UK national or family member who wants to apply for a permanent residence permit

If you are a UK national who has lived in Norway for at least five continuous years, you must apply for a permanent residence permit if you want to continue living here. The same applies if you are a family member of a UK national and have lived in Norway for at least five continuous years with a residence permit under the Separation Agreement.

Requirements for the applicant

  • As a general rule, you must have lived in Norway continuously for at least five years. This means that you have not stayed abroad for more than six months in any one year. The residence period is calculated from the day on which you met the requirements for having a right of residence in Norway.
  • Throughout the entire period, you must have met the conditions for at least one basis for the right of residence. This means that you must have been either an employee, a self-employed person, a student, a person with sufficient funds, or been here as a family member of such a person.
  • If you are a family member of a UK national, the UK national must meet the requirements for a permanent residence permit before you can apply.
  • For more extended stays abroad to be included in the total residence period, the stay must be due to pregnancy, childbirth, serious illness, research stays, studies or vocational training, secondment, or compulsory military or civilian service. Such a stay may last for up to 12 consecutive months.
  • You must meet the requirements at the time of application. Periods of residence both before and after 31 December 2020 will be included in calculating five years of continuous legal residence.
  • There is no requirement that you have passed tests or completed courses in the Norwegian language and social studies to be granted a permanent residence permit under the Brexit regulations

How to apply

1. Gather the documents you need

You must document that you have met the requirements for a right of residence for five consecutive years. Which documents you must submit with your application depends on the individual situation that applies to you. You will receive a personalised checklist after you have completed the application form. Some examples of documents we may ask you to submit include:

    • valid national ID card or passport
    • documentation that you have had a right of residence for five consecutive years
    • if you have had different grounds for residence, you must provide documentation that shows all your grounds for residence
    • if you have been involuntarily unemployed, you must provide documentation showing this
    • if you have been incapacitated, you must provide documentation showing this
    • documentation showing the reason for the interruption in stay if you have been abroad for more than six months during a year

2. Fill in the application form

3. Submit documents and identify yourself at the police

The majority of applicants do not have to submit any documents. They only have to go to the police to identify themselves. Some applicants must submit documents. You must upload these documents digitally.

After you have submitted your application, you will receive a receipt by email with a summary of your application. If you are going to submit documents to your application, there will be a list of which documents you should submit in the summary. If you only have to identify yourself, it will be stated in the summary that you only need to submit identity documents. This means that you must present your passport or national ID card to the police.

If you need only to identify yourself

If your application summary shows that you should only submit identity documents, you should not do anything now. After a while, the police will send you an email confirming that they have opened a case. After the police have made a decision for the residence permit, you will receive a new email from the police asking you to book an appointment to identify yourself. You must not book an appointment until you are notified. The police's capacity varies, and how easy it is to find available appointments may depend on when you try to book.

If you have to submit documents to attach to your application
If the summary of your application shows that you have to submit documents, the police will send you an email a while after you applied, asking you to upload your documents online. This email also includes instructions on how to do so. You cannot submit documents before you receive this email. It may take some time before you receive an email from the police.

After uploading the documents, you will eventually receive a new email from the police asking you to book an appointment to identify yourself with the police. Do not book an appointment before you are notified.