Finland is set to relocate the production of its passports from domestic facilities to Poland, a move expected to eliminate 160 jobs, according to Finnish media.

The country will join a growing list of nations—including the United Kingdom, Armenia, and Lithuania—that already manufacture their passports in Poland.

Thales, the French company currently managing Finland’s passport production, announced plans to transfer manufacturing operations to its plant in Tczew, northern Poland. The company says the decision aims to boost efficiency and reduce costs.

Despite the shift, about 130 employees will remain at Thales’s site in Vantaa, Finland. That facility will continue to handle passport personalisation, as well as oversee sales, marketing, and research and development.

Finland had previously outsourced passport production to the Netherlands before resuming domestic printing in 2017.

The UK made a similar transition in 2020, with Thales producing the country's post-Brexit blue passports in Poland. Like Finland, the UK continues to personalise the documents locally for security purposes.

Poland's state-owned printing firm, the Polish Security Printing Works (PWPW), has also expanded its operations. In December 2024, PWPW took over the production of Lithuanian passports and excise stamps. The company also manufactures passports for countries including Armenia, Bangladesh, Honduras, Moldova, and Iceland, and had previously printed Lithuanian passports from 2007 to 2009. Photo by Santeri Viinamäki, Wikimedia commons.