Citizenship declaration for a former Finnish citizen

• You are a former Finnish citizen.
  • You must be a former Finnish citizen yourself.
  • If you want to find out whether you are or formerly have been a Finnish citizen, you can request the Finnish Immigration Service to determine your citizenship status.
• Your identity has been reliably established.
  • To establish your identity, you need to present reliable identity documents (such as your passport) or give us reliable information about at least your name, date of birth, citizenship and family ties. When we are determining your identity, we will also take into account any information you have given earlier about your identity.
• You did not lose your Finnish citizenship by the initiative of an authority.
  • The Finnish Immigration Service may decide to revoke your citizenship if:
    • you have given false information in your previous citizenship application; or
    • you got your citizenship based on your father’s citizenship, and his paternity has been annulled.

These requirements must be met at the time you submit your citizenship declaration.

If necessary, have the attachments translated and legalised.

• Valid travel document or some other identity document if you do not have a travel document.
• Citizenship decision or some other certificate issued by an authority, stating how you have obtained your current citizenship and on what grounds. This document is not needed if the information has been entered in the Finnish Population Information System.
• Birth certificate stating your parents and place of birth. A birth certificate is not needed if the information has been entered in the Finnish Population Information System.
• You can add minor children who are in your care as co-applicants to your declaration. Fill in a separate Attachment form for a child’s citizenship application or citizenship declaration (as a co-applicant), KAN_LIITELOMAKE (only in Finnish and in Swedish) for each child.

You can fill in the application online in Enter Finland. 

If you cannot use Enter Finland, fill in a paper application. You will find a link to the application at the bottom of this page.

To pay the processing fee in Enter Finland: 

• pay the fee with a credit card or Finnish online banking credentials when you submit your application. 

To pay the processing fee for a paper application:

• pay the fee when you visit a Finnish embassy or consulate abroad or a service point of the Finnish Immigration Service in Finland to prove your identity.

• If you are abroad, book an appointment to visit a Finnish mission (embassy or consulate).
• If you are in Finland, book an appointment to visit a service point of the Finnish Immigration Service.

For more information, see: 

• Handling your matters at a Finnish mission
• Handling matters at a service point of the Finnish Immigration Service

• If you applied online in Enter Finland, you will receive notifications of your application's progress and of any requests for additional information by email and text message.
• If you applied on paper, you will receive notifications of your application's progress and of any requests for additional information by email.

For more information, see: Processing of applications

• You can receive a message from us when the processing stage of your application changes. For more information, see: Automated messages.
• Processing Time Checker will tell you the expected processing time of your application. 
• For more information, see: What affects the processing time of your application?