What are your rights to a driving licence in Norway?

You don’t have an absolute right to a driving licence in Norway. In the eyes of the authorities, traffic safety always comes first.

This means that if you already have or develop a health condition that affects your ability to drive safely, you could end up losing your licence, having it suspended for a period, or only being granted a temporary licence valid for one, two or five years rather than the usual 15. 

When getting your licence

When you apply for or renew a licence to drive a car or motorbike in Norway or apply to swap an international licence for a Norwegian one, you need to fill in a form declaring that you do not suffer from any health complications that might affect your ability to drive.

Those with such a condition, will need to get a health certificate from a doctor, psychologist, optician or other specialist before they can be issued with a new licence. 

If you want a licence to drive a heavy vehicle such as a bus or truck, you must have a doctor’s certificate declaring that you do not have a health condition making you unfit to drive. 

If you develop a condition after getting a Norwegian licence

Suppose you, yourself, suspect that you have or are developing a health condition that affects your ability to drive safely. In that case, you have a duty in Norway to visit a doctor, psychologist or optician to have an assessment.

What is most likely to happen, however, is that your doctor, psychologist or optician, while treating you, will themselves take action to have your licence suspended or revoked if they suspect you are no longer safe on the roads.  

They will start by issuing a verbal ban, telling you not to drive until your condition is assessed or until your licence is formally revoked. These can be issued for up to six months, and you have a duty to obey. If police stop you and they learn of the verbal ban, you risk being charged as if you were driving without a licence.

Should you be are involved in an accident, your insurance company will also treat you as driving without a licence. If you disagree with the verbal ban, you can get a second opinion from another doctor who can lift it. But you must still respect it until that examination takes place. 

When a doctor, psychologist, or optician suspects your impairment will last longer than six months, they will contact the local County Governor, or Statsforvalteren, advising them either to revoke, suspend, or limit your driving licence. You can find a Q&A in Norwegian on how County Governors handle driving licence cases here.

In cases where the doctor is not sure how badly the health condition affects driving, they may request a driving assessment by the Norwegian Public Roads Administration. 

If the County Governor judges that you are not safe, they then contact the police calling for your licence to be revoked in full, limited to certain vehicles, or limited in time. 

If you have a temporary licence 

For many health conditions, the guidelines mean you will not be issued a normal 15-year driving licence and instead will be issued with one valid for six months, a year, three years, or five years, after which you will need to have a new health assessment by your doctor, psychologist or optician, or even undergo another driving assessment by the Norwegian Public Roads Administration.  

What health conditions might lead to you losing your licence? 

On the website of the Norwegian Health Services, there is a long list of conditions which could conceivably make you unsafe behind the wheel. Still, they include deteriorating eyesight, cognitive or neurological disorders, strokes, multiple sclerosis, meningitis or encephalitis, brain injuries, brain diseases or tumours, epilepsy, sleep disorders, heart conditions, diabetes, psychiatric disorders, substance abuse, the use of some medicines, particularly painkillers such as opioids, respiratory failure, and kidney failure. 

In many conditions, such as strokes, acute meningitis, being fitted with an implantable cardioverter-defibrillator or pacemaker, epilepsy, schizophrenia or manic episodes, or alcohol or drug abuse, doctors will automatically give you a verbal ban of one week, three months, or six months, depending on the condition, before you can be issued with a health certificate recommending you be given a temporary or permanent driving licence. 

With progressive, degenerative conditions, such as diabetes, multiple sclerosis, or chronic renal failure, you may not get an immediate driving ban but instead have your permanent 15-year licence replaced with a temporary one valid only for two, three, or five years, depending on the condition. 

Psychiatric conditions

Diagnosis with schizophrenia, other psychotic disorders, a manic episode, or a succession of manic episodes, is not in itself enough to prevent you from having a driving licence, but for the first three, you need to be in a stable condition for three months and show good compliance with your treatment before a psychiatrist can give you a health certificate recommending you be granted a driving licence for up to two years.

If you have had a succession of manic episodes, you may have to wait six months before you are allowed to drive. After two years, you can apply for a driving licence with the standard 15-year duration.

Drivers with conditions such as ADHD or ADD who don’t have a conduct disorder diagnosis can get a health certificate immediately recommending a driving licence for up to two years, so long as you have “good cognitive functioning”, after which you can have a normal licence. If you have an ADHD diagnosis and do have contact disorder, you need to show that you are being treated and that the treatment makes you a safe driver, after which you can get a driving licence for two years at a time. 

Those with autism, a personality disorder, or an intellectual disability can get a certificate allowing them to get a normal 15-year driving licence for a car if a doctor or psychologist rules that their functional level is “compatible with the safe driving of a motor vehicle”.

Alcoholic or drug addict 

Substance abuse problems can affect your right to a driving licence. If your licence is taken away because of problem use, you can fulfil the health requirements after six months if a monthly follow-up indicates that you are currently sober, you can then be recommended a driving licence for one year at a time for three years, after which you can have a licence for five years, after which you will be eligible for a 15-year licence. 

Use of medicines that affect driving 

Some medicines can affect your ability to drive, with some treatments leading to a short-term verbal ban. If you are taking opioids for long-term pain management, you can drive, however, so long as the daily dose is less than the equivalent of 300 mg of morphine and it is more than a week since your last dose increase.