which a foreigner (who is not an EU or EEC citizen) shall have a home municipality in Finland if she or he has been granted a continuous or permanent residence permit in accordance with the Aliens Act,47 or if her or his family member has a home municipality in Finland.48 Furthermore, a foreigner who has been granted a temporary residence permit in accordance with the Aliens Act, which is valid for at least one year, and, taking into consideration the circumstances, has an intention to remain in Finland permanently, shall also be registered in PIS. The basis for registering a person’s nationality by the Local Register Offices49 is the information and the decision provided by Migri. With regard to stateless persons, in principle a person should only be registered as stateless when she or he has been determined as such by Migri, and this information is available in the person’s documents issued by Migri. A person’s nationality is registered as unknown in cases where the person’s passport or other registration documents50 do not contain information about the person’s nationality. Nationality may also be registered as pending clarification. This is most common in cases of newborn children in which the Local Register Offices have a responsibility to request for the nationality of the child to be determined by Migri.51 Pending such a determination by Migri, the nationality is recorded as pending clarification.52 There are, however, some discrepancies in how different Local Register Offices record nationality or the lack of it. While the Population Register Centre provides advice to the Local Register Offices, it does not have the competency to issue binding regulations. To harmonise the practices of Local Register Offices, a working group was established in 2013. This working group will also take into account the need for harmonisation of the recording of nationality status.53 Regulations regarding the purpose, use and content of the RA are found in the Register of Aliens Act.54 According to Section 2 of the Act, the RA is maintained and used for the processing, decision-making and control of matters relating to the entry into and departure from Finland and residence of aliens in the country. It is also used for processing and decision-making matters related to the acquisition, retention and loss of Finnish citizenship and the determination of citizenship status. As such, it also contains information on stateless persons entering and residing in Finland and possible changes of their citizenship status. Moreover, the RA is used for ensuring the security of the state and for carrying out security investigations. The main controller of the RA is Migri. It is also maintained and used by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Police, the Frontier Guard, the Customs, the Ministry of Employment and Economy, the Employment and Economic Development Centres and Officers, the Prison Administration Authority and the Ombudsman for Minorities. A person is registered in the RA when an issue concerning the person is initiated in accordance with the Aliens Act or the Nationality Act, e.g. when an asylum application is lodged upon entry into the country or a residence permit application is submitted at a Finnish Embassy abroad. The data regarding the person is for the first time registered in accordance with her or his passport, other relevant documents (e.g. marriage and 47 Ulkomaalaislaki, 301/2004. Continuous residence permit is granted as the first permit e.g. for those who are granted international protection and their family members. A permanent residence permit is granted after the person, having first been granted a continuous residence permit, has resided in Finland continuously for at least four years. If the continuous permit has been granted on the basis of international protection, the four years are counted from the day the person entered Finland. 48 Section 9 of the Population Information Act provides for some exceptional circumstances in which a person can be registered in PIS even without having a home municipality in Finland. 49 Since 1 March 2014, the first registration of foreigners into PIS can be performed also by Migri and the Police, based on an amendment to the Population Information Act, available at: http://www.finlex.fi/fi/laki/alkup/2014/20140145 50 According to the information provided by the Local Register Office of Helsinki, 5 September 2012, such other documents are e.g. residence permit issued by the Finnish authorities, marriage certificates, birth certificates, work and study certificates from Finland. 51 According to Section 1 of the Nationality Decree, Valtioneuvoston asetus kansalaisuudesta, 293/2013, Local Register Offices shall always request for the citizenship status definition when 1) the child is born out of wedlock and the mother is not a Finnish national; 2) when the child’s parents are married and are not Finnish nationals nor nationals of the same country, 3) when the parents of the child are married, are not Finnish nationals and are nationals of the same country but the child does not automatically acquire the parents’ nationality under operation of law of the parents’ country of nationality. 52 E-mail from the Local Register Office of Helsinki, 4 September 2012. 53 The Finnish Ministry of the Interior’s Comments on the draft study, 7 March 2014. 54 The Register of Aliens Act, Ulkomaalaisrekisterilaki, 1270/1997. 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