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)

Getting married in the United States

A Finnish citizen married in the United States must register the marriage in the Finnish population register(Link to another website.) (Opens New Window) by submitting the following documents:

  • Notification of a marriage concluded abroad(Link to another website.)
  • The original marriage certificate issued by U.S. authorities. The U.S. marriage certificate must be legalized with an Apostille certificate. You will find instructions for obtaining the Apostille certificate by following this link.
  • In order to return the original documents, please provide a prepaid, self-addressed envelope of FedEx/DHL/UPS/USPS.

You can mail the documents directly to the Digital and Population Data Service Agency or to the Finnish Mission. If you wish to mail the registration documents to the Finnish Mission, please attach a money order or certified check addressed to the Embassy of Finland in Washington DC, Consulate General of Finland in New York or Consulate General of Finland in Los Angeles. 

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