If you wish to come to Norway to live with a family member who is resident here, you can apply for a family immigration permit. It is the person living abroad who must apply. The family member in Norway (the sponsor) cannot, as a rule, apply on your behalf.
How do you apply?
To apply, you need to fill in the application form for work and residence. When you apply for a family immigration permit, you must, as a rule, submit the application to the relevant embassy or consulate in your home country or in the country in which you have held a residence permit for the last six months.
Can you apply from Norway?
Most people cannot travel to Norway before they have been granted a family immigration permit and are therefore not entitled to apply from Norway. However, a few groups can come to Norway and apply here.
If you are among those who can apply from Norway, you must submit the application to the police where you live. In cities, there is often a separate office you must go to. Read more at www.politiet.no.
What must be enclosed with the application?
The documentation you must enclose depends on the permit you apply for. See the list of documentation you must enclose to a family immigration application.
Depending on which country you apply from, the list of enclosed documentation may vary over time. You should therefore check with the embassy or the consulate in the country you apply from as to which documentation you must enclose.
Interview with the person living in Norway
If you apply for a family immigration permit as a spouse or cohabitant, the main rule is that the person living in Norway must have been interviewed by the police. This applies when the marriage or cohabitation is established abroad after the person living in Norway is already settled here. The scheme is introduced to clarify whether or not you have entered into the marriage or cohabitation voluntarily.
The documentation requirement does not apply if:
- you are married to the person living in Norway, and he or she was interviewed before you got married, or
- you are among those who do not need a visa to enter Norway, or
- the person living in Norway had turned 25 when the marriage was entered into, or
- the person living in Norway has been granted a residence permit as a skilled worker or a specialist, or
- you have lived together in an established cohabitation while both have held residence permits in Norway.
Exemptions can also be made from the interview requirement if special grounds so indicate.
Case processing time
See the list of the Directorate of Immigration’s (UDI) expected case processing times at www.udi.no/caseprocessingtime. To ensure that the case processing time is as short as possible, it is important that you fill in the application form carefully and that you enclose all the required documentation.
You can appeal the decision
Read more about how to appeal a decision at www.udi.no/appeals.
Further information
If you have more questions about this topic, contact your nearest Norwegian embassy or consulate, the nearest police district or the UDI’s Information Service.
