Kela no longer confirms vital status for foreign pensions – contact DVV instead
Kela will stop its unofficial service of confirming a pension recipient’s vital status to foreign pension providers as of 1 January 2026. Going forward, vital status must be confirmed by ordering a life certificate from the Digital and Population Data Services Agency (DVV) instead.
Kela has stopped confirming the vital status of pension recipients to foreign pension providers. Previously, Kela would mark a pension recipient as alive on a form issued by a foreign pension provider if a customer asked Kela to do so. This practice ended on 31 December 2025. Kela’s confirmation was always unofficial, and not all foreign pension providers would accept it. Confirming the vital status of its customers is also not one of Kela’s statutory obligations.
Starting from 1 January 2026, the only way to confirm vital status in Finland is to contact the Digital and Population Data Services Agency (DVV).
DVV offers two options for confirming vital status:
- Pension provider’s form: The pension provider sends the customer a form and the customer brings it to DVV where a notary public confirms vital status on the form with their signature. The customer then submits the form to the pension provider.
- A life certificate issued by DVV: In some cases, the pension provider may accept a life certificate issued by DVV that contains information registered in the Population Information System.
DVV charges a fee for both services.
Contact your pension provider to check what kind of certificate it will accept as confirmation of vital status.
More information for customers
Confirmation of vital status provided by a notary public (in Finnish) (dvv.fi)
Instructions for recipients of foreign pensions (Finnish Centre for Pensions)