A residence permit on the grounds of family reunification is primarily granted to close family members. After three years with a residence permit one can apply for a permanent residence permit. Family members are considered to be:
- Spouse and registered partner
- Fiancée
- Cohabitants who have lived together for at least two years
- Cohabitants who are expecting a child together
- Children under 18 whose parent/s live in Norway
- Parents whose children under 18 live in Norway
- Parental visit for up to 9 months
- Other family members (when strong humanitarian considerations warrant it)
For more information on family immigration, please click here.
How do I apply?
Step 1: Register an application on the Application Portal.
Applicants should register their applications online using the Application Portal. Simply fill out the application category 'Family immigration', pay the fee with a credit/debit card and book an appointment for when the you would like to submit your passport and supporting documents at the Norway Visa Application Centre. The application is formally registered as received on the date you submit your passport with relevant supporting documentation. The Embassy will then send your application to the Norwegian Directorate of Immigration (UDI) in Norway. You may nominate a person in Norway to register an application on your behalf. However, you are responsible for the application and have to hand in the supporting documentation yourself.
For more information on how to register your application on the Application Portal, please click here.
Step 2: Submit supporting documents and your passport.
Applications for residence permits must as a general rule be submitted in person at the Norwegian Foreign Service Mission where you are a citizen. If you reside in another country other than where you are a citizen, you must in general have had a work or residence permit in this country for the past six months before you submit the application.
When you register an application on the Application Portal, you have the possibility to book an appointment for when you would like to submit your supporting documents and passport at the Norway Visa Application Centre.
All applications for family immigration will be forwarded by the Embassy to the Norwegian Directorate of Immigration (UDI) in Norway for consideration. The applicant has to stay in Thailand until the permit has been granted by UDI.
On this webpage you will find updated checklists of the documents which are required for a residence permit in family immigration on the top right hand corner under 'downloads'. Which checklist should be used depends on which family member in Norway you would like to be reunited with.
Please keep in mind that lacking documentation in the application may lead to longer processing time and in some cases a rejection of the application.
Step 3: Case processing times and case handling
Once the case has been sent to UDI in Norway, the Embassy has no further bearing on the case. The processing time depends on the work load at UDI at any time, but you can find an average expected processing time for the various types of permits on UDI’s website, please click here.
Step 4: Application results and return of passport
When UDI has handled the application and a decision has been made, the Embassy with be notified by UDI. The applicant will then be contacted by the Embassy who will issue a 7-day entry visa in his/her passport. After a 7-day entry visa has been issued the applicant may travel to Norway. Please be informed that the applicant must report to the local Police District within 7 days upon arrival in order for the Police to issue the resident permit in the applicant's passport.
Where do I apply for family immigration?
Applications are to be submitted in person at the Norway Visa Application Centre in Bangkok.
It is also possible to submit family immigration applications directly at the Embassy once an application has been registered on the Application Portal. Please be informed that all applicants who wish to apply for family immigration at the Embassy must book a prior appointment through the Norway Visa Application Centre (and not the Application Portal). The Norway Visa Application Centre can assist the applicant, free of charge, to make an appointment at the Embassy on phone number +66 (0)22 63 91 04.
The Embassy will receive applications with a prior appointment made through the Norway Visa Application Centre on Tuesdays and Thursdays between 09.00 - 11.00 only. Please be advised that the Embassy has a limited number of time slots per week.
Application fees
A list of application fees, including family immigration, can be found here.
Applicants under the age of 18 are fee exempt.
Subsistence and housing requirement
As a general rule the applicant must be ensured subsistence and housing in Norway. The subsistence requirement, i.e. income requirement, is equal to 88 percent of pay grade 18 of the National Pay Scale ('Statens lønnsregulativ'). The amount is adjusted annually. For more information, click here.
Spouse and registered partner
If you are married to or are a registered partner of the person living in Norway, you are entitled to a family immigration permit if you otherwise meet the requirements.
If you intend to apply for family immigration with your spouse or registred partner, please use the following checklist: ENGLISH version - NORWEGIAN version, and fill out the questionnaire.
7-day Entry Visa (D-visa)
Foreign spouses of Norwegian citizens are, as a general rule, required to submit their applications for a residence permit at the Norwegian Embassy, and are not permitted to enter Norway until a residence permit has been granted by the Norwegian Directorate of Immigration (UDI). For information on Norwegian "Visumreferanse", see here.
