Hvorfor skal du til Norge?  Why are you going to Norway? 

På ferie?  For å studere?  Besøke familie?  Arbeide? 

On vacation?  To study?  Visit family?  Work?

If you are traveling to Norway for more than 90 days for purposes other than work, you must have a residence permit.  If you are traveling to Norway and plan to work, you must have a work permit.  Makes sense in general, right?  Such a small country with so much to offer has to be careful about who and how many people they allow to stay in the country and for what purpose.  If the government did not have policies in place to control the movement of people into Norway,  the country would probably be overwhelmed with people who want to enjoy life like most Norwegians do.

As I was saying…all of the above seems to make sense, but there is sort of a catch-22 involved.  One must apply for a residence permit from outside of the country and generally long before one actually plans to travel there, because anything bureaucratic, I found, takes forever.  Of course if you don’t have it signed at the Consulate general in the states, your signature on the application must be notarized and dated accordingly. 

I was planning to study in Norway for a semester.  Then I found out about the opportunity to be an intern at the US Embassy in Norway, so I looked into that and applied (I think in September or October).  You would think that would be enough time to process the application and approve a residence permit, even if I couldn’t put my hands around it until I got there.  It was regretfully not.  After I arrived, I spent hours at the UDI (the Norwegian Directorate for Immigration) waiting in line to get my residence permit.  I had to provide the following:

-a copy of my passport

-an official letter from the educational institution I was to study at

-documentation of proof of housing

-documentation of proof of substinance (whether it be a student loan or bank statements).  I had to prove that I had $6,000 in liquid funds to support me during my stay.

-money to pay a fee

-and the application, of course

Now these were the requirements for an American who planned to live and study in Norway.  The requirements are different if you are from an EU country and if you are from a country that Norway has a special relationship with (by this I mean a country that Norway has provided substantial assistance in the way of asylum, etc.). 

You can find more information on the UDI website which is as follows:  http://www.udi.no/templates/Tema.aspx?id=7417

On this site you can find information about who can apply for residence permits, work permits, settlement permits, as well as how to apply for all of these different kinds of permits and all the nitty gritty details.  However, I will warn you that even if you think you know everything about the process and it seems like there is no reason for it not to go smoothly, expect a delay or some miscommunication about something, if not just a long wait in line.  There are a lot of people who want to live in Norway.  Can you blame them?  I can’t. 

My advice to you if you are thinking about residing in Norway for longer than 90 days, do your research and know what you need to do in advance and how far in advance, and proceed from there.  This is not a process through which you can “wing it” because your ancestors are Norwegian or you think it’s such a small country, the government probably won’t notice you’ve stayed longer than the allowable time.  Chances are they will.  They are very on top of things. 

Lykke til!  Good luck!