Stiffened immigration rules reduce Finnish citizenship application

The number of Finnish citizenship applications dropped significantly after the four-party alliance government led by the Kansallinen Kokoomus (National Coalition Party-NCP) had tightened the immigration law.

The legislative amendments entered into force on 1 October 2024 and after that, the application numbers dropped, said the Finnish Immigration Service (Migri) in a press release on Friday.

The number of citizenship applications increased considerably in 2023–2024 as the government announced to change the requirements for obtaining Finnish citizenship.

Finland gained 13,973 new citizens in 2024 and 12,417 of them were granted Finnish citizenship on application (2023: 11,594) and 1,532 by declaration (2023: 1,483).

Foreign nationals over 18 years of age living in Finland and underage children in their custody can apply for Finnish citizenship.

Citizenship by declaration can be based on the Finnish citizenship of the applicant’s parent, on the applicant’s former Finnish citizenship or on the applicant having lived in Finland or another Nordic country for a long time.

The total number of citizenship applications submitted last year was 17,063, which was 18,296 in 2023), and the total number of citizenship declarations was 1,324 in 2024, which was 1,513 in 2023.

The highest number of citizenship applications came from citizens of Russia, Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria and Somalia.

About 25% of those who applied for citizenship had been granted international protection.

The highest number of citizenship declarations came from citizens of Sweden, Estonia and Russia.

In July 2024, the parliament passed the government proposal to bring legislative amendments extending the period of residence required for Finnish citizenship to eight years from five years.

On June 16, 2023, leaders of the ruling parties announced the programme, which included tougher immigration, residence and citizenship laws.

The government tightened the immigration policy despite strong protest by different groups.

Separate demonstrations were held in Helsinki on June 27, 2023 and June 18,2023 protesting against the immigration policy taken by the government.

Several hundreds of people went on demonstrations in Helsinki in August, 2023 protesting against the move.