Registering a birth and acknowledging parentage of a child in Finland

If your child is born in Finland, you must register the birth there. Children are registered in the Population Information System at the hospital. You must then register your child’s name with the Digital and Population Data Services Agency (DVV). It is customary in Finland to wait several weeks after the birth before announcing the child’s name.

Finland does not have birth certificates as such. Individuals’ personal details are recorded in the Personal Information System. An extract containing a person’s personal details can be used as a birth certificate.

Find out more about registering a birth in Finland on the InfoFinland website.

If you live outside the Netherlands, you can have an extract from the Finnish Personal Information System converted into a Dutch document at the municipality of The Hague’s Foreign Documents Department. This is not mandatory, but it can be useful if you ever need an extract from this document in the future. Having the document converted does not take care of your child’s registration in the Non-residents Records Database (RNI).

If you live in the Netherlands, you must also register the birth in the municipality where you live using the Finnish extract. Do this as soon as possible once you return to the Netherlands. The municipality will then process your and your child’s details in the Personal Records Database (BRP).

In Finland you can acknowledge parentage of a child before or after they are born. If you acknowledge parentage before the birth, you are automatically granted parental responsibility for the child. If you acknowledge parentage after the birth, you and your partner must sign an agreement to share parental responsibility. In this case you must sign a joint custody agreement at the child welfare supervisor’s office in your municipality.

Find out more about acknowledging parentage of a child in Finland on the InfoFinland website.

If you live in the Netherlands or if you are Dutch and live abroad, you can always acknowledge parentage in the Netherlands of your child born in Finland. You can do this at the municipality or a notary. You can also authorise someone to do this in the Netherlands on your behalf. To do this, you must get a notary to draw up a power of attorney. You cannot acknowledge parentage of your child at a Dutch embassy or consulate-general.

Acknowledging parentage does not automatically grant you parental responsibility for your child.

Find out more about acknowledging parentage in the Netherlands on Government.nl.