Application of the agreement between Finland and Estonia progressing – Finns living in Estonia encouraged to check their address details

Finland and Estonia a signed an agreement on 21 September 2022 under which the address data of Finnish citizens living in and moving to Estonia will be obtained in the Finnish Population Information System directly from the Estonian authorities. Under the agreement, people moving between Finland and Estonia will only be able to have a permanent residence, or address, in one country at a time. A similar agreement has been in force between Finland and the other Nordic countries since the 1960s.

The aim is to start transnational address reporting by the end of 2025, once the necessary technical solutions are in place in both countries.

Thousands of Finns affected by the updating of residence information

As part of the preparations for the exchange of information, the population register authorities of Estonia and Finland have been using data from both countries to find out how many people have addresses in both countries. A comparison of the data shows that around 5,000 Finnish citizens have a permanent address registered in both Finland and Estonia.

As part of the implementation of the agreement, the population register authorities will, at a later stage, contact all persons registered as permanent residents in both Finland and Estonia to determine which country is their country of permanent residence and address. This is provisionally expected to happen in autumn 2025.

"The vast majority of people affected by the change in the exchange of population data have their residence registered in only one country. There are also people with a permanent place of residence registered in both Finland and Estonia, and these entries will be checked and corrected,” says Enel Pungas, Head of the Population Facts Department at the Ministry of the Interior of Estonia.

Both Finnish citizens living in Estonia and Estonian citizens who have moved back to Estonia from Finland should ensure that their residence information is correct and up to date in the Finnish Population Information System before any official action is taken. If necessary, persons whose address information is not up to date should submit an emigration notification to the Finnish Digital and Population Data Services Agency.

Instructions for checking and updating address information can be found in the Digital and Population Data Services Agency’s online service.  The instructions are intended for Finnish citizens living in Estonia. The Estonian authorities will separately approach Estonian citizens living in Finland with instructions on how to check and update their address information.

If no emigration notification has been made, the person will later be marked as having emigrated from Finland according to the information available from Estonia.

In addition to data on moving from one country to another, data on death will also be exchanged between the countries. The exchange of death data means that Finland receives information from Estonia on Finnish citizens who have died in Estonia. According to the agreement, the continuous exchange of death data will begin no later than 1 May 2025.

Details of Estonian citizens transmitted from Finland to Estonia since 2005

Cooperation between Estonia and Finland in the field of population registration already started in the early 1990s. Regular exchange of information began in 2005 when the Finnish Population Information System began disclosing information regarding changes in the addresses, names and marital statuses of Estonian citizens residing in Finland in order to update the Estonian Population Register. With the implementation of the new agreement, the flow of information will become reciprocal. Finland has had similar arrangements with the other Nordic countries since the late 1960s.

“During the first phase of the exchange of information in 2025, Estonia will send us information on Finnish citizens who have moved to Estonia and live there. Initially, the exchange of information will concern migration between the two countries and the death data of citizens residing in a foreign country. However, there is an option and an intent to later expand the exchange to apply to other data as well. For example, in the future, it might be possible to transfer name or marital status changes as well as childbirth data from one country to another automatically,” says Timo Salovaara, Director General of the Digital and Population Data Services Agency.