Spouse, registered partner or cohabitant of a Norwegian citizen

If you have registered as an EU/EEA national with the police in Norway and you live here on a permanent basis, you can apply for Norwegian citizenship. You must meet the requirements for registration both when you apply for Norwegian citizenship and while your application is being processed.

Requirements for Norwegian citizenship

  • You must be residing in Norway and intend to continue living here in the future.
    • You must have permanently residence when you apply for Norwegian citizenship and when the application is processed.
  • You must have resided in Norway for a total of five years during the last ten years, the last three years with a right of residence.
    • The stay must have been continuous for the last three years. This means that you may not have stayed abroad for more than two months per calendar year during the last three years. This applies regardless of whether you have a permanent right of residence or not.
    • You have had a right of residence if you yourself are an EU/EEA citizen and have exercised your right of residence in Norway through work, self-employment or studies in Norway. You have also had a right of residence if you have been family reunited with an EU/EEA citizen, and this person has had a right of residence in Norway for the entire three-year period. If you do not have permanent right of residence nor meet the conditions for a permanent right of residence, you may not have been without a right of residence for more than a total of two months during the last three years. "The last three years" are calculated from the date we make a decision in your application for citizenship.
    • In addition to these three years, you must have two more years of residence, so that you have a total of at least five years of residence the past ten years. During these two additional years, you must have resided in Norway with a right of residence or residence permits of at least one year's duration.
  • Your combined residence period and marriage period must be at least seven years in total.
  • If you over the age of 15 years: You must order a criminal record certificate (external website), which you must hand in with the application. The certificate cannot be more than three months old when you meet for your appointment with the police to submit the application documents. Therefore, you must wait to apply for a criminal record certificate until you know when you have an appointment with the police. If you already have a criminal record certificate that is older than three months, you must apply for a new certificate before you have your appointment. If you have been convicted or fined by the police or if you are under investigation for a criminal offence, you might have to wait longer to become a Norwegian citizen.
  • From 1 January 2020, you are not required to give up your original citizenship to become a Norwegian citizen. You can have one or more citizenships in addition to a Norwegian citizenship. However, if the country you are a citizen of now does not allow you to have more than one citizenship, you may still lose this citizenship when you become a Norwegian citizen.

    You must make sure what the rules are in your current country of citizenship. You can, for example, look for information on an official website which belongs to the authorities in that country or ask an embassy.

    You do not have to inform Norwegian authorities that you wish to keep your previous citizenship.