A., a child born in Finland on 29 August 2022, was the child of parents who were nationals of X State but who had been granted refugee status in Y State. The matter arose in the context of the family’s pending international protection proceedings in Finland, where the child’s nationality had not been established through reliable documentation. On its own initiative, the Finnish Immigration Service opened proceedings to determine the child’s nationality status and issued a decision on 29 November 2022, concluding that A. was to be considered a citizen of X State in Finland, based on the copies of the parents’ refugee travel documents and country-of-origin information indicating that children of X-State nationals acquire X nationality automatically at birth.

The child and his parents appealed the Immigration Service’s decision. The Helsinki Administrative Court, by judgment of 25 January 2024, dismissed the appeal, holding that the determination was not a naturalisation decision and that the parents did not need to be heard. Relying on previous case law of the Supreme Administrative Court in KHO 2012:28, the Helsinki Administrative Court held that in a nationality status determination that was not a naturalisation decision, the guardians did not necessarily have to be heard, if the hearing was manifestly unnecessary under in Section 34(2)(5) of the Finnish Administrative Procedure Act. The family then appealed to the Supreme Administrative Court.

The Supreme Administrative Court framed the key issue as whether the Immigration Service could determine the child’s nationality status without hearing the parents, given that the determination could potentially lead to recognising the child as Finnish under Section 9(2) of the Nationality Act, which provides that a child born in Finland could acquire nationality by birthplace if the parents had refugee status in Finland or had otherwise been granted protection against the authorities of their state of nationality, and the child could only acquire nationality through the involvement of the authorities of the parents’ home-state. The Supreme Administrative Court argued that the article’s wording did not exclude children whose parents had been granted protection in a country other than Finland.

The Supreme Administrative Court emphasised that unlike the earlier precedent KHO 2012:28, this case raised the possibility that the child might fall under Section 9(2) of the Nationality Act and thus acquire Finnish citizenship at birth, because the parents’ refugee status might prevent them from contacting X-State authorities to complete any formalities needed for the child to “obtain” X citizenship in practice. The court found that it remained insufficiently clarified whether the child would obtain X-State citizenship directly by operation of law, or whether it would require registration of birth or other official involvement by X-State authorities—precisely the situation Section 9(2) was designed to address.

The Supreme Administrative Court further underlined that the legal consequences of nationality status were exceptionally serious for the child and the family, which meant that the Immigration Service could not treat parental hearing as “manifestly unnecessary.” Because parents could provide essential clarification regarding the practical requirements for the child to obtain or demonstrate X citizenship (and whether refugee status prevented them from fulfilling these requirements), the duty to hear under Section 34(1) of the Administrative Procedure Act applied.

In conclusion, the Supreme Administrative Court quashed both the Helsinki Administrative Court judgment and the Finnish Immigration Service’s decision and remitted the case to the Finnish Immigration Service for renewed examination. It held that the Finnish Immigration Service must first hear the parents and then assess, on a properly established factual basis, whether the child could obtain X-State citizenship automatically or only through procedures requiring involvement of X-State authorities, which could trigger Finnish citizenship under Section 9(2) of the Nationality Act.