Foreigners who apply for residence permits, citizenship, EU registration or residence cards must often attach to their applications several documents issued by the authorities of their country of origin. Until now, many of these certificates had to be legalised and translated by an official translator in order to be accepted by the Finnish Immigration Service (Migri).
But those obligations are bound to disappear: as of 16 February 2019, certain documents issued by authorities in EU countries no longer need to be legalised nor translated in Finland, according to the latest information published by Migri in its customer bulletin.
Migri explains that this change is due to a new regulation adopted by all European Union (EU) countries. They all employ now a common standard multilingual form that can be used to describe the contents of an issued document. So, if you have received already a standard new form, you will not be required to translate the document either.
List of documents exempt from legalisation
Legalisation by an authenticity stamp (apostille) is no longer mandatory for the public documents issued in an EU country on the following matters:
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Birth.
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Living status of a person.
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Death.
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Name.
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Marriage, including eligibility for marriage and marital status.
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Divorce, legal separation or marriage annulment.
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Registered partnership, including eligibility to enter into a registered partnership and registered partnership status.
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Dissolution of a registered partnership, legal separation or annulment of a registered partnership.
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Parenthood.
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Adoption.
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Domicile and/or residence.
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Nationality.
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Absence of a criminal record.
This advantage only applies to the citizens from countries of the European Union and to the documents listed above.
Documents concerning the above matters issued by authorities in a country other than an EU member estate or Nordic country must still be legalised.
Documents issued in EU countries on matters other than those listed above must also still be legalised.
Request multilingual standard forms
Migri remarks in its website that you can request a multilingual standard form from the authority that issued the document. If you have received a standard form, include it with your application. If you do not have a standard form, you must have the document translated into Finnish, Swedish or English by an authorised translator.
Asylum seekers are not required to translate or legalise documents and evidence they present to support their application.
