Citizenship queue and how to check your position in the queue

[riku2]

This post is about the queue for Finnish citizenship. How long it takes to process applications and how you work out your position in the queue is mentioned in the much longer citizenship thread, but here I gather together the most important information to avoid going through fifty pages .

When you apply for citizenship you will be given a "diary number". THE DIARY NUMBER IS NOT YOUR POSITION IN THE QUEUE. The diary numbers do increase over the year, but that is not directly your position in the queue.

To get your position in the queue you need to visit https://enterfinland.fi and use the Kamu chatbot in the bottom right corner of the screen. The chatbot will ask what you want to find out, including "my place in queue". Enter your DIARY NUMBER and you will be told your position in the queue.

The queue position changes day by day (hopefully going down) and is updated overnight. So there is no point checking multiple times per day. Also when you first apply you will not see the queue position until the day after your application.

What does the queue position mean: The queue number is where you are in relation to other pending applications, but you might be given citizenship well before you reach position #1. People with difficult to process applications (information needs more detailed checking) are like mud at the bottom of the lake. You can receive citizenship before reaching the mud and certainly before reaching the true bottom of the lake. As of Jan 2024 people around queue position 4800 are being given citizenship (but not everyone).

The Kamu chatbot gives quite a lot of explanation about processing time including why your queue position might go UP from one day to the next (in particular family members can jump the queue if one person applies before somebody else in the same family and all the family members are processed at the same time as the first person who applied). Not all of this information is on the migri webpage, so engage with the chatbot and more will be explained about application processing.

Diary numbers for citizenship take the form of XXXXXX/310/YYYY. Where XXXXXX is a sequence number which starts the year at 1. The 310 is the application type (310=citizenship) and YYYY is the year.

You do not need to login to enterfinland to use kamu and check your queue position. In fact if you do login you will still not see the queue position until you check it with Kamu. For this reason you can check anyone's queue position (not that you can identify somebody from their diary number), so in a way you can see the general processing speed by trying different diary numbers.

Example from real life:
I applied at the end of December 2023 and my queue position progressed as below:
01 Jan 2024: 8663
14 Jan 2024: 8640
20 Jan 2024: 8583

As you can see, progress is slow but steady and a long way before the first people are receiving decisions at 4800

The full citizenship thread viewtopic.php?t=104229 has more information of people giving their status, discussing and speculating on how applications are processed etc.

[oct.2023.RU.IT]

01 Jan 2024: 8663
14 Jan 2024: 8640
20 Jan 2024: 8583

What is your situation? work / residence time / etc?
It's seems like your application moves slow. At least slower then mine:

01 Jan 2024: 7166
14 Jan 2024: 6930
20 Jan 2024: 6829

[riku2]

What is your situation? work / residence time / etc?
It's seems like your application moves slow. At least slower then mine

Have lived in Finland for 25 years, full time employment for 25 years, UK passport and permanent resident card for a couple of years.

[oct.2023.RU.IT]

What is your situation? work / residence time / etc?
It's seems like your application moves slow. At least slower then mine

Have lived in Finland for 25 years, full time employment for 25 years, UK passport and permanent resident card for a couple of years.

Huh
I've lived here for 5 years, 4 years employed, Russian passport, no PR. Your case sounds much easier.

But mine queue moved faster also on first month:
25 Oct 2023: 8096
09 Nov 2023: 7909
16 Nov 2023: 7850

The mystery of these queues drives me crazy

[Leila722]

Does anyone know why my queue number is going up while everyone else's is going down?
i applied 24.01.2024

[riku2]

Does anyone know why my queue number is going up while everyone else's is going down?
i applied 24.01.2024

People in the same family are processed together regardless of each person's queue position.
If two people have queue positions 4500 and 8000 (eg husband and wife applied for citizenship with several months gap between their applications), then when it comes time to process the person at 4500, person at 8000 jumps the queue (in a way to position 4501) and both are processed together. Everyone who was at 4501 upwards goes back one place in the queue.
This effect will be more noticeable higher up in the queue.

