Citizenship through Finnish Mother?

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hoegaandit
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Citizenship through Finnish Mother?

Post by hoegaandit » Fri Jul 15, 2016 12:18 pm

Terve

I was born outside of Finland in the 1950's to a Finnish mother and a British Father. I have dual British and New Zealand citizenship as has my son. Both he and I are interested in exploring the possibility of Finnish citizenship (me inter alia to come and live in Finland (which I have visited a few times and have extended family) for a few years, my son possibly the same or to live in another EU country - he was on an exchange to Germany for a year previously).

I always thought that it was not possible for me to seek Finnish citizenship. On looking into this recently however, websites like this - http://www.migri.fi/download/16429_Suom ... f1145ad388 seem to imply Finnish citizenship could be sought simply because my mother is Finnish. (If I had citizenship from birth but lost it at 22, I understand I could get it back by declaration). My son however asked the question of the local consulate and was advised as follows (changed slightly as if sent to me for easier reading):
“We have done the checking and here is the outcome:
Your mother's marriage is registered in Finland but your birth is not. According to the citizenship laws in force at the time of your birth, you could only have been born a dual citizen, meaning also a Finnish citizen, if your FATHER was a Finnish citizen and married at the time of your birth. This means that you were never a Finnish citizen”.

It is a little difficult to reconcile what is on the website (above) with the consular advice - unless the laws have changed.

I and my son would be extremely interested in any comments on the above.

Kiitos

Chris



Citizenship through Finnish Mother?

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Rip
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Re: Citizenship through Finnish Mother?

Post by Rip » Fri Jul 15, 2016 2:21 pm

I'm inclined to think the consulate gave you the right answer, but could try to check. The Citizenship Act has changed over the years and was quite likely different in 1950 and in 1959, so I wonder what was your exact year of birth. Also, where your parents married at the time of your birth (depending on the year it might be to your advantage in this case if they hadn't)

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Beep_Boop
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Re: Citizenship through Finnish Mother?

Post by Beep_Boop » Fri Jul 15, 2016 2:23 pm

Where were you born?
Every case is unique. You can't measure the result of your application based on arbitrary anecdotes online.

hoegaandit
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Re: Citizenship through Finnish Mother?

Post by hoegaandit » Fri Jul 15, 2016 2:45 pm

Thanks - I was born in 1955 in the UK to married parents (Finnish mother and British father).

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Beep_Boop
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Re: Citizenship through Finnish Mother?

Post by Beep_Boop » Fri Jul 15, 2016 3:24 pm

I'm by no means an expert, but I can parrot what I read before. You have one or both of the following issues:

- Since you were born in the UK to a British father, under lex soli British nationality rules, you're automatically a British citizen at birth. According to Finnish laws at the time, you weren't allowed to be a dual citizen, thus you couldn't be a Finnish citizen.
- Before 1984, Finnish mothers couldn't pass their citizenship to the babies on their own. Since you were born before that to foreign father, you couldn't have been a Finnish citizen at birth. Since you had no risk of being stateless (due to your British citizenship), this is even more likely the case.

Since you probably were never a Finnish citizen at birth, there's probably no citizenship to restore.
Every case is unique. You can't measure the result of your application based on arbitrary anecdotes online.

hoegaandit
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Re: Citizenship through Finnish Mother?

Post by hoegaandit » Fri Jul 15, 2016 3:30 pm

Kiitos Beep_Boop

betelgeuse
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Re: Citizenship through Finnish Mother?

Post by betelgeuse » Fri Jul 15, 2016 4:04 pm

hoegaandit wrote: I was born outside of Finland in the 1950's to a Finnish mother and a British Father. I have dual British and New Zealand citizenship as has my son. Both he and I are interested in exploring the possibility of Finnish citizenship (me inter alia to come and live in Finland (which I have visited a few times and have extended family) for a few years, my son possibly the same or to live in another EU country - he was on an exchange to Germany for a year previously).
Regardless of whether you can get citizenship, you and your son are eligible to get a residence permit to live in Finland. However, a residence permit does enabling living in another EU country.

http://www.migri.fi/remigration/descend ... sh_citizen

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Beep_Boop
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Re: Citizenship through Finnish Mother?

Post by Beep_Boop » Fri Jul 15, 2016 4:09 pm

Also, for now, and for the foreseeable future, UK is in EU, so you're able to freely live in any EU/EEA country. I doubt that any of this will change in the next decade.
Every case is unique. You can't measure the result of your application based on arbitrary anecdotes online.

Rip
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Re: Citizenship through Finnish Mother?

Post by Rip » Fri Jul 15, 2016 6:40 pm

Current nationality law is from 2003.
http://www.finlex.fi/fi/laki/ajantasa/2004/20030359

It replaced the earlier one from 1968. The 1968 law in its original form gave citizenship at birth to
* Children of Finnish men who were married to the child's mother at time of birth
* Children of unmarried Finnish women
* Children of married Finnish women that are not entitled to any other citizenship at birth
http://www.finlex.fi/fi/laki/alkup/1968/19680401

(The 1968 law in the form it had just before it was revoked in 2003 with revision dates for those that are interested: http://www.finlex.fi/fi/laki/ajantasa/k ... 8/19680401 )

As the laws have changed pretty much exclusively to the direction of giving the Finnish citizenship more easily over the years, this already indicates the consulate gave the right advice. The 1941 law that the 1968 Nationality law replaced is not freely available online, but the English language review on the matter ( http://cadmus.eui.eu/bitstream/handle/1 ... sequence=1 ) confirms what could have been expected, also the point Beep-Boop mentioned about 1984 having been an important year.

hoegaandit
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Re: Citizenship through Finnish Mother?

Post by hoegaandit » Sat Jul 16, 2016 1:08 am

Beep_Bop - not sure about EU residency after Brexit.

Rip - your detailed advice confirming the consular advice was very helpful (and interesting).

As a means of living in Finland, Betelgeuse, your suggestion regarding residency was great.

Kiitos paljon

betelgeuse
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Re: Citizenship through Finnish Mother?

Post by betelgeuse » Sat Jul 16, 2016 1:45 am

betelgeuse wrote: Regardless of whether you can get citizenship, you and your son are eligible to get a residence permit to live in Finland. However, a residence permit does not enabling living in another EU country.
Correction to my earlier post.

hoegaandit
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Re: Citizenship through Finnish Mother?

Post by hoegaandit » Sat Jul 16, 2016 4:04 am

Yes I realised that!


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