Finnish passports are issued to nationals of Finland

Finland

Finland , officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country situated in the Fennoscandian region of Northern Europe. It is bordered by Sweden in the west, Norway in the north and Russia in the east, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland.Around 5.4 million people reside...

 for the purpose of international travel. Aside from serving as proof of Finnish nationality, they facilitate the process of securing assistance from Finnish consular officials abroad or other EU-members in case a Finnish consular is absent, if needed. Finnish passports share the standardised layout and burgundy-red design with other EU countries.

Physical appearance

From 1996, Finnish passports have been burgundy

Burgundy (color)

Burgundy is a shade of purplish red associated with the Burgundy wine of the same name, which in turn is named after the Burgundy region of France. The color burgundy is similar to other shades of dark red such as maroon...

-colored and use the standard European Union passport design, with the Finnish Coat of arms

Coat of arms of Finland

The coat of arms of Finland is a crowned lion on a red field, the right forepaw replaced with an armoured hand brandishing a sword, trampling on a saber with the hindpaws...

 emblazoned in the center of the front cover. The words "Euroopan unioni" (Finnish

Finnish language

Finnish is the language spoken by the majority of the population in Finland Primarily for use by restaurant menus and by ethnic Finns outside Finland. It is one of the two official languages of Finland and an official minority language in Sweden. In Sweden, both standard Finnish and Meänkieli, a...

) and "Europeiska unionen" (Swedish

Swedish language

Swedish is a North Germanic language, spoken by approximately 10 million people, predominantly in Sweden and parts of Finland, especially along its coast and on the Åland islands. It is largely mutually intelligible with Norwegian and Danish...

) meaning "European Union" are inscribed above the coat of arms, and the words "Suomi – Finland", the country's name in Finnish and Swedish, and "Passi – Pass", meaning "Passport" in Finnish and Swedish, below. In older EU passports, the words were entirely in capital letters, but current versions use mixed case. Biometric passport

Biometric passport

A biometric passport, also known as an e-passport or ePassport, is a combined paper and electronic passport that contains biometric information that can be used to authenticate the identity of travelers...

s, issued starting August 21, 2006, also have the standard biometric symbol at the top.

History

Passports issued before the adoption of the EU design 1996 were dark blue and did not contain the "European Union" texts, but were otherwise broadly similar in appearance.

See also

• Visa requirements for Finnish citizens
  Visa requirements for Finnish citizens
  According to the "Henley Visa Restrictions Index 2011," Finnish citizens can travel to 173 countries visa-free / with visa on arrival, ranking 1st together with Denmark and Sweden in travel freedom according to the Index....
  
  
• Passports of the European Union