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 must apply for EU registration if you plan to reside in Finland for a longer period than three months without interruption. As an EU citizen, you have an unrestricted right to work in Finland even if you have not yet received a decision on your registration application. You need to have a valid identity card or passport. If you are a citizen of a Nordic country (Denmark, Iceland, Norway or Sweden), or Sweden), contact the Digital and Population Data Services Agency.
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.
Finnish Immigration Service will not grant you a permanent address
If the Finnish Immigration Service registers your right of residence as an EU citizen in Finland, you must then contact the Digital and Population Data Services Agency. This agency can grant you a municipality of residence and register your permanent address if you meet the requirements for this.
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. You have an unrestricted right to work even if you have not yet received a decision on your registration application. If your family member is not an EU citizen, he or she can start working immediately when he or she arrives in Finland, if you are either living in Finland or moving to Finland.
Process of registering the right of residence
Submit the registration request online in the e-service Enter Finland or with a paper application.
You need to submit the application yourself. Your employer or family member, for example, cannot apply for registration on your behalf.
After you have filled in an application, book an appointment at one of the service points of the Finnish Immigration Service:
- If you have applied through the e-service, visit the Finnish Immigration Service to prove your identity and show the originals of the documents that you have attached to your application. If you submit your application through the e-service, pay for it there.
- If you have filled in a paper application, bring it with you. Prove your identity and show the originals of the documents that you have attached to your application.
The processing times for the registration of the right of residence of EU citizens and for residence cards for family members of an EU citizen are laid down in the Aliens Act.
The registration certificate shall be issued immediately after the EU citizen has provided a document showing that he or she fulfils the requirements for registration. A decision on a residence card application for a family member of an EU citizen will be made within six months of the application’s submission date. You may also use the Processing Time Checker to get an estimate on the remaining processing time of your application.
You can follow the processing of your application with the help of our chatbot Kamu. In addition, you will usually receive automated messages at the different processing stages of your application.
If you have submitted your application in the e-service and you need to supplement your application, do it in the e-service. If you have submitted a paper application and you need to supplement your application, do it by post or by bringing additional documents to an office or a service point of the Finnish Immigration Service during opening hours. Fill in a covering note and attach it to your additional documents. Read more on the page "Supplementing your application".
You may cancel your application at any time during its processing. Read more on the page "Cancelling an application".
If you meet the requirements for registration, the Finnish Immigration Service will issue you a registration certificate. It will be given to you when you visit the Finnish Immigration Service. The certificate includes your name and address as well as the date of registration. If we are unable to give you a decision on your visit because some documents are missing, you will receive it later by post or in the e-service Enter Finland.
If you have applied for registration online, you will receive an email or a text message notification when a decision has been made.
When you receive the decision in the online service Enter Finland, remember to save and print the decision for yourself. You may need it later when visiting Finnish authorities.
The decision will remain in Enter Finland for one year after the date when you open the decision for the first time. After a year, the decision, the application, and the attachments will be removed from the online service for reasons of data protection. After that, you will not be able to print the decision from the online service.
The registration of your right of residence is valid until further notice. In other words, you do not have to extend the validity of the registration. When you have resided legally in Finland for a continuous period of five years, you have the right to permanent residence.
You will receive the registration certificate on paper. If you wish to have a Finnish identity card, you may apply for one from the police after the Finnish Immigration Service has registered your right of residence. Further information about applying for an identity card is available on the website of the Finnish police. Please notice that it is not obligatory to apply for an identity card. You may apply for one if you wish.
If you have not saved your EU registration certificate and it has been removed from the online service, you can request the certificate from the Finnish Immigration Service.
If you registered your right of residence less than two years ago and you only need a copy of the decision, you can request the copy from the Finnish Immigration Service free of charge. Tell your customer number or your full name and date of birth in your request.
Send your request to the Finnish Immigration Service
- by email: [email protected] or
- by fax: 0295 411 720 or
- by letter: PO Box 10, 00086 Maahanmuuttovirasto
If more than two years have passed since the decision, you can request a certificate of your right to stay in Finland from the Finnish Immigration Service. The processing fee for the certificate request is 50 euros.
Read more on the page Certificate requests.
If you are not satisfied with the decision, the Finnish law gives you the right to appeal against the decision to an Administrative Court. Instructions on how to appeal will be attached to the decision.
The majority of decisions made by the Administrative Courts are subject to a fee. Contact an Administrative Court to find out more about court fees.
Customer bulletins - EU-registration
EU citizen: To get a permanent address in Finland, you must apply for registration of your right of residence
British citizen: remember to register your right of residence as soon as possible
See if you can find answers to your questions on our Frequently Asked Questions page
Security checks to be introduced at the Finnish Immigration Service
EU citizen: As of 1 January 2017, register your right of residence at a service point of the Finnish Immigration Service
This website is part of the European Commission's Your Europe portal. Did you find what you were looking for? Give feedback to the European Commission! If you wish to give feedback to the Finnish Immigration Service, go to the page migri.fi/feedback.
