Norway · UDI

Norway citizenship requirements

The standard route asks for 8 years of residence, and residence is the first of 6 requirements. Below is each one as UDI states it, dated, with the shorter routes and the absence rules that can push the count back.

Standard route
8 yrs
of residence
Nordic citizens
2 yrs
Nordic citizen application
Requirements
6
in total
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Requirements

Everything Norwegian citizenship asks for

Residence
Eight years of residence. More than two months abroad in a year and all that year's days abroad are deducted from your residence time.
Permanent residence
Hold a permanent residence permit, or meet the requirements for one, when UDI decides your case.
Norwegian language test
Oral Norwegian at a minimum of B1.
Knowledge of Norwegian society
Pass the citizenship test or the social studies test, taken in Norwegian.
Clean record
No conviction or other sanction for a criminal offence.
Decision by UDI
UDI decides the application once everything else is in place.
Routes

Not everyone waits the same number of years

Which route you are on depends on your current citizenship, your family and how long you have lived in Norway, and each route carries its own set of the requirements above.

Time abroad

How days outside Norway count

More than two months abroad in a calendar year means the entire time abroad that year is deducted from your residence count.

What is changing

What to watch

Rules changed recently
Dual citizenship since 2020, residence raised to 8 years from January 2022, B1 oral Norwegian with test-only proof from October 2022. Stricter rules were proposed in June 2026.
No processing freeze
Norway has no current naturalisation freeze. Do not assume the Danish pause applies here.
Dual citizenship caveat
Norway allows dual citizenship, but your other country may not.

Work out your own date, not the general one.

Belong Nordic takes your residence date and every trip you have taken and gives you the distance that is actually yours: what you control, what you do not and what each absence costs.

No invented finish dates: where the law is discretionary or a process is paused, it says so.

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7 days free, then 299 NOK a year. One subscription covers the iPhone app and the web app.

Preparing for Statsborgerprøven

Statsborgerprøven is the Norwegian citizenship knowledge test. It is sat in Norwegian, and passing it, or the social studies test samfunnskunnskapsprøven, is one of the conditions for Norwegian citizenship.

Norway practice test and sample questions

The other Nordic countries

Rules as of 1 November 2026, snapshot 2026.2, from UDI. read the official source. Belong Nordic is not a government service and gives no legal advice.