Stateless person over the age of 18
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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.
Requirements for Norwegian citizenship
- You must pay an application fee.
- You must have your identity verified. As a general rule, you are required to present a passport.
- 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 are between 18 and 67 years old, you must meet the following requirements:
- You must have passed an oral test in Norwegian at level B1 at the minimum, or
- You must have passed an oral test in Norwegian at level A2 at the minimum, if you are:
- a stateless person
- over 55 years of age and came to Norway on the basis of an application for protection or as a resettled refugee, or
- over 55 years of age and receive disability benefits, and
- Passed a test in social studies in Norwegian or a citizenship test
- 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.
- When you meet the conditions for a permanent residence permit that is decisive for when you can apply for Norwegian citizenship. If you do not already have a permanent residence permit, you must wait to apply for citizenship until you meet the residence requirement for a permanent residence permit. You must also meet the other requirements that apply to a permanent residence permit, such as the requirement for self-sufficiency. You must fulfil all requirements until the UDI processes your citizenship application. For example, you must have met the requirement for income (self-sufficiency) in the last twelve months before the application is processed.
The residence requirement for obtaining a permanent residence permit is three or five years, and depends on the basis on which you have a residence in Norway. Here you will find more information about calculating residence time and which groups are required to have five years of residence to be entitled to a permanent residence permit.
- You must have stayed in Norway for the last three and have held permits that were each valid for at least one year. This requirement is in addition to fulfilling the residence requirement of three or five years for a permanent residence permit (if you do not already have a permanent residence permit). The period of stay must have been continuous for the last three years. This means that you may not have traveled more than two months abroad per calendar year over the previous three years. Nor can you have stayed in Norway without a valid residence permit for more than two months in total during the past three years. The "past three years" are calculated from when we make a decision in your case.