[Leila722]

Does anyone know why my queue number is going up while everyone else's is going down?
i applied 24.01.2024

People in the same family are processed together regardless of each person's queue position.
If two people have queue positions 4500 and 8000 (eg husband and wife applied for citizenship with several months gap between their applications), then when it comes time to process the person at 4500, person at 8000 jumps the queue (in a way to position 4501) and both are processed together. Everyone who was at 4501 upwards goes back one place in the queue.
This effect will be more noticeable higher up in the queue.

hi what is queue number xxxxx/310
xxxxx this numbers means ? i know 310 is Citizenship application number but xxxxxi don’t know .number before 310 for how many people applied or ,

[riku2]

hi what is queue number xxxxx/310
xxxxx this numbers means ? i know 310 is Citizenship application number but xxxxxi don’t know .number before 310 for how many people applied or ,

xxxxx is a sequence number allocated by the system at Migri, perhaps starting at 1 and increasing with each application received during the year. At the end of 2023 the sequence number reached about 17000 which means about 17000 applications received during 2023. You can see your number when you login to enter finland and it forms the first part of your diary number.

If you are worried that your progress is not what it should be then check diary numbers around your number (eg if your number is 16123/310/2023 then check 16120, 16121, 16122). This will tell you if your progress is what should be expected for when you applied (of course some people will jump up in the queue if they are in the same family as people who applied much earlier, but you can check multiple numbers near yours to get a general feel for the progress of others who applied when you did).

[millenialpain]

Hi,

Can someone please help me understand this queue situation? I have applied end of Dec, 2023.

I have diary number 169xx and my queue is today 850x.

Out of curiosity I have checked some similar diary numbers and here is what I see:

1693x --> 8461
1692x --> 6250

There is less than 10 difference between my diary number and this 1692x but they are in front of me by 2000 application. I am really curious how is this possible?

My queue number moved only by 150 places in January so with this pace, I will not be around 4000 queue before 2 years...

I would really appreciate if someone can help me make sense of this.

[riku2]

1692x but they are in front of me by 2000 application. I am really curious how is this possible?

They can be part of a family and the first person in the family applied months earlier. Once Migri realise the second person is part of the same family, they combine the applications and the second person jumps up in the queue to join the first person.
In the longer citizenship thread somebody describes exactly this situation (the woman applied and the husband applies months later. The applications were combined and the woman's time for processing was normal but the husband received citizenship only a month after applying - at the same time as the wife).

[oct.2023.RU.IT]

1693x --> 8461
1692x --> 6250

Here all the active applications from yesterday and their queue number on axis X. I made it quickly, so it's not perfect, but represents current situation.


Horizontal lines because of the years, lower part are 2021 applications, then block of 2022 and so on.
Here you can see that some applications drops to 8*** queue and some of the m to 6*** queue. I don't know why.

People say that there is queues for other types of citizenship applications, but it doesn't match with Migri statistics about amount of applications.

[Leila722]

1693x --> 8461
1692x --> 6250

Here all the active applications from yesterday and their queue number on axis X. I made it quickly, so it's not perfect, but represents current situation.


Horizontal lines because of the years, lower part are 2021 applications, then block of 2022 and so on.
Here you can see that some applications drops to 8*** queue and some of the m to 6*** queue. I don't know why.

People say that there is queues for other types of citizenship applications, but it doesn't match with Migri statistics about amount of applications.

it’s really hard to understand this queue number. my queue number is 85xx . but my friend who applied after me her Queue number is 6400 , how ? but Migri told her it’s takes 2 years . i couldn’t understand how her queue number 6400 ?

[oct.2023.RU.IT]

but my friend who applied after me her Queue number is 6400

It’s interesting case, could you please provide situation for you and your friend? Maybe she came as asylum seeker? And what is her country of origin?

[Leila722]

but my friend who applied after me her Queue number is 6400

It’s interesting case, could you please provide situation for you and your friend? Maybe she came as asylum seeker? And what is her country of origin?

yes . she is asylum seeker. how did you know ? 。she is holding Chinese passport. Her nationality is facing genocide in China. I came to Finland for family ties . Worked 2 years , than had a baby now taking care of baby at home.

[oct.2023.RU.IT]

yes . she is asylum seeker. how did you know ? 。she is holding Chinese passport. Her nationality is facing genocide in China. I came to Finland for family ties . Worked 2 years , than had a baby now taking care of baby at home.

I see, maybe it gives us the option to think that the 6*** queue is for asylum seekers. In that case, I think you'll get your citizenship faster than your friend, regardless of the queue number.