Former Norwegian citizen under the age of 12 who have one Norwegian parent or apply together with one parent

If you hold a valid residence permit in Norway and live here on a permanent basis, you can apply for Norwegian citizenship.

If you or your child does not hold a residence permit, you must apply for one to be able to live in Norway. The most common way of doing this is by applying for family reunification.

Requirements for Norwegian citizenship

  • 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.
  • You must have stayed in Norway continuously for the past two years and have held residence permits that were each valid for at least one year (applies if you are over the age of two).
    • This means that you cannot have been abroad for more than two months per calendar year during the past two years.
    • Nor can you have stayed in Norway without a valid permit for more than two months in total during the past two years, reckoned from the date on which we make a decision in your case.
    • If you are under the age of two when you apply, there is no residence period requirement, but you must have applied for or hold a residence permit before we make a decision in your case.
    • Read more about how to calculate the length of your residence period.
  • From 1 January 2020, you are not required to give up your original citizenship to become a Norwegian citizen. You can have one or more citizenships in addition to a Norwegian citizenship. However, if the country you are a citizen of now does not allow you to have more than one citizenship, you may still lose this citizenship when you become a Norwegian citizen.

    You must make sure what the rules are in your current country of citizenship. You can, for example, look for information on an official website which belongs to the authorities in that country or ask an embassy.

    You do not have to inform Norwegian authorities that you wish to keep your previous citizenship. 

Exemptions from the requirements

  • If you were given incorrect information by the Norwegian authorities and believed in good faith that you or your child would not lose your Norwegian citizenship, you may be granted an exemption from the above requirements.