birth certificates) and the information submitted on the residence permit application. Information regarding an asylum-seeker is registered based on the information obtained from her or him during the asylum procedure and from reliable documents, when available. The person is asked to confirm, on the residence permit application or in the asylum interview, that the information she or he has provided is correct and truthful to the best of her or his knowledge. The person is informed of the consequences of providing false information, which also has on impact on the assessment if the information is changed later on.55 The authority registering the information about an asylum-seeker for the first time is either the Police or the Frontier Guard. The information is then updated in the RA based on the information obtained from the person or from other authorities later on by relevant authorities.56 In accordance with Section 10 of the Population Information Act, information entered into the RA serves as guidance for the information to be entered into PIS. It states that the Local Register Officer has to check which information has been registered in the RA before entering information regarding the person into the PIS. If the information provided to the Local Register Office is not found, or if it differs from the information in the RA, the Local Register Office has to request Migri for a statement regarding the issue. Migri shall process such a request as expeditiously as possible. Further, if the Local Register Office registers information regarding a person that differs from the content of the statement by Migri, the Local Register Officer has to inform Migri of the content of this differing registration. The Government Bill on the Population Information Act57 has justified this provision, inter alia, by the fact that registering foreign nationals in PIS has previously been problematic with regard to general conditions for registration and procedures, and also with regard to the reliability of the information recorded in the system. Previously, in some cases information was recorded in PIS based solely on information provided by the person herself or himself or based on incomplete documentation. It should be noted that the new Population Information Act, with the provision on coordination between the two registers, only entered into force in March 2010. Therefore, information registered and not updated after the entry into force of the new Act is likely to contain more errors and inconsistencies, including concerning nationalities (or the lack of it) of the persons registered, than the information entered and updated more recently. Likewise, Migri informs the Local Register Offices of changes in personal information of immigrants, including regarding their nationality, that are made to the records of Migri. This practice is not based on law but has been agreed upon and is considered to be in line with the purpose of the Population Registration Act.58 Regarding the total number of stateless persons and persons of unknown nationality residing in Finland, there are some significant differences in the statistics provided by Statistics Finland, the Finnish public authority specifically established to maintain statistics, (used in table 1 and 2 below), and those on foreign nationals residing in Finland provided by Migri on its homepage.59 According to the statistics published by Migri, there were 752 stateless persons residing in Finland at the end of 2011, which does not significantly differ from the Statistics Finland figure of 760. However, according to the statistics published on the homepage of Migri, the number of persons with unknown nationality at the end of 2011 was 2,862, as compared to 818 persons with unknown nationality and 618 persons whose nationality was pending clarification in the statistics 16 55 Procedural Guideline on the Handling of the statement requests made by the Local Register Office at the Finnish Immigration Service (Maistraatin lausuntopyyntöjen käsittely Maahanmuuttovirastossa), issued on 10 May 2010 by Migri, use by public authorities only, p. 5. 56 Ibid. 57 Hallituksen esitys 89/2008, General justifications of the Bill. 58 Procedural Guideline on the Handling of the statement requests made by the Local Register Office at the Finnish Immigration Service (Maistraatin lausuntopyyntöjen käsittely Maahanmuuttovirastossa), issued on 10 May 2010 by Migri, use by public authorities only, p. 10. 59 http://migri.fi/download/25355_Suomessa_asuvat_ulkomaalaiset_2011.pdf MAPPING STATELESSNESS IN FINL AND