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PROPERTY

Work permits, property and living costs: 12 essential articles for life in Norway

The process of getting a residence permit, the lowdown on the property market, the social norms foreigners struggle with most and how much money you'll need to earn to call Norway home. Here are 12 must-read articles about life in Norway. 

Published: 10 February 2023 15:42 CET
Updated: 28 July 2023 16:12 CEST
Pictured is a hiker in Norway.
These 12 articles are essential for life in Norway. Pictured is a hiker in Norway. Photo by Filip Toroński on Unsplash

If you are not a national of the EEA or a family member of one, you will need a residence card to live, work and study in Norway legally. 

The two most common types of residence permits are for workers’ or family immigration reasons. Work permits are primarily handed to skilled workers and seasonal workers. Meanwhile, you will need to either be the partner, spouse or close family member of someone living in Norway legally to be granted a family residence permit. 

READ MORE: How to get a work permit in Norway

Permits aren’t typically granted for extended family members like cousins, aunts, uncles or grandparents. Additionally, the rules make it difficult for parents to join adult children or adult children to join their parents. 

You can read more on the specifics of permits in much more detail below. 

Whether you are in the process of obtaining a residence permit or are a long-term resident with an eye on your next move, then you’ll need to have one eye on the Norwegian property market to avoid missing out on your dream home or being ripped off. 

You’ll also need to know what to do in the event of any unforeseen problems cropping up, be that a difficult landlord or a noisy neighbour. 

Norway often tops, or features at the business end, of lists ranking citizens’ happiness and their overall quality of life. However, while some of the best things in life are free, only some things come for cheap in Norway. 

This leaves many questioning how big of a pay packet they need to enjoy this fabled quality of life in Norway. It also begs the question of how much money you need to get by in each of Norway’s biggest cities like Oslo, Bergen, Stavanger and Trondheim and whether there is much difference between them. 

How much money do you need to earn for a good life in Norway?

While these articles cover living in Norway legally, finding a place to call home and how much cash you’ll need to live a decent life, they don’t offer any insight on fitting in socially. Gelling and fitting in socially are necessary to get the most out of life in Norway. 

Furthermore, no matter how well you prepare, there will be culture shocks, both big and small, waiting for you and social norms that may leave you scratching your head. 

READ MORE: Five Norwegian social norms that may be strange to newcomers

Learning the local language can also help you feel much more gelled and comfortable in your new surroundings, even if it is expensive. Finding out how much it will cost you is essential. However, finding cheap hacks on how to learn the language on a budget is perhaps even more important. 

READ MORE: What are the cheapest ways to learn Norwegian?

If you settle in Norway, you may even end up thinking about the possibility of becoming a permanent resident or even a citizen. Should you have kids, you’ll also probably wonder what the rules are for them becoming citizens. 

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NORWEGIAN CITIZENSHIP

Why Norwegian citizenship can be easier to obtain as you get older

Due to the many requirements, applying for Norwegian citizenship is far from straightforward. However, those approaching their advanced years may have an easier time of things.

Published: 17 September 2024 16:02 CEST
Why Norwegian citizenship can be easier to obtain as you get older

The older we all get, the more time and effort we spend thinking about where we’d like to settle down.

Norwegian citizenship helps boost your options as you’ll have the right to live in Norway and be a member of the national insurance scheme indefinitely.

Those who would hold dual citizenship if they become Norwegian may benefit from gaining the rights of EEA citizens, too.

READ ALSO: Six surprising Norwegian citizenship rules you should know about

Why Norwegian citizenship may be easier the older you are

Well, firstly, you can be subject to slightly easier language requirements – or they may not apply at all.

Applicants over age 67 do not need to meet the language requirement to pass an oral Norwegian test at the B1 level. CEFR-level B1 means the language user can enter unprepared into conversation on topics that are familiar, of personal interest, or pertinent to everyday life.

Those over 55 also face less strict requirements. They simply need to pass the language exam at the A2 level. This level means users can handle very short social exchanges, even if they can’t usually understand enough to keep the conversation going.

Being able to bypass these exams makes citizenship a lot more appealing and more obtainable.

Another perk of being older is that you will be more likely to meet the other requirements. For starters, the older you are, the more likely you are to be in a long-term relationship, which means that your citizenship waiting times might be shorter.

Should you have a Norwegian spouse, you can apply for citizenship after you have lived in Norway for five years and have been married or have lived with a Norwegian for a total of seven years. During this seven-year period, it doesn’t matter whether you have lived abroad or in Norway.

This can make it easier to obtain Norwegian citizenship.

The things that make it harder to obtain citizenship if you are older.

Firstly, learning languages can be more difficult for older people. Therefore, if you are still young enough that you can’t completely skip the language requirements, but are old enough that you might struggle then you may be at a disadvantage.

Furthermore, the citizenship rules for those with Norwegian parents are less lenient for older generations.

As the rules for claiming citizenship when one parent was Norwegian at birth can be quite complicated for those born before 1979, the Norwegian Directorate of Immigration (UDI) advises that you contact them directly to find out whether you will be eligible for citizenship.

Meanwhile, those born before September 1st, 2006 can become Norwegian through parentage if their mother was Norwegian, or if their father was a Norwegian citizen and was married to their mother.

The rules are far more straightforward for those born after 2006. In that event, you automatically became a Norwegian citizen at birth if you have a Norwegian mother or father.

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