Children over the age of 12 who apply on their own

If you hold a valid residence permit in Norway and you live here on a permanent basis, you can apply for Norwegian citizenship. Your residence permit must be valid both when you apply for Norwegian citizenship and while your application is being processed. Applying for Norwegian citizenship does not mean that you have a valid permit to stay in Norway. It is therefore very important that you renew your permit in the normal manner no later than one month before it expires.

Your parents must apply

Since you are under the age of 18, your parents, or the parent who has sole parental responsibility for you, must apply for Norwegian citizenship on your behalf. If your parents are dead or have forfeited their parental responsibility, your guardian has to submit the application.

If you are over the age of 12, you have to consent to an application for Norwegian citizenship being submitted on your behalf.

Requirements for Norwegian citizenship

  • You must be over the age of 12.
  • 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.
  • 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. 
  • You must hold, or meet all the requirements for, a permanent residence permit at the time when UDI makes a decision on your application for citizenship. This means that if you do not already have a permanent residence permit and do not have an application for a permanent residence permit under processing, it is not sufficient only to meet the requirements for permanent residence at the time you hand in the citizenship application. You must still meet the requirements when UDI processes the citizenship application. The requirement for income (self-sufficiency) must have been met for the last twelve months before the application is processed.

    If you do not hold nor have applied for a permanent residence permit, you must also ensure that your temporary permit is valid while you wait for a response to your application for citizenship.