Norwegian citizenship

All children born on or after 1 September 2006 became and will become Norwegian at birth if the father or the mother are Norwegian citizens. If you were born before 1 September 2006, you can check whether you are a Norwegian citizen by contacting the Norwegian Directorate of Immigration (Utlendingsdirektoratet, UDI), which is the agency that handles citizenship matters in Norway.

If you are Norwegian, but live abroad and have a child, you can apply for a Norwegian passport for the child through the embassy or permanent mission in the country where you live.

You may have dual citizenship from birth, but you must check this with UDI and the immigration agency in the other country. 

There are two ways by which Nordic citizens can acquire Norwegian citizenship, notification or application. Since 1 January 2020, Norway has also allowed dual citizenship, bringing it into line with the other Nordic countries. This means that, if you are a Nordic citizen, you no longer lose your other citizenship when you apply for or notify Norwegian citizenship.

When you apply for citizenship, you must also submit a  police certificate of conduct (politiattest). You apply for this from the Norwegian Police. You must state the purpose when you apply for the police certificate. The purpose can be “applicatoin for citizenship”, “notification of citizenship”, or “notification of regaining Norwegian citizenship”. The applicant chooses whichever is relevant in their case. 

Nordic citizens who live in Norway and who were previously Norwegian and since then have only been citizens of a Nordic country are entitled to citizenship through notification. In such cases, no police certificate of conduct is required. 

People who lost Norwegian citizenship because of the earlier principle of only one citizenship can also regain Norwegian citizenship through notification. 

Norwegian citizenship brings certain rights and obligations. For example, only people with Norwegian citizenship can vote, and stand for election in, elections to Parliament (Stortingsvalg). Norwegian citizens can be conscripted to national service, obtain a Norwegian passport, and are entitled to consular help abroad. In general, you must be a Norwegian citizen to represent Norway in sport or to receive student finance from Lånekassan, the public agency for funding of education. There are also some positions in the public sector, in the Norwegian Police and in the Norwegian Defence, that require Norwegian citizenship.

However, citizenship has no or very limited significance for most of the other rights and obligations, such as membership of the national social insurance scheme, right to primary and lower secondary education, and tax. These generally depend on where you live and/or work.