Border Control

Only passengers departing for destinations outside the Schengen countries must present passports and other border-crossing documents to the Border Guard.

Although passports are not checked when travelling to the Schengen countries, passengers must have a valid travel document, for example passport or standard photo ID.

Check with the embassy or consulate of the destination country or your travel agent or airline, if you need a visa.

Temporary passport

The Airport Police can issue a temporary passport for a Finnish citizen who has left his existing valid passport at home.

Customs inspections

The Customs authorities perform custom inspections after baggage claim on passengers arriving on international flights. If you have items to declare, follow the red line. Otherwise, follow the green or blue line.

Passengers from Switzerland, Norway and Iceland can make a hand luggage customs declaration through a telephone service at the passenger boarding bridges.

Contact information

Contact information of the Border Guard and the police at Helsinki Airport.

More information

Schengen countries and more information about automatic border control: www.raja.fi.
Information about foreign nationals arriving in Finland: www.formin.fi

Automatic border control is fast and convenient

At Helsinki Airport EU, EEA and Switzerland citizens, who have a biometric passport, can use the fast and convenient automatic border control. Passengers travelling with an infant or with a wheelchair still need to choose the manual border control line.

The automatic border control system is based on the biometric identification of passengers. A biometric passport contains a chip, and the information on it is checked by the system's reader. In the process a real life picture is taken to compare individual facial dimensions with the photograph held on the chip in the passport.

1. Check that you have a biometric passport.

2. Place your passport on the reader.

3. Keep your passport on the reader until the gate opens.

4. Remove your glasses and look at the screen. Wait until the second gate opens.