Determination of citizenship status and definition of national travel document for residence permit applications reviewed by Finnish Immigration Service

In September 2024, stricter requirements were introduced in the legislation on residence permits and a valid national travel document was set out as a requirement for issuing a residence permit. It was stated in the preparatory materials for the legislation in particular that stateless persons would no longer meet this requirement. The Finnish Immigration Service recognised the problems concerning the requirement already in the drafting stage and commented that the change can result in situations that are unreasonable for stateless persons.

However, the statements made by the Finnish Immigration Service did not lead to changes in the contents of the legislation or its preparatory materials. Instead, their contents led to the Finnish Immigration Service interpreting that Palestinians, among others, do not meet the requirement for a national travel document according to the new legislation as they are considered stateless persons.

The Finnish Immigration Service has now reviewed the interpretation of the law on the basis of new aspects brough forward by the Ministry for Foreign Affairs that concern national travel documents and were not addressed in the drafting stage last year. The Ministry of the Interior, which drafted the law, has also given further information about the objectives of the law.

Consequences of the review

The Finnish Immigration Service has reviewed both the definition of a national travel document and determination of citizenship status. The agency finds that a national travel document referred to in the Aliens Act must be technically reliable and issued by the person’s country of nationality. This requires that there is a state that considers the person to be a citizen of that state on the basis of its legislation. The Citizenship Act, on the other hand, does not require that a state is recognised in order for a person to be considered a citizen of a certain state.

Travel documents issued by the Palestinian Authority meet the requirements mentioned above and are considered national travel documents. In order to be issued with a residence permit, the other requirements laid down by law must also be fulfilled. Passports issued by Hamas in Gaza will not be accepted as national travel documents, as has been the case so far.

The Finnish Immigration Service has focused on reviewing the interpretation of the Aliens Act and the Citizenship Act which fall within its competence. In its review, the agency took into account the obligation provided directly by law not to restrict the rights of foreign nationals any more than necessary. The Ministry of the Interior has stated that the primary objective of the legislation is to promote reliable verification of identity, which supports this interpretation.

Even though travel documents issued by the Palestinian Authority now are accepted, the definition of a national travel document in the legislation and questions of competence are still not unambiguous. The Finnish Immigration Service follows the development of case law and specifies its guidelines for application of law accordingly. The Finnish Immigration Service will further examine how the changes in its guidelines affect the processing of citizenship and permit applications and the consequences for the negative decisions that have already been issued.

Further information for the media

• Press release, 5 September 2025: Finnish Immigration Service to review its policy on which travel documents can be accepted for a residence permit application | Finnish Immigration Service