends on when and with which permit you have moved to Finland
- If the residence permit was granted to you before you moved to Finland, the start date of your period of residence is the date when you moved to Finland.
- If you arrived in Finland before you were granted a continuous residence permit, the start date of your period of residence is the date when you were granted your first residence permit.
- When you apply for Finnish citizenship, you must have either a valid continuous residence permit (A) or a permanent residence permit (P).
- You must have lived in Finland with either a continuous residence permit (A) or a permanent residence permit (P) for at least 1 year before your citizenship application is decided.
- The start date of your period of residence is the date when you were granted a continuous (A) residence permit.
- In addition, half of the time you have lived in Finland with a B permit before getting an A permit will be counted towards your period of residence.
The start date of your period of residence is the date when you were granted a continuous residence permit (an A permit).
- When you apply for Finnish citizenship, you must have either a valid continuous residence permit (A) or a permanent residence permit (P).
- You must have lived in Finland with either a continuous residence permit (A) or a permanent residence permit (P) for at least 1 year before your citizenship application is decided.
- The start date of your period of residence is the date when you were granted a continuous (A) residence permit.
- In addition, half of the time you have lived in Finland with a B permit before getting an A permit will be counted towards your period of residence.
- If you are a citizen of an EU country or a Nordic country, the start date of your period of residence is either
- the date on which you moved to Finland, or
- the date on which your notification of move was registered.
- The start date of your period of residence depends on which of these took place later.
- If you are an EU citizen, you need to have applied for registration of your right of residence within 3 months of entering the country. This requirement also applies to your underage children living in Finland.
- If you are a family member of an EU citizen, the start date of your period of residence is
- the date when you moved to Finland, or
- the date when your notification of move was registered, depending on which of these has taken place later.
You must submit an application for a residence card for a family member of an EU citizen to the Finnish Immigration Service within three months of entering the country.
