Questions concerning the liability for military service?

The call-up event is organised in order to have your identification information inspected and state of health examined as well as hear your own wishes concerning undertaking the military service. In addition, during the call-ups, decisions will be made on your fitness for service and the starting date and location of your conscript service. You will also receive information on the obligation to defend the country.

Prior to the call-ups, you will receive the Conscript Guide by post together with questionnaire forms and a call-up notice. Before the call-up event, you need to attend the preliminary medical examinations for persons liable for military service.

It pays off to prepare for the call-ups in advance by thinking about what exactly it is that you want from the military service. This involves giving it a though how you could utilise your own competence developed in the civilian life, and how the military service could be optimally beneficial to you as well. Please let the Call-Up Board know about your wishes concerning your military service.

The call-up notices are available online at varusmies.fi/en/call-ups

Without any delay, please contact your own Regional Office and agree on a new call-up day. You can look up the contact information of your own Regional Office here.

According to Section 16 of the Conscription Act (1438/2007), a person liable for military service must attend the call-up event in person. However, you may change the date of the call up by agreeing on this in advance with your own Regional Office.

Please contact both your own Regional Office and the Regional Office of your studying locality – it is possible to change the set call-up location. You may check the Regional Office of your place of residence and studying locality here.

1. Please draft a free-form application for being exempted from the call-up presence liability and send this application by post addressed to your own Regional Office.
2. Please send also a medical certificate of your son’s state of health by post addressed to your own Regional Office.

No, you don’t, as your call-up affairs will be dealt with in the call-ups on the basis of the call-up documentation that you have sent in advance by post addressed to the Regional Office.

1. Please fill out the questionnaire concerning military service and for the evaluation of your state of health, Application for changing date of entry into service/service location (form nr 7550-448-8728) available here as well as a certificate on studies as applicable.
2. In case you sustain a disease or an injury that will affect undertaking the military service, please include a medical certificate as documentation. (Note! The medical certificate must be on the FDF form (Medical examination form, nr 7550-448-8370) available here at puolustusvoimat.fi/en/forms.
3. Please send all the documentation by post addressed to your own Regional Office in advance prior to the call-ups.

Without any delay, please contact your own Regional Office in order to settle this matter. Be prepared to visit the customer service point of the Regional Office in person and have on your civilian ID card.

1. Please get a medical certificate and submit it to your own Regional Office for the purpose of inspecting your fitness for service class. This medical certificate must comprise a medical practitioner’s statement on your fitness for service class as well as on your ability to complete the service. (NB.! The medical certificate must be on the FDF form (Medical examination form, form nr 7550-448-8370) available online here.
2. Send by the medical certificate by post addressed to your own Regional Office. After receiving the medical certificate, the Regional Office will then order you to attend an examination for determining your fitness for military service as organised by the Regional Office.

You must attend the call-ups in person, unless the Regional Office has exempted you from call-up participation liability. This liability for call-up participation is in accordance with the Section 16 of the Conscription Act (1438/2007).

1. Please fill out the application form for applying for the voluntary military service for women, Hakemus naisten vapaaehtoiseen asepalvelukseen (in Finnish, form nr 7550-428-0311). You can access this application form online at puolustusvoimat.fi/en/forms.
2. You must include in the application a medical certificate on fitness for military service. (NB.! The medical certificate must be on the FDF form (Medical examination form, form nr 7550-448-8370) available here (in Finnish) at puolustusvoimat.fi/en/forms.
3. Please send your application by addressed to your own Regional Office by 1 March.
4. If you apply for the special operations forces, look up the application instructions available online at varusmies.fi/en/task-that-require-applying-for-before-the-service.

Additional information on the voluntary military service for women can be accessed here.

You should apply for changing the service starting date in the Regional Office.

1. Please fill out the application form for changing the service starting date/service location, Application for changing date of entry into service/service location (form nr 7550-448-8728) by specifying the grounds for submitting this application. You can access the application form online at puolustusvoimat.fi/en/forms.
2. You must include in the application a certificate on studies that dates back no more than three months in maximum. If you are only about to begin your studies at this point, include a letter of approval by an educational institution.
3. Please send your application with its attachments by post addressed to your own Regional Office.

An online version of the amendment application form for changing the service induction date/service location (Form No. 7550-448-8728) can be accessed at puolustusvoimat.fi/en/forms.

Before the service start proper, you will be asked to fill out a recruit questionnaire that allows you to voice your wishes regarding your service task of choice and the type of training that particularly interests you. Selections for some of the service tasks, such as military driver training, will take place towards the end of the recruit basic training period. If interested in special tasks available in, for instance, the communications and media branch, you can apply for these special tasks at the end of the basic training period. Please familiarise yourself with the service tasks online at varusmies.fi/en/service-titles.

Please send a less than three-month-old medical certificate to your own Regional Office. This medical certificate must comprise a medical practitioner’s statement concerning the start of the conscript service as well as a diagnosis. You remain responsible for covering the expenses relating to the certificate.

No restrictions apply. Feel free to travel abroad!

1. Please fill out the amendment application form for changing the service starting date and/or service location, Application for changing date of entry into service/service location (form nr 7550-448-8728). Fill out the application form carefully and state in your own words the need for this change. You can access the application form here.
2. Please send your substantiated amendment application for changing the service starting date and/or service location by post addressed to your own Regional Office.

