EU registration (free movement)
If you are a citizen of an EU Member State, a Nordic country, Liechtenstein or Switzerland, you do not need a residence permit to stay in Finland. You can stay and work freely in Finland for up to three months. You need to have a valid identity card or passport.
However, you need to register your right of residence at the Finnish Immigration Service if you stay in Finland for longer than three months. If you are a citizen of a Nordic country (Denmark, Iceland, Norway and Sweden), you need to register your right of residence at a Local Register Office.
When you have submitted your registration, you will receive a personal identity code and your stay in Finland will be legal. Even if you have registered your information in the Population Information System at a Local Register Office, you also need to apply for registration of your right of residence at the Finnish Immigration Service.
You do not have to register your residence if you are staying in Finland for an uninterrupted period of less than three months. The calculation of the three-month residence always restarts from the moment when you return to Finland after travelling outside its borders.
Family members of an EU citizen
You should also register your right of residence if you are a family member of an EU citizen and are also an EU citizen yourself. If you are a family member of an EU citizen but not an EU citizen yourself, you need to apply for a residence card for a family member of an EU citizen.
Registration of children who are EU citizens
For a child who is an EU citizen, a registration certificate is usually applied on the basis of family ties. To apply for registration, you need to fill in a separate application for the child. At least one of the guardians has to be present when the paper application is submitted or when you arrive to prove the child’s identity after submitting an online application.
If both of the guardians are not personally present, you have to get a written consent to the application from the other guardian. The child has to have an own valid passport or identity card.
If your child is born in Finland, remember to register him or her within three months.
Residence must have grounds
An EU citizen must have grounds for residing in Finland and/or sufficient funds to live in Finland. An EU citizen may not cause an unreasonable burden to the Finnish social security system. An EU citizen may arrive in Finland as:
- an employed person
- a self-employed person
- a family member
- a student
You may also register on the grounds that you have sufficient funds to live in Finland, or, in other words, you will not need to rely on social assistance.
In your registration application, you need to present documentation of your grounds for residence and of your sufficient funds. You are not required to have a specific amount of money. We will take your personal circumstances into account when we consider this income requirement.
Right to work
As an EU citizen, you have the right to start working immediately after you have arrived in Finland. Also a family member of an EU citizen, who is not an EU citizen himself or herself, can start working immediately after arriving in Finland.