Finnish citizenship
If you meet the requirements for naturalisation, you may acquire Finnish citizenship by application. You may acquire Finnish citizenship by application if
- your identity has been established beyond doubt
- you have reached the age of 18 (a dependent child under the age of 18 can apply for citizenship as co-applicant with the main applicant)
- you meet the residential period requirement, meaning that you have lived in Finland for a sufficient length of time
- you meet the integrity requirement
- you have not neglected your payment obligations
- you have established your means of livelihood
- you have sufficient language skills.
In certain cases, an easier way of acquiring Finnish citizenship is by declaration. You can become a Finnish citizen by declaration if you are:
- a former Finnish citizen
- a Nordic citizen
- a young person between 18 and 22 years of age who has lived in Finland long enough,
- an adopted child between 12 and 17 years of age
- a child (under 18) who was born abroad outside marriage to a Finnish father, or to 2 mothers and your Finnish mother is your non-birth mother
- an adult (18 or over) whose parent is a Finnish citizen
- you were born abroad outside marriage to a Finnish father or were born abroad to 2 mothers and your Finnish mother is your non-birth mother
- you were born in Finland and your Finnish father’s paternity or your Finnish mother’s maternity was established after you had reached 18 years of age.
For more information on applying for Finnish citizenship and the requirements for naturalisation, as well as possible exceptions to the requirements, please visit http://www.migri.fi/en
If you are not sure which grounds for applying you should choose, use the Application Finder on the Finnish Immigration Service website to find out.
Select the application that suits your situation
You can check the expected processing time on the website Migri.fi on the specific page of each application or by using the Processing Time Checker at migri.fi/processing-times.
It is difficult to estimate the exact processing times for applications, since the processing times may vary case by case. The processing times are longer if, for example, all necessary documents have not been attached to the application and further information is required to process the application.
You can follow the status of your application on your user account. Please note that inquiries about the status of applications take up our time, which may, in turn, lead to longer processing times.