Registration of Marriage in the Population Information System
If you are a Finnish citizen and you get married abroad, you must notify the marriage to the Finnish Population System.
Ask the person conducting the marriage, what documents are needed when the ceremony is performed before a foreign public authority. A Finnish certificate of no impediment can be ordered in multiple languages from the Digital and Population Data Agency in your municipality of residence. Documents that are used abroad, must be legalised.
Some clergy members working among expatriate Finns, who are employed by Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland (list in Finnish), have the right to conduct marriages abroad, but not the right to perform marriage ceremonies abroad.
You cannot get married at an embassy of Finland.
Notify the marriage to the Digital and Population Data Agency
When a Finnish citizen gets married outside Finland it must be notified to the Local Register Office. You can also leave the notification at a Finnish embassy or send it there to be posted to the Digital and Population Data Agency.
The original marriage certificate or a copy of it, authenticated at the mission of Finland, must be appended to the notification. The document must be legalised 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 is not required for a marriage certificate issued by the authorities of an EU country. A translation of the certificate is not required, either when the document is accompanied by a multilingual standard form in accordance with the EU Regulation.
Registration of marriage in Denmark
A Finnish citizen married in Denmark must register their marriage to the Finnish Digital and Population Data Services Agency by submitting the following documents:
- Notification of marriage outside Finland filled in and signed.
- Marriage certificate (Vielsesattest) which can be obtained from the parish/parish council and must be stamped and signed.
- If the name has changed at the time of marriage, the new name must appear on the marriage certificate OR on the official certificate Bopælsattest. The latter can be ordered from the municipality of residence or from borger.dk.
- Passports of both spouses
NOTE! If you wish to submit information to the Finnish Digital and Population Data Service Agency via the embassy, you will be charged a service fee in accordance with the fee regulation of the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland.
If you are submitting documents by post directly to the Digital and Population Data Service Agency, please follow the instructions on their website.
The Notification form must be filled in carefully for each question and signed. More information on changing your surname in connection to registration of a partnership, you can find from the website of the Digital and Population Data Service Agency.
Prenup
The embassy cannot certify the signatures on the prenuptial agreement or forward it to Finland.
For more information and instructions on how to register a prenuptial agreement, please visit the website of the Finnish Digital and Population Data Services Agency.