If you are applying for an extended permit or citizenship or renewing your residence permit card or residence card, it is possible that you do not need to visit a service point to prove your identity. For more information about when visiting a service point is not necessary, see the page Identification.
Residence card of a family member of an EU citizen in Finland
You can apply for a residence card as a family member of an EU citizen if you are not an EU citizen or a citizen of Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway or Switzerland but your family member is. Apply for the card if you reside in Finland for over 3 months.
You can apply for a permanent residence card when you have resided in Finland for at least 5 years.
Family members of an EU citizen include:
- spouse or cohabiting partner
- your or your spouse’s children or grandchildren under 21 years of age in your care
- your or spouse’s parents or grandparents in your care
- the person who has custody of the EU citizen
- an other relative of the EU citizen.
See the website of the Finnish Immigration Service (migri.fi) for more information about the residence card of an EU citizen’s family member.
The same application form can be used to apply for a permanent residence card. You can apply for a permanent residence card as a family member of an EU citizen if you meet the following conditions:
- Your family member is a citizen of an EU Member State, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway or Switzerland and meets the requirements for a right of permanent of residence.
- You yourself are not an EU citizen.
- You have resided legally in Finland together with the EU citizen for a continuous period of 5 years.
There is a separate application for clients who already have a valid residence card or permanent residence card but who need to renew their card.
Get ready
Make sure you have all the attachments needed for the application and that they are up to date.
Attachments when you apply for a residence card of a family member:
- A valid passport.
- A passport photo, no more than 6 months old, complying with the photo guidelines issued by the police, or a photograph retrieval code from a photo shop.
- Documents confirming that your family member still meets the requirements for his or her EU registration.
- A marriage certificate or some other document attesting to the existence of a marriage or a registered partnership. Documents issued by a country that is not a Nordic country or an EU Member State must be legalised.
- Document on family ties (children, dependent relatives).
- Cohabiting partners: proof of cohabitation of at least 2 years. If you and your cohabiting partner have a child, submit a document on having a child in your joint custody.
- Other relatives: a document confirming that you are dependent on your relative (such as a document regarding your health, your need of assistance and the financial support you are getting from your relative) and a document confirming that you have lived together with your relative in your country of departure.
Attachments when you apply for a permanent residence card:
- A valid passport.
- A passport photo, no more than 6 months old, complying with the photo guidelines issued by the police, or a photograph retrieval code from a photo shop.
- Documents on the grounds for your family member’s residence in Finland for the past 5 years. Your family member may have had several different grounds for residence during that period. Your document can cover any period of time, but there must be a period of residence of 5 years which is uninterrupted.
- A document confirming that you have lived in Finland together with your family member without interruption for at least 5 years.
For more information on the required attachments, see the website of the Finnish Immigration Service (migri.fi).
Fill in the application and pay the fee
Complete the application form and attach all the required documents.
You can pay the processing fee on Enter Finland. All major credit cards and Finnish online banking credentials are accepted. If you cannot pay online, you can pay the processing fee when you visit the Finnish Immigration Service to prove your identity.
Book an appointment to visit a service point
Book an appointment in our appointment system for visiting a service point of the Finnish Immigration Service to prove your identity. See the website of the Finnish Immigration Service for more information on service point visits.
Visit the selected authority to prove your identity
Visit a Migri service point to prove your identity and to present the original versions of any attachments required for the application. Remember to take a passport photo with you.
Follow the processing
Use your Enter Finland account to follow the processing of your application. We will send a message into your Enter Finland account if we need additional information from you to decide your application. You will also receive an email and a text message notification. Once a decision has been made on your application, you will receive a separate notification.