Registration of birth in the Population Register System

Births of Finnish citizens outside Finland must be notified to the Digital and Population Data Agency(Link to another website.) (Opens New Window). You can also submit the notification at a Finnish embassy or send it there to be posted to the Local Register Office for registration.

Birth certificates issued by an EU country are accepted without requiring that a so-called apostille(Link to another website.) (Opens New Window) be attached to the document.

In other countries the original birth certificate or a copy of it, authenticated at a mission of Finland, must be appended to the notification. The document must be legalised(Link to another website.) (Opens New Window) and, if it has been issued in some other language than Finnish, Swedish or English, an authorised translation in one of these languages must be provided. Translations made abroad must be legalised. Translations made by an authorised translator in Finland are valid as such.

An Apostille stamp is not required for a birth certificate, which is issued by an EU country authority and a translation of the certificate is not needed if a multilingual standard form is appended to the document.

Other attachments 


In addition to the completed notification form, include the following attachments:

  • a copy of the child's Canadian passport's  personal information page if s/he has one

  • copies of the passports of the mother and the father (the pages with personal information)
  • photocopy of the Permanent Resident Card, Canadian visa in the passport of the Finnish parent/parents or photocopy of the Finnish citizenship decision (in case of multiple nationality)

More information about obtaining an Apostille in Canada: Global Affairs Canada(Link to another website.)

NOTE: A child who is born abroad and out of wedlock to a Finnish father may become a Finnish citizen by declaration(Link to another website.) (Opens New Window).

Transmisison of population data notification through a Finnish Mission to the Digital and Population Data Service Agency is subject to service fee.