Alien’s passport

• Appointment system (migri.vihta.com)
• Service points

Apply for an alien’s passport before the expiration date of your current passport. We recommend that you file an application about three months before your current passport expires.

• a passport photo or the photograph retrieval code you received from a photo shop
  • Passport photograph instructions by the police (poliisi.fi, pdf).
  • The passport photo must be no more than 6 months old.
• an identity document
• a passport issued by your country of nationality or your previous alien’s passport
  • If you have the passport of your country of nationality, present the passport at the service point. We can use it to verify your identity.
• when a child under the age of 18 is applying for an alien’s passport, a written consent given by the child’s parents or guardians or the legal representative of the child
  • The child's parents or guardians or the legal representative can either fill in a separate consent form (pdf) or in some other way express their consent in writing.
  • The consent form or statement must be signed by the parent, guardian or legal representative of the child.

• Each applicant must submit an application of their own, even children under the age of 18. 
• Children under the age of 18 must be present at the service point when they apply for an alien’s passport.
• You cannot fill in the application form beforehand. Our employee will print out a form for you to sign.
• We will take your fingerprints at the service point. We take the fingerprints of all applicants who are at least 12 years of age.
• Our employee may ask you for a written statement or document on why you are applying for an alien’s passport. The statement or document can be: 
  • A certificate issued by the authorities of your country of nationality on the fact that you cannot be granted a passport.
  • A free-form written statement containing the following information:
    • A description of how you have tried to obtain the passport of your country of nationality. You can attach, for instance, messages that you have received from the mission of your country of nationality as proof. 
    • An explanation of how and when you intend to obtain the passport of your country of nationality and which documents you will need for that.
    • Reasons why you should be granted an alien’s passport.
• Pay the processing fee at the service point.

• See the expected processing time at the top of this page. You can also use the Processing Time Checker on our website to get an estimate of the processing time.
• If you have also applied for a residence permit, we will make the decisions on the residence permit and the alien’s passport at the same time.
• If we notice that something is missing from your application or if we need additional information from you, we will contact you.
• We do not speed up the processing of the application because of a holiday trip abroad. We do not recommend booking a trip before you have received your alien’s passport.

If you need to add information or documents to your application, you can send the additional information by post or by email. See contact information.

• You can also possible bring your documents to an office or service point of the Finnish Immigration Service during opening hours. Our service points have a postbox meant for additional documents.

You can cancel your application if you have not yet received a decision. If you cancel your application, we will stop processing it and make a decision on the expiry of your application. You cannot appeal the expiry decision to an administrative court.

• If you wish to cancel your application, send a free-form written notification of this to the Finnish Immigration Service in English, Finnish or Swedish. 
• Remember to date and sign the notification. Mention in the notification why you are cancelling your application.

We will post the decision as a registered letter or with advice of delivery to the address that has been entered for you in the Population Information System of Finland.

• If the decision is positive, you will receive your alien’s passport together with it. 
• The period during which you may appeal against the decision begins on the day when the decision has been served on you.
• Please collect the letter as soon as you have received an arrival notification by post. The arrival notification will tell you where you can collect the letter and by what date you should collect it at the latest.
• You will need to prove your identity at the post office. A list of the identity documents accepted (posti.fi) can be found on Posti’s website.
  • If you do not have an identity document accepted by post offices, you can give a written authorisation to a person who has an accepted identity document. Read more about a power of attorney (posti.fi).
• If you do not collect the letter on time, it will be returned to the Finnish Immigration Service. If the letter has been returned to the Finnish Immigration Service, request the agency to send the letter to you again. Send your request in Finnish, Swedish, or English. Include the following in your request:
  • your customer number or date of birth
  • name
  • your current phone number and address, and
  • the information that you are requesting the Finnish Immigration Service to resend you the alien’s passport.
• Send the request to the Finnish Immigration Service by email or post.
  • See contact information.

• If you have previously been granted an alien’s passport and you get a new alien’s passport, please send the old alien’s passport to the Finnish Immigration Service. The new alien’s passport will come with a return envelope, which you can use to return your old alien’s passport.
• If you have a valid passport issued by your country of nationality and you receive an alien’s passport, send the passport of your country of nationality to the Finnish Immigration Service.

• If you are not satisfied with the decision, you have the right to appeal against the decision to an administrative court.  Instructions on how to appeal are attached to the decision.
• Processing an appeal in an administrative court is subject to a fee. For more information about court fees, please contact the relevant administrative court (oikeus.fi).
• When you appeal against a decision of the Finnish Immigration Service, the Finnish Immigration Service is no longer the authority that is responsible for processing the matter. This means that if you have questions about the matter or wish to submit additional information or documents, you need to contact your legal counsel or the administrative court that is processing your matter.