Citizenship by Declaration automatically passed to progeny?

Zeropaid · Post by **Zeropaid** » Sat Dec 11, 2004 9:27 am

I have Finnish citizenship by declaration. I wasn't born in Finland, I never really lived there, and I have no desire to in the future. I just got the citizenship so that I could look for jobs in the UK and thats what I plan on doing whenever they get around to sending me my Finnish passport. I also have US citizenship by birth.

I was wondering though if this citizenship automatically would get passed to any offspring since it isn't by birth. I don't have any children, so it's just a bit of a brain teaser really. Children born outside of Finland, presumably.

**Sponsor:**

Mook · Post by **Mook** » Sat Dec 11, 2004 11:50 am

Zeropaid wrote:I have Finnish citizenship by declaration. I wasn't born in Finland, I never really lived there, and I have no desire to in the future. I just got the citizenship so that I could look for jobs in the UK and thats what I plan on doing whenever they get around to sending me my Finnish passport. I also have US citizenship by birth

Congratulations. I hope you enjoy your national service!

Zeropaid · Post by **Zeropaid** » Sat Dec 11, 2004 12:07 pm

What national service? If you're refering to the draft, they don't do that anymore for people in my situation. Too many problems with people who don't speak Finnish.

harmaa · Post by **harmaa** » Sat Dec 11, 2004 6:07 pm

How do you get Finnish citizenship without speaking the laguage? I thought you were required to do the whole -5 years "clean" living, learn the language- etc thing.

Hank W. · Post by **Hank W.** » Sat Dec 11, 2004 6:58 pm

Theres a difference between declaration and application.

Declaration has the "granny clause" - if your parents are/were Finnish citizens, or you lost your because of dual nationality wasn't allowed blaahdeblaadeblaah... http://www.uvi.fi

The language + 5 years is for ayone who applies for a citizenship.

sy · Post by sy » Mon Dec 13, 2004 4:45 pm

Zeropaid wrote:I was wondering though if this citizenship automatically would get passed to any offspring since it isn't by birth. I don't have any children, so it's just a bit of a brain teaser really. Children born outside of Finland, presumably.

It doesn't matter whether your citizenship is acquired by birth, declaration, or application.

If you are the mother of your children, your children will get Finnish citizenship automatically in any case.

If you are the father of your children, and you're married to the children's mother, your children will get the Finnish citizenship automatically in any case.

If you are the father of your children, and you are not married to the children's (foreign) mother, but the paternity is established, and the children are born in Finland, then your children will get the Finnish citizenship automatically.

If you are the father of your children, and you are not married to the children's (foreign) mother, the paternity is established, but the children are born outside Finland, the children may acquire Finnish citizenship by declaration.

Any case left?

harmaa · Post by **harmaa** » Mon Dec 13, 2004 5:44 pm

Hank W. wrote:Theres a difference between declaration and application.

Declaration has the "granny clause" - if your parents are/were Finnish citizens, or you lost your because of dual nationality wasn't allowed blaahdeblaadeblaah... http://www.uvi.fi

The language + 5 years is for ayone who applies for a citizenship.

Thanks for the explanation. :D

Zeropaid · Post by **Zeropaid** » Mon Dec 13, 2004 8:35 pm

I thought for sure that most countries where you get citizenship by application wouldnt let those be passed. Because then you can just go around collecting citizenship after citizenship and if you have children with a like-minded person, they could have an enormous amount. So where did you get that?

Hank W. · Post by **Hank W.** » Mon Dec 13, 2004 9:17 pm

Well, what are you complaining at

Zeropaid · Post by **Zeropaid** » Mon Dec 13, 2004 10:31 pm

I just dont think what they said is accurate. Im sure that most if not all countries dont let you pass citienships that you get by application on to your children. Not automatically, at least. Im sure there are provisions or extra forms you have to fill out or something.

But by declaration is between getting it by birth and getting it through application. The fact that s/he said that even citizenship by application is automatically passed on makes me wonder if the rest of the information is right.

Hank W. · Post by **Hank W.** » Mon Dec 13, 2004 10:35 pm

http://www.uvi.fi/netcomm/content.asp?path=8,2477

As far as I can tell there is no "degree" of citizenship. Either you are or you ain't...

The citizenship is automatically passed - however "A person who is a citizen of both Finland and some other nation will automatically lose his or her Finnish citizenship at the age 22 if his or her ties with Finland have not been sufficiently close. However, citizenship will remain valid on the basis of sufficiently close ties with Finland." ...but they then can "declare" it later on I suppose as well.

jwesthues · Post by **jwesthues** » Tue Dec 14, 2004 12:04 am

Zeropaid wrote:I just dont think what they said is accurate. Im sure that most if not all countries dont let you pass citienships that you get by application on to your children. Not automatically, at least. Im sure there are provisions or extra forms you have to fill out or something.

But by declaration is between getting it by birth and getting it through application. The fact that s/he said that even citizenship by application is automatically passed on makes me wonder if the rest of the information is right.

When I declared my Finnish citizenship, my daughter also received hers. Hank is right, a citizen is a citizen. There are no degrees of citizenship. That would kind of be defeating the purpose wouldn't it?

Hank W. · Post by **Hank W.** » Tue Dec 14, 2004 12:06 am

That would kind of be defeating the purpose wouldn't it?

hmmm.....

I wasn't born in Finland, I never really lived there, and I have no desire to in the future. I just got the citizenship so that I could look for jobs in the UK

now if my military passport weren't so tattered I'd be flapping it, but then again most of you wouldn't understand what it signifies

Zeropaid · Post by **Zeropaid** » Tue Dec 14, 2004 1:18 am

I know you can add your children on the declaration, but I once this law that allows declarations to end, I dont know if youd be able to add any other children.

Its common sense. There has to be a limit to this. It wouldnt defeat the purpose at all. Just because you have citizenship, it doesnt mean every single generation after you should have it.

What prompted the question is http://britishexpats.com/forum/showthread.php?t=263672 this thread. Pardon the board promotion.

I refer to JAJ's response. Hes basically the Hank W equivelent there.

DAL · Post by **DAL** » Tue Dec 14, 2004 2:12 am

Hank W. wrote:
now if my military passport weren't so tattered I'd be flapping it, but then again most of you wouldn't understand what it signifies

But that is the beauty of these boards....you can take all the time you need to explain it to us so we will know later!

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