I believe according to this statement here that I am able to gain Finnish citizenship. “If the child’s father is a Finnish citizen when the child is born, and he is married to the child’s mother, the child will automatically become a Finnish citizen.” found on [https://migri.fi/en/citizenship-for-a-child](https://migri.fi/en/citizenship-for-a-child).

My father was born and raised in Finland, married my mother who is a born American citizen in Helsinki, then moved to America and I was born and raised in the US. I was born in wedlock.

We have all of the relevant marriage and birth info as well.

My parents were still married up until my father recently passed away from brain cancer, and we are going over to Finland for his funeral and to see my family.

I have been to Finland 4-5 times since I was 10 or so.

What is the process for me in becoming a Finnish citizen, as I am pretty sure my father did not let Finland know about my birth, and it looks like according to law I have the right to gain citizenship.

I am a 25 year old male living in the USA, and was a born American Citizen.

Thank you for the help!

10 comments

  1. Your situation seems like a prime example of an extreme edge case. If there is a Finnish ambassador near you, I’d contact them. Otherwise contacting the Finnish immigration office (Maahanmuuttovirasto) would give you the most well-educated answer.

    Edit: this is all to say that I don’t know what I’m talking about and I’m just referring you to someone that knows for sure

  2. If your dad didn’t register you, then you’ll probably need your dad’s birth certificate. But yes, you are a Finnish citizen and you’ll just need to do the paper work to get your passport. Contact your closest Finnish Embassy to get things done, good luck!

  3. You have automatically lost your Finnish citizenship on your 22nd birthday:

    * https://migri.fi/en/retaining-finnish-citizenship-at-the-age-of-22

    Here are the procedures to get it back:

    * https://migri.fi/en/former-finnish-citizen
    * https://migri.fi/en/determination-of-citizenship (probably not necessary, this is probably already included in the procedure above)

    By the way, you’re still young enough to be conscripted: https://intti.fi/en/when-you-have-more-than-one-nationality

    But there’s an exception:

    > In peacetime, upon application for special reasons, the regional office can exempt from peacetime military service a Finnish citizen who is also the citizen of another country, if this person’s domicile proper is not in Finland and he does not have any real ties to Finland. 

  4. If everything you told is correct, and you have official documentation for all that, according to the law you basically just need to inform Finland that you are a citizen, and the citizenship will then be registered. But there may be difficult bureaucracy involved before you get to that point. Contact the embassy.

  10. If you use Facebook, join the group USAn Suomalaiset. It’s mostly Finnish expats in US. Plenty of us have kids that have gone through the procedures and the topic is often discussed there. You’ll get reliable help from people who know the system well.

    Your friendly Finnish expat in US here.

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