Please contact your own Regional Office and ask for a new order to enter service.

Before starting the military service, it really pays off to start getting fit. You can test your present fitness level online at MarsMars.fi. This program provides you with an upwards advancing training programme. In fact, the three-month-long bespoke fitness programme has been tailored for prospective conscripts to take before they enter the garrison premises.

The Finnish Defence Forces will primarily approve recently issued medical certificates on the specific FDF form, Medical examination form (form nr 7550-448-8370), available for the purpose available online here. The medical certificate must be on the FDF form for the health inspections concerning the call-ups as well as the voluntary military service for women.

When you have applied for non-military (civilian) service but realise that you do not want to complete the liability for military service in the form of a non-military service, you may apply for a transfer back to conscript service. Prior to starting the non-military service, you may reapply once back to military service. The Civilian Service Centre will approve the application if you state in your application that your conviction no longer prevents you from undertaking the service in accordance with the Conscription Act. Please note that you may not file this application once you have started your non-military service, or following the year during which you have turned 28. Additional information available by the Civilian Service Centre can be accessed online here.

Depending on the type of military training undertaken, the conscript service part of the liability lasts for 165, 255 or 347 days in total.

The duration of the service period will be altogether 165 days for conscripts trained for rank and file duties, and 255 days in total for those trained in demanding rank and file duties requiring special skills or for those in unarmed service. When undertaking the training of reserve officers, NCOs or for special duties of the rank and file, the conscript service part will last for 347 days.

Additional information on the conscript service and military training can be accessed here.

Key words: conscript service, conscript service duration, conscript service period

You will get this certificate at your own Regional Office. Alternatively, you may also receive this certificate submitted to you as an email attachment by sending a request via email to your own Regional Office. You can look up the contact information of your own Regional Office.

The procedures for selecting individuals for future training in versatile service tasks will take place already during the basic training period. Therefore it is advisable that you from the very beginning do your best and show that you remain motivated. A good attitude will take you a long way. Additional information on the varying service tasks available in your own brigade-level unit can be accessed online at varusmies.fi/en/service-titles. Become also familiar with the FDF’s special operations forces and demanding tasks online at the sites of the given units.

Before to the call-ups and prior to entering service, think about how you could utilise the competence, knowledge and skills that you have accumulated in the civilian life. It is also worth considering which type of training would be most beneficial for you also after the conscript period.

You may undertake the military service by, for instance, serving in the Finnish Defence Forces’ special operations forces or in special tasks. While serving in the FDF’s special operations forces, you get to challenge yourself in demanding training that presupposes that you separately apply for this training. As for special tasks, you get to utilise the competence and training that you have already accumulated in the civilian life.

If reasons of conscience prevent you from completing the liability for military service in armed service, you may apply for unarmed service instead. When in unarmed service, you will not undertake weapons training but in all other respects your service will be identical with those undertaking armed service. Additional information on unarmed service can be accessed here.

1. Please fill out the application form for non-military service accessible online at suomi.fi here.
2. Send by post your application addressed to your own Regional Office.

If the limitation is short-term, you should primarily apply for leave of absence from the refresher training exercise. If the hindrance is expected to be for the long term, you need to apply for being exempt from the refresher training exercise.

Please send a medical certificate on your state of health to the Regional Office. The medical certificate must include a medical practitioner’s statement concerning your fitness for service and a diagnosis. You remain responsible for covering the expenses relating to the certificate.

Please contact your own Regional Office, or visit the customer service point of the Regional Office.

The Finnish Defence Forces will continue organising refresher training exercises for the purpose of enhancing wartime troops’ readiness and capabilities. Therefore one cannot affect the opportunity to get to partake in a refresher training exercise. In case interested in developing overall military skills, please familiarise with the training schedule programme of the National Defence Training Association of Finland that remains available online at mpk.fi.

By visiting the Regional Office’s customer service site in person and presenting an official photo ID.

The preconditions for being promoted primarily suppose that the person liable for military service is positioned in a wartime task corresponding to a particular military rank, or that he/she is reserved for another demanding emergency condition task (additional information on person reservation). Meanwhile, a promotion cannot be expected until four or five years from the previous promotion. And in case of reserve officer promotions, the time span between promotions becomes even longer the higher the rank in question.

The military passport is not renewed. Please contact your own Regional Office and ask for a military service certificate instead.

You will get this certificate by requesting it at your own Regional Office.

1. Please first check your personal information by accessing the national Kanta Service’s My Kanta pages that remain available online at kanta.fi/omakanta.
2. You may inquire your vaccination information stored in the Military Medicine Archive by filling out a form for placing a documentation request (available online at <https://puolustusvoimat.fi/tietoa-meista/sotilaslaaketieteen-keskus/arkisto> ).
3. Please send the form by post addressed to

Sotilaslääketieteen arkisto/Military Medicine Archive
PL 13/P.O.Box
44501 VIITASAARI

NB! In order to release any piece of information, the Military Medical Archive always needs to receive a documentation request that has been signed by hand. Additional information on placing this documentation request can be accessed on the site of the Centre for Military Medicine available online at puolustusvoimat.fi/tietoa-meista/sotilaslaaketieteen-keskus/arkisto.