Changing name - legal process and complications

[jack2012]

Hi,

One of my friend from India, he lives in Finland and doing a job. His family , kids/wife are in India now(never came to Finland). He has always given family info in Residence permit application(names, Date of birth, etc)

He and his family is planning to change the name of kids like changing middle name or changing last name or spelling etc.

Is it possible to change the name of kids or you think, it can be problem at some stage? He called Migri and they told him that it is possible and it would need written statement from him about change in name. Also, Migri said that if needed then officer can ask for further document on changing the name!

Does anyone have experience on changing name or how complicated it is? Please note, he wants to change the name of kids who never came to Finland(nor he applied for that).

Kiitos

[FinnGuyHelsinki]

One will have to be a Finnish citizen in order to change their name in Finland.

[heretostay]

One will have to be a Finnish citizen in order to change their name in Finland.

Not accurate. I just changed mine and I only have an A permit. You just have to be considered permanently residing in Finland by Maistraatti.

[albacore]

Not accurate. I just changed mine and I only have an A permit. You just have to be considered permanently residing in Finland by Maistraatti.

Did you have to apply for residence permit again? Or the old name was fine for it?

[heretostay]

Not accurate. I just changed mine and I only have an A permit. You just have to be considered permanently residing in Finland by Maistraatti.

Did you have to apply for residence permit again? Or the old name was fine for it?

The name change approval process took about 9 months. They send you a really helpful guide to changing your identification etc. (Including residence permit) You have to get everything done within 3 months. Not too bad in my experience.

[albacore]

9 months? Wow that's a long time. Thank you for sharing.

Not accurate. I just changed mine and I only have an A permit. You just have to be considered permanently residing in Finland by Maistraatti.

Did you have to apply for residence permit again? Or the old name was fine for it?

The name change approval process took about 9 months. They send you a really helpful guide to changing your identification etc. (Including residence permit) You have to get everything done within 3 months. Not too bad in my experience.

[FinnGuyHelsinki]

One will have to be a Finnish citizen in order to change their name in Finland.

Citizenship is not necessary. I changed my married name back to my maiden name after divorce and a Dutch friend of mine changed his family name just because he didn't like his original family name.

My mistake, I was reading too much into the multiple mentions of "a Finnish citizen" on Maistraatti website. The friend of the original poster however was thinking about changing the names of his kids, who have never been to Finland, meaning quite possibly they're not in the population register.