My family is considering emigrating from Canada to Finland in the next 8 years or so. My partner is a citizen by birth and I would work towards achieving Finnish citizenship, a process I believe takes 5 years.
I’m currently in the Canadian military and I would be interested in participating in the mandatory service once I become a citizen. However, when I get citizenship I will be in my mid 40’s at the earliest.
[One source online](https://intti.fi/en/about-to-enter-into-the-military-) states that conscription age is 18-30. Would I be able to enter the reserves and go through basic in my 40’s? *(assuming I’m still in decent shape without serious injuries of course)*
4 comments
It is not possible, as far as I know.
There is voluntary defence training, but I’m not sure what they can offer people like you: https://mpk.fi/en/
Unfortunately it seems that it is not possible after that 30-year mark. But I believe you could still take a part on the voluntary defence training in some way or another.
Not possible. In the unfortunate event that Finland would need to go to war, you could be accepted as a volunteer. During peace time, resources are coordinated to people who are due to their younger age going to be reserves for a longer time.
As our defense force has been NATO compliant for a long time, you of course could contact DF and query if you can join the reserve when you have citizenship.
If that is possible, they then probably at some point will call you for military refresher/practice what ever that would be in English.
Not sure if that’s possible, but you could ask. Also in case we actually would need to mobilize, they most probably would accept people with citizenship who have had military training in a NATO country. And then there most probably would be refresher before being sent to active duty.