Changing name when gaining Finnish citizenship

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bigli
Posts: 38
Joined: Thu May 25, 2017 4:52 pm

Changing name when gaining Finnish citizenship

Post by bigli » Tue Jul 11, 2017 11:48 pm

Hi,

I have applied for Finnish citizenship and would like to only have one of my two first names in my Finnish passport. I wonder at what point do I have to do this. Should I have already mentioned this when I applied for citizenship? Or should I go through a normal process of name change in Finland after I gain citizenship and then apply for a passport? Or could I even do it now before I get the citizenship?

Thanks!



Changing name when gaining Finnish citizenship

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betelgeuse
Posts: 4353
Joined: Thu Aug 29, 2013 1:24 am

Re: Changing name when gaining Finnish citizenship

Post by betelgeuse » Wed Jul 12, 2017 12:10 am

bigli wrote:I have applied for Finnish citizenship and would like to only have one of my two first names in my Finnish passport. I wonder at what point do I have to do this. Should I have already mentioned this when I applied for citizenship? Or should I go through a normal process of name change in Finland after I gain citizenship and then apply for a passport? Or could I even do it now before I get the citizenship?
You can probably change your name at any point. I would wait until the citizenship decision just to not confuse Migri. If I were to change the name, I would notify them. The passport gets printed based on the information in the population information system.

Honest
Posts: 443
Joined: Thu Sep 05, 2013 11:28 pm

Re: Changing name when gaining Finnish citizenship

Post by Honest » Wed Jul 12, 2017 12:55 am

Once you get your citizenship then you are eligible to apply for the passport. You can change your name before applying for the passport. You have to go through the normal name change process to change your name at anytime. You can't just tell them what to write in the passport.

bigli
Posts: 38
Joined: Thu May 25, 2017 4:52 pm

Re: Changing name when gaining Finnish citizenship

Post by bigli » Thu Jul 13, 2017 3:26 pm

thanks for the answers. here is what I did in the end:
I called migri and asked for advice. They suggested that since the change is only to the first name and since my reason for wanting to shorten my name makes sense , I should already go ahead and do the change now and upload a supplementary material to my citizenship application about it. She said in other cases the name change might lead to confusion when deciding on the case of citizenship but not for me with this simple change.

I am not sure if name change is possible in the period between getting a positive decision regarding citizenship
and appliying for a passport. And if it's done after getting a passport, the old passport will be annulled and one has to apply for a new one.

I went to Maistraatti and filled out a form which basically only needed social security number, old name , new name and signature. They said it will be done within a few days and I will get a bill of 25 euros later. Apparently if you want to change your name a second time it's slightly more difficult and costs around 100 euros. Changing surnames might also be more complicated, but I do not know about that.

betelgeuse
Posts: 4353
Joined: Thu Aug 29, 2013 1:24 am

Re: Changing name when gaining Finnish citizenship

Post by betelgeuse » Thu Jul 13, 2017 3:31 pm

bigli wrote:I went to Maistraatti and filled out a form which basically only needed social security number, old name , new name and signature.
Finland does not have social security numbers. It's a personal identity code and the distinction is important.


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