Do you need an apostille for documents when moving to Finland in 2026?

InfoFinland’s moving checklist tells newcomers to legalise and translate certificates issued outside Finland before they rely on them: birth, marriage, divorce, name-change papers, and diplomas are the usual suspects. For Apply for a residence permit, Migri attachment lists can demand relationship or identity proofs from your home country. When you register a foreigner or family data with DVV for a henkilötunnus or kotikunta address, DVV’s foreign-document rules apply.

DVV accepts Finnish, Swedish, or English. Other languages need an authorised or otherwise accepted translation. Non-EU public documents generally need an apostille from the issuing country if it belongs to the Hague Apostille Convention. Outside that Convention, follow the MFA-of-origin then Finnish (or Nordic) mission legalisation chain DVV describes. EU public documents and Nordic certificates usually need no apostille. Ask the exact Migri or DVV checklist for your route before you pay for the wrong stamp: Paperwork after moving.

For Hague destinations, a public notary at DVV issues the apostille on eligible Finnish public documents that carry an original handwritten signature. Electronically signed PDFs usually need a wet-ink original first. For non-Hague destinations, the Ministry for Foreign Affairs legalises Finnish documents after the upstream certifications MFA lists. Nordic and many EU uses skip apostille for certain civil-status extracts. School enrolment inside Finland rarely starts with a Finnish apostille on day one; it starts with municipal contact: Enrol in public school.