However, in some exceptional cases, the Embassy may grant a 7-day entry visa (a national D-visa) so that the foreign spouse can travel to Norway to submit the application for residence permit, and wait in Norway while the case is being processed. Similarly, a 7-day entry visa may be granted if an application for residence permit already has been submitted. The Embassy processes the case, but a rejection may be appealed to UDI. Please see UDI's Circular 2013-001.
Applications for 7-day entry visas (D-visas) may also be registered on the Application Portal. Simply fill out the same application form as for a Schengen Visa (category 'Visa (short visit)'), pay the fee of with a credit/debit card and book an appointment for when you would like to submit your passport and supporting documents at the Norway Visa Application Centre. The handling fee for a 7-day Entry Visa is the same amount as for a Schengen visa. The processing time for 7-day entry visas is approximately four months.
For more information about how to register your application online, please click here.
Please use the following checklist when applying for a 7-day Entry Visa: ENGLISH version - NORWEGIAN version
More information in Norwegian about the documentation requirements from the Norwegian spouse is available here.
Fiancé
If you wish to marry a person living in Norway, you can apply for a residence permit to go to Norway and enter into marriage (fiancé permit). The permit is valid for six months, and you must get married in the course of the period for which the permit is valid. After you have entered into marriage, you can apply for family immigration with your spouse from Norway.
If you intend to apply for family immigration with your fiancé, please use the following checklist: ENGLISH version - NORWEGIAN version, and fill out the questionnaire.
Cohabitant
You may apply for a residence permit as a co-habitant if you and you co-habitant are:
- Both over the age of 18
- Neither of you are married to other people
- You have already lived together for at least two years
- If you have or are expecting a child with a person living in Norway, the requirement for two years' cohabitation does not apply
- You intend to live together in Norway
If you intend to apply for family immigration with your cohabitant, please use the following checklist: ENGLISH version - NORWEGIAN version
Children under 18 whose parent/s live in Norway
Children whose parent/s live in Norway are entitled to go to Norway to live with them provided that certain criteria are met.
Requirements of the parents:
- Both parents live in Norway and have legal residence here, or
- One of the parents lives in Norway and has sole parental responsibility, or
- One of the parents lives in Norway and the other parent has agreed to the child moving to Norway (if they have joint parental responsibility)
If the case concerns an adopted child, the Norwegian Directorate of Children, Youth and Family Affairs must have agreed to the adoption before the child enters Norway.
If you intend to apply for family immigration with your parent/s in Norway, please use following checklist: ENGLISH version - NORWEGIAN version, and fill out this questionnaire.
Family immigration between a Norwegian child and the child's mother or father
If you have children under the age of 18 living in Norway who you are going to live with or have access rights to, you can apply for a family immigration permit.
In the list below, you can find information about the different situations where you can be granted family immigration with your child in Norway.
- Your child has Norwegian citizenship. You must live with the child on a permanent basis and have parental responsibility for him/her. If you are married or to cohabitate with the child's other parent, you must apply for family immigration with your spouse or cohabitant, not with your child.
- Your child has Norwegian citizenship and has lived in another country in which you have had access rights. If the child moves to Norway to live with the other parent, you can be granted a residence permit to continue to visit your child here.
- You use your access rights to your child living in Norway with his/her other parent. You must have lived in Norway and held a residence permit for the past year.
The Norwegian Directorate of Immigration can reject such an application if a residence permit will result in you as parents being in a bigamous relationship (if one of you has a new spouse or cohabitant).
If you intend to apply for family immigration with your children in Norway, please use the following checklist: ENGLISH version - NORWEGIAN version
Parental visit for up to 9 months
If you have children living in Norway, you can also be granted a residence permit that is valid for up to nine months to visit them.
This permit entitles you as a parent to visit your children living in Norway for up to nine months. The permit does not entitle you to work in Norway, and you must return to your home country when the residence permit expires. You can travel into and out of Norway for as long as the permit is valid.
The permit cannot be renewed, but you may be granted a new nine-month permit when you have stayed outside Norway for at least one year. If you have visited Norway in the meantime (for example on a visa), the one-year period is extended by a period equal to the duration of the visit.
If you intend to apply for a permit to vist your children in Norway for up to nine months, please use the following checklist: ENGLISH version - NORWEGIAN version
Parents over 60 whose children live in Norway
If you are a single mother or father over the age of 60 of a person living in Norway you may apply for a residence permit to live in Norway. You cannot have a spouse, cohabitant, parent, child, grandchild, or great-grandchild in your home country. Your son or daughter in Norway must be over the age of 18.
If you intend to apply for family immigration with your son or daugther in Norway, please use the following checklist: ENGLISH version - NORWEGIAN version
