Identification
If you apply for a residence permit or citizenship in the online service Enter Finland, you have to visit a service point of the Finnish Immigration Service, or if you are applying for a residence permit abroad, a Finnish mission (embassy or consulate) to prove your identity.
During the same visit, you must present the originals of the documents that you have attached to your application, and possibly give your fingerprints for a residence permit card.
You should normally visit a Finnish mission or a service point in Finland to identify yourself in person within three months of the date on which you submit your application via the Enter Finland online service. The deadline for identification has now been extended until 31 December 2020. Read more at migri.fi/en/handling-matters-during-the-coronavirus-epidemic.
Extended permit without visiting a service point to prove your identity
If you are applying for an extended permit, you do not necessarily need to visit a service point. When you start using strong electronic identification in the online service Enter Finland and submit an application for an extended permit, the service will tell you whether you need to visit a service point to prove your identity or not.
Start using strong identification in Enter Finland to see whether you can avoid visiting a service point. This is what you should do:
- Use strong electronic identification when you log in to the online service Enter Finland. Strong electronic identification means that you verify your identity in Enter Finland with your online banking credentials, citizen certificate or mobile certificate.
- Attach the retrieval code for your digital passport photo to your application. You will get a digital passport photo and its retrieval code from a photo shop. Enter your photograph retrieval code into the field ‘Passport photo’ on the first page of the online application form.
- Fill in all sections of the application.
- Pay for your application in the online service. You can pay for your application on the fifth page of the online application form. You can pay for your application with the most common payment cards or with Finnish online banking credentials.
- Apply for an extended permit before your previous permit expires.
The online service Enter Finland will tell you whether you need to visit a service point or not
If you do not need to visit a service point, Enter Finland will show you the following message:
"You do not need to visit a service point
Congratulations, your application is now pending! You do not need to visit a Finnish Immigration Service service point, because we already have all necessary information. If we need more information from you while the application is being processed, we will contact you. The service point you chose is stated below. If you have already booked an appointment at a Finnish Immigration Service service point, cancel it in the appointment system. Instructions on how to cancel an appointment can be found at migri.fi/ajanvaraus.
(your selected service point)"
If you do need to visit a service point, Enter Finland will show you the following message:
"Visit your service point
You need to visit a Finnish Immigration Service service point within three months to verify your identity. At the same visit, you will show the official the original versions of the attachments to your application. You can find more detailed information on what you need to bring with you on the page Visiting a service point.
Book an appointment in our online service. You can book an appointment at any service point. You can find instructions on the page How to book an appointment.
Due to the coronavirus situation, the identification period of three months has been temporarily extended. We will tell you when the temporary arrangement ends. Follow the Finnish Immigration Service’s bulletins at migri.fi/coronavirus.
The service point you selected in the application is:
x"
Changing from weak identification to strong identification
Weak identification means that you have logged in to the online service Enter Finland using your email address and a password.
Strong electronic identification means that you verify your identity in Enter Finland with your online banking credentials, citizen certificate or mobile certificate.
If you already have a user account in Enter Finland and you have used your email address to log in, you do not need to create a new account. You can update your account to an account with strong identification.
Change your account to an account with strong identification before applying for an extended permit. If you change your account to an account with strong identification after submitting your application for an extended permit, you cannot avoid visiting a service point.
- In the menu, select ‘My Account’.
- Select ‘Change now’ to get to the Suomi.fi login page, where you can log in to the online service using strong electronic identification, for example your Finnish online banking credentials.
After you have logged in to the online service using strong identification, your account will be updated to an account with strong identification. In the future, you must use strong identification to log in to your account.