A first-time applicant is an adult (age 18 or older) who has a claim to U.S. citizenship and who has never been documented as a U.S. citizen nor held a U.S. passport. Please note that at least one parent must have been a U.S. citizen at the time of your birth. Scroll down for information on the required documentation, forms and how to make an appointment.
If you, after reviewing the transmission requirements carefully, believe that you have a claim to U.S. citizenship, you must appear in person at the Embassy to sign passport application form DS-11 available at the U.S. State Department website. Please complete the form prior your appointment. To accompany this application, one passport photographs is required. The Embassy will reject any photographs that do not meet the specified requirements.
In addition, your U.S. citizen parent must also complete the Affidavit of Physical Presence DS-5507 (PDF 1.6 MB). It may be signed at the time of your appointment, or if your U.S. citizen parent is unable to accompany you, it can be signed before a U.S. Notary Public. You will then have to bring the notarized DS-5507 to your appointment together with the form DS-11.
At the appointment you must also submit:
- proof of your U.S. citizen parent’s U.S. Citizenship, e.g. a U.S. Birth Certificate, a Consular Report of Birth Abroad of a U.S. Citizen, or a U.S. passport;
- your Finnish birth certificate which must list the names of your father and mother – a extract from the population system “virkatodistus” from magistrate or maistraatti;
- proof of your U.S. citizen parent’s physical presence in the U.S.Proof could consist of school transcripts, college transcripts, military service records, or employment records etc. You must bring photocopies of all documents pertaining to your parent’s physical presence in addition to the actual documents. If not, we will keep all originals, including passports; and
- proof of your parents’ marital status at the time of your birth, and, if applicable to either parent, original divorce decrees. If your parents were not married at the time of your birth, and your father is/was a U.S. citizen, you must also submit the signed and dated paternity acknowledgment in original;
- Self-Addressed A-3 sized envelope. Prepare an envelope with a shipment label weight of 250g
- (Please note that if your U.S. citizen parent is deceased, you must also present proof that your parent was a U.S. citizen at the time of your birth, e.g. a U.S. birth certificate/Certificate of Naturalization and/or a U.S. passport issued after your birth. You must also present the original death certificate.
When all forms have been completed and all necessary documents gathered, please make an appointment online to come to the U.S. Embassy in Helsinki. When on the appointment website choose the service called “Under 16, first passport.”