How do we assess applications for a visitor’s visa?
Schengen visas (visitor’s visas) to Norway are subject to an entitlement provision. This means that, as a main rule, you are entitled to a visitor’s visa provided that you meet the requirements. Most applications for a visitor’s visa are therefore granted.
Your application can be rejected, however, on the basis of immigration policy, foreign policy or security policy considerations. It may also be rejected if there is reason to doubt the purpose of the trip, or there is reason to doubt the accuracy of the information provided in the application.
Minimum requirements for applications for a visitor’s visa
Information about the minimum requirements for a visa and about what documentation you must submit together with the visa application is available here.
Is it probable that you will return home after the end of the visit?
When we process your visa application, we must assess whether it is probable that you will return home after the visa period expires.
This means that the application for a visa will be rejected if we have reason to believe that you will not return home. This is classified as immigration policy considerations.
In this assessment, we consider the following factors:
- General conditions in your home country/country of residence. The factors we consider in this context may include: Are there many people in this country who wish to emigrate? Are there many people belonging to special groups in this country who wish to emigrate? Do many people from this country apply for asylum in Norway or other Schengen states?
- Your personal situation. How strong is your connection to your home country? The factors that we consider may include your marital status, age, nationality, place of residence, work or study situation and whether many members of your family have emigrated.
- Welfare considerations. What is the purpose of your trip? Are you going to visit close family members? Are there any strong welfare considerations, for example that a member of your family in Norway is ill, you are going to attend a funeral or another important family event? Strong welfare considerations may lead us to grant an application even though the situation in your country and your personal situation are such that we have reason to believe that you will not return home.
When we make this assessment, we exercise discretionary and experience-based judgment.
How do we process applications from your country?
We always carry out a concrete, individual and overall assessment of each individual application for a visitor’s visa. No two applications are the same.
At the same time, we wish to be as predictable as possible, so that you may get an indication in advance of whether your visa application will be granted or rejected.
We have therefore divided all the countries of the world into four groups: green, yellow, orange and red. Your chances of being granted a visa are greatest if you come from a country in the green group and lowest if you come from a country in the red group.
To see which group your country belongs to, please visit our country page. When you click on your country, you will see how we process applications from your country group.
The regulations
When we created the groups, we considered, among other things:
- Asylum immigration to Norway and Schengen
- Asylum immigration to Norway and Schengen in relation to the population
- The UN’s Human Development Index
- Our own experience of processing visa applications over time
- Other Schengen states’ visa practice
- Geopolitical considerations
- Political considerations, the conflict situation in the country, the number of asylum applications to Norway and Schengen, the living conditions in the country, the practice in other Schengen states, and our experience of visa applicants from these countries.
Visa applications are processed in accordance with the provisions of the Immigration Act and Immigration Regulations. For more information, see the UDI Regulations website (Norwegian only).
In addition, Norway has undertaken to harmonise the granting of visas with the other Schengen states. All the Schengen states have joint guidelines on how visa applications are to be processed. These guidelines form the basis for many of the visa provisions in the Norwegian Immigration Act and Immigration Regulations.
Visa on humanitarian grounds
In cases in which we do not grant a visitor’s visa, we can consider granting a national visitor’s visa that only entitles the holder to entry and residence in Norway (not the other Schengen states). We can grant a national visitor’s visa if there are humanitarian grounds for doing so, e.g. serious illness or the death of a close family member, or on the basis of important national or foreign policy considerations.
