You do not need to have a residence permit in Norway or be a Norwegian citizen in order to get married in Norway, but you must have legal stay. In this case, legal stay can for example mean that you have a residence permit, residence as an EU/EEA national, a visitor’s visa or a valid visa free stay.
Before you can get married in Norway you must get a certificate which shows that you fulfil the conditions for entering into marriage (prøvingsattest), which is valid for 4 months. You must give this certificate to the person who is officiating the marriage.
There is a waiting time for being issued a certificate, so please make sure you leave plenty of time before the wedding.
You do not have to have a residence permit in Norway or be a Norwegian citizen in order to get married in Norway, but you must have legal stay. In this case, legal stay can for example mean that you have a residence permit, residence as an EU/EEA national, a visitor’s visa or a valid visa free stay.
Before you can get married in Norway you must get a certificate which shows that you fulfil the conditions for entering into marriage (prøvingsattest), which is valid for 4 months. You must give this certificate to the person who is officiating the marriage.
There is a waiting time for being issued a certificate, so please make sure you leave plenty of time before the wedding.
If you are getting married to a person who lives in Norway, and you wish to marry in Norway, you can apply for a residence permit in order to do so. It is however not a requirement that you have exactly this type of residence permit when you get married in Norway. You can also get married in Norway if you have a different type of legal stay.
It is possible to get this type of residence permit if you are coming to Norway to get married, and it is therefore often called a “fiancé permit”. You cannot get this type of residence permit if you wish to come to Norway to find out whether you wish to get married, or in order for you to get to know your boyfriend/girlfriend better.
There are some requirements you and your fiancé must fulfil, and there are many documents you must hand in with the application. Before you hand in the in the application you must check that you fulfil these requirements.
This residence permit is valid for a maximum of six months. You must hand in the application for a residence permit with your spouse at least one month before the residence permit for getting married expires.
This means that you have less than five months to get married. On the Tax Administration's website you get an overview of what you have to do to get married (external website). There is a lot you need to do during these five months, therefore it is important that you start the formal processes surrounding the marriage as early as possible.
The corona situation
If you experience delays in getting married because of the corona situation, you can apply for a renewal of the residence permit (your fiancé permit) in this particular situation.
If you marry someone who lives in Norway or is a Norwegian citizen, you do not automatically get a residence permit in Norway.
In order to live in Norway, you must apply for a residence permit through family immigration with your spouse. There are some requirements you and your spouse must fulfil, and there are many documents you must hand in with the application. Before you hand in the in the application you must check that you fulfil these requirements.
If you have a child with, are expecting a child with, or have cohabited for at least two years with a person who lives in Norway, you can apply for a residence person through family immigration without being married.
There are some requirements you and your cohabitant must fulfil, and there are many documents you must hand in with the application. Before you hand in the in the application you must check that you fulfil these requirements.
You do not have to have a residence permit in Norway or be a Norwegian citizen in order to get married in Norway, but you must have legal stay. In this case, legal stay can for example mean that you have a residence permit, residence as an EU/EEA national, a visitor’s visa or a valid visa free stay
If those who are officiating the marriage or the Tax authorities ask you for a confirmation which shows that you have legal stay in Norway, you can do the following
Even if you got married in Norway, or have married someone who is Norwegian citizen or have a residence permit in Norway, the main rule is that you cannot hand in your application for a residence permit in Norway. You must instead hand it in in a country where you are a citizen or have had a residence permit for the past six months.
In some cases, it is possible to hand in the application in Norway. In order to find out whether you can hand in the application in Norway, you must go the pages for applying for family immigration and continue until you get an answer as to whether you can hand in the application in Norway or not.
If the answer you are given is that you cannot hand in the application in Norway, but you do so anyway, you must be aware that the application will be rejected and that your application fee will not be refunded. You must then hand in a new application in a country where you are a citizen or have had a residence permit for the past six months.
If you are getting married abroad, you must check with the authorities in this country what documents you must submit.
Before you leave Norway, you should for example check whether you must have any documents translated, and whether the documents from Norway must have an apostille stamp from the County governor.
In some country the notoriety of the documents is so low that the Tax authority will not register the marriage until after the UDI has granted the application for family immigration.