Sufficient income for reduced residence time when applying for citizenship
What is meant by sufficient income?
Sufficient income means that income and benefits that you have received during a year and which are included in the ordinary income in your tax settlement, amounts to at least 3 times the basic amount in the National Insurance Scheme in the year the tax settlement applies.
The basic amount (1G) changes every year on 1 May. The rate for the basic amount is lower in the first four months of the year, before the rate changes. The average basic amount for a calendar year is therefore slightly lower than the value of 1 G per 1 May of the same year. We calculate sufficient income by using the average basic amount. This calculation also takes into account the lower rate that applied for the first four months.
How you can check if you have sufficient income:
- Log in to the Tax Administration's pages and open the latest available tax settlement (external website)
- Check the amount stated on «Total income» («Sum inntekter») on page 3.
- If the last tax settlement is from 2022 and the amount is NOK 329,352 or higher, you are covered by the exception of shorter residence time.
Which income is included?
What is to be taken into account is the sum of the income that is included in the calculation of ordinary income in the tax assessment, before deduction. The UDI collects this directly from the Tax Administration. In your tax assessment, the amount is written on page 3 as «Total income» («Sum inntekter»). This amount represents your total income before deductions.
Only income listed in this field in your tax return is counted. If you have received a new tax settlement after you have submitted your application, we will use the last tax settlement if it is to your advantage. If not, we will use the last tax settlement that was available with the Tax Administration when you applied for citizenship.
If you have income that is not listed in the field called «Total income» in your tax settlement, we cannot include this when we assess whether you have sufficient income. This means that we cannot include income you have had in 2022 before you have received the tax settlement for 2022 from the Tax Administration.
What is the income requirement?
If you are applying for Norwegian citizenship now, we will calculate your income based on the tax settlement for 2022, since the tax settlement for 2023 is not available yet. In 2022, the average basic amount was NOK 109,784. The sum of your income in the 2022 tax settlement must therefore be at least 3 times this amount, which equals NOK 329,352.
If you applied for citizenship after you had received the tax settlement for 2021, but before the tax settlement for 2022 was available, we will consider your income from 2021. The average basic amount in 2021 was NOK 104,716. The sum of your income in the 2021 tax settlement must therefore be NOK 314,148 or more.
The average basic amount in 2023 is NOK 116,239. The tax settlement for 2023 is not available until 2024, but if you apply for Norwegian citizenship after the tax settlement for 2023 is available, your income must be NOK 348,717 or more.
Which kinds of income and benefits are included in ordinary income?
Income and benefits that are included in ordinary income in the tax settlement include earned income, business income, sickness benefits, maternity benefits, parental benefits and work assessment benefits, pensions, disability benefits and unemployment benefits. Care allowance (pleie- og omsorgspenger) and education allowance (opplæringspenger), with reference to the National Insurance Act (folketrygdloven) chapter 9 (external website), are also included. Furthermore, profits from business, interest income, taxable gains and dividends from shares, as well as dividends from businesses assessed as partnerships will be included. Certain capital gains, such as gains on the sale of real estate, are also included.
Loans and scholarships are not considered income and are therefore not included.
If you are unsure whether you have sufficient income, you must look in your tax return and find the amount on page 3 under «total income». You do not need to submit information about what income you have to UDI because we collect the information about income that is included in your ordinary income in the previous tax settlement directly from the Tax Administration.