Read news from:
Austria
SHARE
COPY LINK
For members

IMMIGRATION

How long can you leave Norway for without losing permanent residency?

While permanent residency allows you to live and work in Norway indefinitely, you risk losing this right if you spend too long outside the country. 

Published: 28 November 2022 15:51 CET
Updated: 17 February 2024 07:53 CET
Pictured is a view top of Bergen.
Here's how long you can spend outside of Norway without losing residence. Pictured is a view top of Bergen. Photo by Matthew Whall on Unsplash

If you have lived in Norway long enough and meet the relevant language requirements, you can choose to apply for permanent residence rather than temporary residence. 

As the name suggests, one of the main benefits of this is to be able to live and work in Norway for as long as you wish. In addition, for some temporary residence holders, a permanent card will allow greater career freedom. 

However, while the name indicates strengthened residence rights, a permanent residence permit can be revoked- meaning you will need to go back to a more conditional temporary residence card. 

When this happens, your residence period resets- meaning you’ll have to wait years before applying to be a permanent resident again. 

In extreme scenarios, you may even need to leave Norway. 

One case in which you could lose permanent residence is if you spend too long outside of Norway. 

With Norwegian permanent residence, there are several rules regarding how long you can spend outside of Norway. 

First up, you are prohibited from staying outside the country for a continuous period of two years or more. If you do, you will be notified that your permanent residence is being revoked. 

You can also not spend a total of two out of four years outside Norway. Trips under two months per calendar year do not contribute to this total, according to the Norwegian Directorate of Immigration (UDI) rules. 

Additionally, the time you can spend outside of the country resets after you have spent a continuous period of 15 months inside Norway. 

There are some exceptions to this, for example, if you were in an abusive relationship and could not return to Norway within two years. 

Those with spouse, partner or cohabitant visas are also allowed to stay more than two years abroad, according to the UDI’s guidelines. 

If you think you may be planning on staying outside of Norway for more than two years, then you can apply to the UDI to keep your permanent right of residence. You can read more about the conditions for applying to keep permanent residence while living abroad here. 

The deadline for applying is six months before the two-year deadline. If you apply before this deadline, you will still have two weeks to return to Norway to preserve your rights after the application was rejected, even if you have spent two years outside Norway. 

Member comments

Log in here to leave a comment.
Become a Member to leave a comment.

IMMIGRATION

Norway’s immigration authority closes 1,000 cases into suspected cheating

Norway’s Directorate of Immigration (UDI) has dismissed more than 1,000 cases where applicants were suspected of providing false information, its director confirmed to public broadcaster NRK.

Published: 17 April 2024 15:40 CEST
Norway's immigration authority closes 1,000 cases into suspected cheating

The Norwegian Directorate of Immigration (UDI) has dismissed more than 1,000 asylum and immigration cases after it had been told to reduce the queue of cases by the Ministry of Justice, public broadcaster NRK reports.

Frode Forfang, director of UDI, told NRK that the UDI chose to close cases where there were suspicions that false information had been provided to prioritise what it considered to be the most pressing and serious cases .

“We were in a situation where a large number of cases were created, but our capacity was not proportionate to the number of cases. This meant that we did not get a good enough grip on the matters that we believe are the most serious. At the same time, it led to a good number of these cases becoming very old,” he said.

“Many people lived in uncertainty for a long time because we did not have the capacity,” he added.

The UDI also decided last year that cases older than three years old would not be reopened, according to the report from NRK.

Figures from the UDI provided to the broadcaster show that 78 people have been deported from Norway due to false information submitted with their asylum cases over the past six years.

In recent years, the rules for deporting those who have provided false information in asylum applications have been softened.

Over the last six years, nearly 900 people in Norway have received a new residence permit after their original one was withdrawn after the UDI had uncovered falsehoods in the original applications.

Forfang said it was important for the UDI to focus on cases where the applicant would likely be deported.

“We think that it is more important to work on those cases where we believe that the person in question may end up having to leave Norway, rather than those cases where the person in question will anyway be allowed to stay in Norway through a new permit,” Forfang said.

The UDI has previously told The Local that it had its budget cut. The directorate warned that this could mean longer waiting times for residence, asylum and citizenship in Norway.

“These budget cuts will reduce the UDI’s ability to process cases and respond to inquiries efficiently. A decrease in capacity to process cases may lead to extended waiting times for residency and citizenship applications, although this will also depend on the volume of cases received,” Beate Sveen, the UDI’s Director of Finance, told The Local last month.

SHOW COMMENTS