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.

Registration of a child born in Israel

A Finnish citizen born in Israel must be registered in the Population Information System with the following documents:

  • A duly completed and signed notification form from the Digital and Population Data Services Agency
  • The original birth certificate issued by the Ministry of Interior in Israel. The certificate is available in English upon request
  • An authorised translation of the birth certificate, if the original certificate is in Hebrew (Translation in English, Finnish or Swedish)
  • Photocopies of the passports of both parents

The birth certificate and the translation of the certificate must be legalised with an Apostille stamp.

You can get the Apostille stamp for example from the Consular Department of the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Jerusalem. Other registering clerks that issue Apostille stamps in Israel can be found listed on the website of the Israeli Ministry of Interior.  

More information about the Apostille stamp:

https://www.hcch.net/en/instruments/conventions/full-text/?cid=41(Link to another website.)

The registration form and all the appendices should be posted to the Digi- ja väestötietovirasto, PL 26, FI- 68601 Jakobstad, FINLAND or to the Consular Section of the Embassy of Finland in Tel Aviv. When you come to the Embassy, you must bring a valid passport or an ID card with you. Alternatively, you can post the documents directly to the Local Register Office of the municipality of your most recent residence in Finland.

All fields in the registration form should be carefully filled in and signed. When registering the birth of a child, dual or multiple citizenships must also be recorded in the system. Only one mother tongue can be recorded in the Population Information System.