The Citizenship Act was amended on 1 October 2024, and the period of residence which is required for acquiring Finnish citizenship was extended. If you have applied for Finnish citizenship before 1 October 2024, see the page Period of residence – Application submitted before 1 October 2024.
Period of residence
You can apply for Finnish citizenship if:
- you are currently living in Finland and
- you have been living in Finland for the past 8 years and
- your residence in Finland is and always has been legal and supported by a permit.
- Legal residence in Finland means that you have held a valid residence permit or some other right of residence during your entire stay in Finland. Residence under the registration of an EU citizen’s right of residence or the right of residence under the withdrawal agreement (Brexit permit) is legal as well.
In some situations, the required period of residence may be less than 8 years. See which period of residence requirement you must meet in the following situations:
If you have the language skills required for becoming a Finnish citizen, you need to have lived in Finland for the past 5 years.
Please note that you must also meet the other requirements for Finnish citizenship when you submit the application. See the page Citizenship for adults for more information on the requirements that must be met.
If your spouse is a Finnish citizen, you need to have lived in Finland for the past 5 years.
You must have lived together with your spouse for at least 3 years. If your spouse has died, you need to have lived together with your spouse for at least 3 years before he or she died.
‘Spouse’ refers to your husband or wife, your cohabiting partner or your registered same-sex partner.
Please note that you must also meet the other requirements for Finnish citizenship when you submit the application. See the page Citizenship for adults for more information on the requirements that must be met.
If you are a citizen of Denmark, Iceland, Norway or Sweden, you need to have lived in Finland for the last 2 years.
Nordic citizens can also apply for Finnish citizenship by submitting a citizenship declaration. In that case, the required period of residence is 5 years.
Please note that you must also meet the other requirements for Finnish citizenship when you submit the application. See the page Citizenship declaration for a Nordic citizen for more information on the requirements that must be met.
If your spouse is a Finnish citizen and a diplomat, you need to have lived in Finland for the past 2 years.
Add to your application a certificate issued by the Finnish Ministry for Foreign Affairs of your Finnish spouse’s employment with a Finnish mission.
‘Spouse’ refers to your husband or wife, your cohabiting partner or your registered same-sex partner.
Please note that you must also meet the other requirements for Finnish citizenship when you submit the application. See the page Citizenship for adults for more information on the requirements that must be met.
If you are stateless (you do not have a citizenship), you need to have lived in Finland for the past 5 years.
Please note that you must also meet the other requirements for Finnish citizenship when you submit the application. See the page Citizenship for adults for more information on the requirements that must be met.
In some rare cases, it is sufficient if you have lived in Finland for the past 3 years. In that case, 1 of the following conditions must be met:
- You have permanent full-time work in Finland and it would be unreasonably difficult to be engaged in this work without Finnish citizenship. Add to your application a statement issued by your employer.
- There are otherwise very serious reasons for an exception. Add to your application your own free-form statement explaining that there are very serious reasons why an exception to the period of residence requirement should be made in your case.
Please note that you must also meet the other requirements for Finnish citizenship when you submit the application. See the page Citizenship for adults for more information on the requirements that must be met.
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.
How does residence outside Finland affect the period of residence?
We will count the days that you have stayed outside Finland, from the start of the required period of residence to the day when you submit your online application through Enter Finland. If you submit a paper application, we will count the days that you have stayed outside Finland from the start of the required period of residence to the day when you visit a service point of the Finnish Immigration Service to submit your application.
Your period of residence may include a total of 365 days spent abroad. Up to 90 of these days may be from a one-year period immediately preceding the submission of your citizenship application. If you spend more time abroad, the exceeding days will not be counted towards your period of residence.
The day when you leave Finland and the day when you return to Finland are counted towards your period of residence.
If you have stayed outside Finland for a continuous period of 5 years, your period of residence is considered interrupted, and the counting will start over.