Registration in the National Population Register in Norway

Nordic citizens can stay in Norway for up to six months without registering in the National Registry. As a Nordic citizen, you need neither a work nor residence permit to live and/or work in Norway.

If you move to Norway from another Nordic country, you are covered by the Nordic agreement on registration between Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden. The agreement stipulates that you may only be registered in one Nordic country at a time. It is the regulations in the country to which you are moving that determine whether you must be registered in the country.

If you are registered as living in Norway, you are generally a member of the Norwegian National Insurance Scheme (folketrygden). Membership of the National Insurance Scheme is the key to rights from the social insurance authority, the Norwegian Labour and Welfare Administration (NAV). In Norway, you can be a member as a resident or as an employee. You can also be a member of the National Insurance Scheme while living abroad.

Member as a resident:

• If you are to be regarded as a resident, you must be staying in Norway, or intending to stay, for at least 12 months. A requirement for membership is that your stay in Norway is legal.
• When you are a member as a resident in Norway, you may stay abroad for up to 12 consecutive months, and continue to be a member of the National Insurance Scheme.

 Even if you do not live in Norway, you have compulsory membership of the National Insurance Scheme if you

• work in Norway or on the Norwegian continental shelf 
• are a citizen of Norway/an EEA country, and work on a Norwegian vessel. You are exempted if you work in catering on a tourist vessel registered in the Norwegian International Ship Register (NIS)
• are a citizen of Norway/an EEA country, and employed abroad in the service of the Norwegian state 
• are a citizen of Norway/an EEA country, and receive financial support from the Norwegian State Educational Loan Fund (Lånekassen) to study abroad. There is an exception if you are studying in the Nordic region (you must then be a member of the social insurance scheme in the country in which you are registered).

If you are not a member of the National Insurance Scheme, you have no rights according to the Norwegian National Insurance Act. However, you are entitled to emergency medical help if you become seriously ill. 

Nordic citizens staying in Norway for less than six months do not generally have to report the move and register in Norway.

When you do not satisfy the conditions for an identity number, you may be assigned a D number (temporary identification number). You will need this, for example, if you are planning to work (and are liable for tax) or to open a bank account in Norway. 

It is the organisation ordering the D number that decides whether your ID should be checked before being assigned a D number. If this company decides that your ID should be checked, you must make an appointment at a tax office. It is the Norwegian Tax Administration that carries out ID checks on behalf of all parties ordering a D number.

If, after six months, you extend your stay in Norway, you must notify the tax office. If the tax office decides that you must be registered in Norway, you will be assigned a Norwegian identity number.

If you intend to live in Norway for more than six months, you must report your relocation to Norway. 

You notify the move by visiting a tax office (National Registry, folkeregistermyndigheten) in person. You must make an appointment to notify your move. If you are moving to Norway together with your family, it is important that all family member come with you to the tax office.

At the tax office, you must complete a form about moving to Norway (flyttemelding) and show approved ID and documentation. You can get the form from the tax office, but it can also be downloaded from the Norwegian Tax Administration website.

If you commute between Norway and another Nordic country because of income-generating activity, you do not need to register in Norway. However, you must notify the tax office. On the notification form, you can tick a box to show that you are a commuter. 

When you are registered in the National Registry in Norway, you are given a Norwegian identity number (comprising your date of birth + your personal identity number). Normally, the population registry authority in the country from which you are moving will automatically receive a notification from the National Registry when you are registered as a resident in Norway. On the basis of this notification, you are registered as having emigrated from the country from which you are moving.

Even if you move from Norway later, you retain the identity number assigned to you.

Information about registering in Norway for citizens of non-Nordic countries (Norwegian Tax Administration).