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 (Link to another website.) (Opens New Window)Digital and Population Data Agency(Link to another website.) (Opens New Window) in your municipality of residence. Documents that are used abroad, must be legalised.

Some priests working among expatriate Finns, who are employed by Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland (list in Finnish)(Link to another website.) (Opens New Window), have the right to conduct marriages 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(Link to another website.) (Opens New Window) 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(Link to another website.) (Opens New Window) are valid as such.

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

Form: Notification - Marriage abroad (pdf)(Link to another website.) (Opens New Window)

Registration of Marriage in Israel

A Finnish citizen married in Israel must register the marriage in the Finnish Population System with the following documents:

The marriage certificate and the authorised translation must be legalised with an Apostille stamp.

You can get thepostille stamp e.g. in the Consular Department of Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Jerusalem. You can find the list of Israeli authorities issuing apostilles 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.)

All fields in the registration form should be duly filled in and both spouses should sign the form. If the Finnish spouse's surname changes after the marriage, you must notify of the name change using the notification form. For more information on how to change the surname during the registration of a partnership, contact the Digital and Population Data Services Agency.

The marriage notification 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, the you can post the documents directly to the Digital and Population Data Services Agency of the municipality of your most recent residence in Finland.