EU citizen registration and family-member matters

What Migri actually decides

EU registration is not a discretionary permit decision, but it is not automatic either. Migri checks that a ground of residence exists and that it is evidenced.

• Will the stay exceed three months without interruption? Below that, no registration is required.
• Is there a ground of residence: employment, self-employment, studies, family ties to an EU citizen, or sufficient financial resources where no other specific ground applies?
• Is the ground evidenced — an employment contract or payslips, a trade registration, a certificate of enrolment, the family relationship, or the funds?
• For the sufficient-resources ground: are the resources enough that you do not have to rely on social assistance?
• For a non-EU family member: is the EU family member residing in Finland and continuing to meet the free-movement conditions?
• Studies as a ground do not cover primary or secondary education or language training.

The figures and rules that decide it

• Three months: registration is required when the stay in Finland exceeds three months without interruption, and is not required for stays of three months or less at a time.
• Migri processing fee for registering an EU citizen's right of residence: EUR 53, the same amount whether the application is filed online or on paper.
• Validity: the registration is valid until further notice. There is no extension and no renewal cycle, unlike a residence permit.
• Five years: after five years of continuous lawful residence in Finland, an EU citizen has the right of permanent residence, provided the free-movement conditions were met throughout. The ground may change during those five years.
• Statutory maximum processing time for the residence card of an EU citizen's family member: 6 months.
• Migri's fee table lists the residence card, and the permanent residence card, of a family member of an EU citizen in the same row as EU registration: EUR 53. Authority fees carry no VAT.
• A later change of ground — from studies to work, from work to self-employment — does not generally require a new registration.

The evidence, and what is most often missing or wrong

• EU registration confused with DVV registration. They are different registrations with different authorities, and having one does not give you the other.
• EU registration confused with a municipality of residence (kotikunta). The registration does not by itself give you a municipality of residence, and it is the municipality that determines access to local health and social services.
• A personal identity code assumed to be the same thing as a municipality of residence. It is not, and Kela entitlement is assessed separately again.
• A sufficient-resources application with a bank balance and no explanation of how living costs will be met over the period of stay.
• A self-employment ground with no trade registration and no invoicing behind it.
• A non-EU family member applying for EU registration instead of the residence card of a family member of an EU citizen.
• A Finnish-citizen sponsor treated as an EU sponsor. The EU family-member route through a Finnish citizen is available only where that citizen has genuinely exercised free movement in another Member State.
• Registration left until the fourth or fifth month, after the three-month period has already been exceeded.

The order of steps, and where each one happens

• 1. Establish whether the stay will exceed three months, and identify the ground of residence. Nordic citizens go to DVV instead of Migri.
• 2. Gather the evidence for that ground before filing, not after: contract, payslips, trade registration, certificate of enrolment, family documents or proof of funds.
• 3. File the EU registration application with Migri and pay the EUR 53 fee.
• 4. Prove your identity as Migri requires for the application.
• 5. Register with DVV for the personal identity code, address and municipality of residence. This is a separate step with a separate authority, and it is the one that opens local services.
• 6. Vero for a tax card before employment income is paid, or prepayment if self-employed.
• 7. Kela, which assesses entitlement separately on permanent residence in Finland or work in Finland — citizenship and registration do not decide it.
• 8. Bank account and strong electronic identification. A Finnish bank makes its own customer-acceptance decision; registration does not oblige it to open an account.
• 9. For a non-EU family member: the residence card of a family member of an EU citizen, applied for in Finland while the EU family member is residing here.

How long it takes

For the residence card of a family member of an EU citizen, the law sets a maximum processing time of 6 months. For EU registration itself, Migri publishes its own current estimate and states that where processing has not begun within the shorter published estimate, the longer estimate applies to that case. ENB does not promise a decision date.

What matters more than the processing time is the sequence. DVV, Vero, Kela and the bank each ask for the output of the step before, so the whole onboarding moves at the pace of the slowest early step rather than the last one.

• Makes a case slower: a ground that has to be re-evidenced, a self-employment ground with no registration behind it, or resources that cannot be traced.
• Makes a case slower and is often overlooked: a DVV appointment that has to be attended in person because no Finnish personal identity code exists yet, which the online municipality-of-residence form cannot substitute for.

What goes wrong

• The three-month period is exceeded before any registration is filed.
• The ground of residence is not evidenced, and the application is decided on what is on file.
• The sufficient-resources ground fails because the resources are not enough to avoid reliance on social assistance.
• A non-EU family member files the wrong application, and the six-month clock starts again on the right one.
• A Finnish-citizen family case is filed on the EU route where free movement was never exercised.
• Everything is registered with Migri and nothing with DVV, so there is no municipality of residence and local services stay closed.
• The bank declines, and the person discovers that a registration and a personal identity code do not amount to a right to an account.

If the decision is negative

A negative decision on EU registration or on a family member's residence card is appealable. The binding appeal period and the competent Administrative Court are stated in the appeal instructions attached to the decision, and the period runs from service of the decision. Under the Act on Judicial Procedure in Administrative Matters the general period is 30 days from service, and it cannot be extended once it has passed.

The court fee is EUR 310 at an Administrative Court and EUR 610 at the Supreme Administrative Court, as set for 2025–2027, with no fee where the court changes the decision in the appellant's favour. Reaching the Supreme Administrative Court requires leave to appeal.

A refusal of registration does not remove an EU citizen's underlying treaty right, but it does mean the ground Migri assessed was not established on the evidence filed. In practice the usual answer is to establish and evidence a ground properly — employment, self-employment, studies or resources — rather than to appeal the assessment of evidence that was never produced.

What ENB does, and what ENB does not do

• Does: identifies the correct route — Migri EU registration, DVV registration for a Nordic citizen, or the residence card for a non-EU family member.
• Does: builds the evidence checklist for the specific ground of residence, and checks it before filing.
• Does: reviews the family-member route, including whether a Finnish-citizen sponsor actually exercised free movement.
• Does: sets out the full onboarding sequence — Migri, DVV, Vero, Kela, bank — with what each step needs from the one before.
• Does: checks the documents for consistency across authorities, which is where most avoidable delay comes from.
• Does not: decide anything. ENB is not an authority and no registration outcome is promised.
• Does not: grant a municipality of residence, Kela entitlement, a tax status or a bank account. Those belong to DVV, Kela, Vero and the bank.
• Does not: assume that a Finnish-citizen family case falls under EU free-movement rules. That has to be established, not asserted.

What it costs: two separate payments to two separate parties

ENB's fee is paid to ENB. Migri's processing fee is paid to Migri. They are separate amounts to separate parties, and Migri's fee is not refunded if the application is refused.

• ENB EU citizen registration service: EUR 250 excluding VAT, paid to ENB.
• ENB case-specific consulting for questions outside that scope: EUR 120 per hour excluding VAT, paid to ENB.
• ENB appeal review after a negative decision: EUR 1,000 excluding VAT, paid to ENB.
• Migri registration of an EU citizen's right of residence: EUR 53, the same online or on paper — paid to Migri.
• Migri residence card, or permanent residence card, of a family member of an EU citizen: EUR 53 — paid to Migri, listed in the same fee-table row.
• Administrative Court fee if a refusal is appealed: EUR 310, paid to the court, with no fee where the court changes the decision in the appellant's favour.
• DVV, Vero and Kela registrations: handled by those authorities, at their own charges where any apply.
• All ENB fees exclude Finnish VAT, where the standard rate is 25.5%. Authority fees are set by the authority and should be re-checked on its own page before payment.