security of the State or public order, or if the main purpose of acquiring citizenship is to take advantage of the benefit related to Finnish citizenship without aiming to settle in Finland, or if naturalization conflicts with the best interests of the State for some other reason on the basis of an overall consideration of the applicant’s situation. Some exceptions can be made for children who are co-applicants for naturalizations in accordance with Section 23. Exceptions from the general period of residence and the language skills requirement can be made for co-applicants who are under 15 years old and at the time of the decision-making resident and domiciled in Finland. For co-applicants over 15 years of age exceptions can be made from the general period of residence requirement but only if the co-applicant has been permanently resident and domiciled in Finland for the last four years without interruption or a total of six years since reaching the age of seven years, with the last two years without interruption. In some situations, which are regulated in Section 24, a child can be naturalized on her or his own; a child may be granted Finnish citizenship on an application made by her or his guardian if the person who has made the application is a Finnish citizen and the child lives with this person or there are other weighty reasons. In the Government Bill, a reference is made to the best interests of the child.179 The same exceptions as for children who are co-applicants can be made when a child is naturalized on her or his own. The Nationality Act provides for expeditious processing of nationality applications of stateless persons in line with Article 32 of the 1954 Convention. However, in practice, this is not realized, mainly due to queues in processing naturalization applications.180 Article 32 of the 1954 Convention also encourages States to reduce the costs of nationality applications for stateless persons. Finland has so far not chosen to implement lower fees for stateless persons; the Government Bill of the Nationality Act makes a rather laconic reference to this by stating that stateless persons cannot necessarily be assumed to be in a worse economic position than applicants generally.181 4.3.4.2 OTHER MODES Finnish nationality can be acquired by declaration in a number of situations. According to Government Bill of the Nationality Act, the declaration procedure is provided for persons who are considered to have the right to Finnish nationality. These persons have a possibility to acquire Finnish citizenship in a simpler manner than through naturalization by application. In the declaration procedure the authority does not have any discretion: if the conditions laid down in the law are met, nationality is always granted. On the other hand, if even one condition is not met, nationality cannot be granted by declaration. Each type of declaration has its own specific conditions.182 Declaration procedure is generally open for stateless persons too as long as the person meets the specific conditions. Apart from the situations described in Section 9, when a child automatically acquires Finnish nationality at birth through a Finnish father, acquisition of Finnish nationality through a Finnish father is also possible in situations described in Section 26. Section 26 is a complementary provision to Section 9 and states that if a person does not acquire Finnish nationality in accordance with Section 9, she or he can however acquire Finnish nationality by declaration (as opposed to automatic acquisition in the situations described in Section 9) in two situations. Firstly, a person acquires Finnish nationality by declaration if her or his father was a Finnish citizen when she or he was born, and she or he was born in Finland and paternity was established only after he or she had reached the age of 18 years or married before that. Secondly, a person acquires Finnish nationality if her or his father was a Finnish citizen when she or he was born, and she or he was born outside 179 Government Bill, hallituksen esitys 235/2002, detailed justification of Section 24 and 23. 180 Meeting with Migri, 1 August 2012. 181 Government Bill, hallituksen esitys 235/2002, detailed justifications of Section 20. 182 Government Bill, hallituksen esitys 235/2002. UNHCR STOCKHOLM, NOVEMBER 2014 53