NorgeStart
Find housing & jobs
finn.no is where Norway advertises almost everything — homes to rent under Eiendom → Bolig til leie, jobs, cars and second-hand goods. NAV's job portal and company career pages carry the rest of the vacancies. Norwegian CVs are short, factual and expect a reference; the cover letter matters more than in most countries.
NorgeStart is an independent private service. It is not a government agency and is not affiliated with, endorsed by or operated by any Norwegian public authority. NorgeStart brings information from many official Norwegian sources together in one place, and we work to keep it up to date. Even so, rules, rates and amounts can change at any time, and we cannot guarantee that a page here always matches the authority's latest wording. Always confirm with the responsible authority before you act. We give general information, not professional advice on legal, tax, immigration or medical matters, and we take no responsibility for differences between this page and the official source, or for decisions taken on the basis of it.
Where to find a place to live
- finn.no — THE marketplace for everything in Norway; "Eiendom → Bolig til leie" for rentals. Set up saved searches with alerts; good flats go in days.
- hybel.no — rooms and smaller rentals, popular with students and newcomers.
- Facebook groups ("Leie bolig Oslo" etc.) — real finds but also most of the scams; apply the deposit rules strictly.
- Student? Apply for student housing via your samskipnad (e.g. SiO in Oslo) the minute you're admitted — queues are long and it's the cheapest option (~NOK 4–7k/month).
- Rough rents: Oslo room 7–10k, 1-bed flat 13–18k; Bergen/Trondheim ~15–20% less; small towns much less.
Where to find a job
- finn.no/job — the main job board. arbeidsplassen.nav.no — NAV's official board, free to use.
- LinkedIn matters in professional sectors; many jobs are filled via networks — tell everyone you're looking.
- Staffing agencies hire a lot of newcomers: Adecco, Manpower, Randstad, Jobzone — a normal first foothold in warehouses, construction, hotels, healthcare.
- Seasonal work: picking/farm jobs (spring–autumn), ski resorts (winter), fish industry (all year, coastal).
CV & applying, the Norwegian way
- CV: max 2 pages, factual, with photo optional; no grade lists. Cover letter (søknad): short, concrete, why THIS company.
- Norwegian beats everything: even basic Norwegian on your CV massively widens the market. English is fine in IT/engineering/academia.
- Get foreign qualifications recognised (free) at HK-dir — required for regulated professions (nurse, electrician, teacher, driver…).
- References are checked — line them up in advance.
Everything else you'll search for
- Used furniture/things: finn.no → Torget (lots of free items under "Gis bort"), Facebook Marketplace, Fretex & UFF second-hand shops, IKEA (Slependen/Furuset etc.).
- Cars: finn.no → Bil (check EU-kontroll status and heftelser/debt on the car via Statens vegvesen).
- Doctors/dentists: helsenorge.no (GP), legelisten.no (reviews), private walk-ins (see Healthcare guide).
- Events & people: meetup.com, Facebook events, internations.org, local frivilligsentral (volunteer centre) — the fastest ways to build a network.
Useful services (not official bodies)
FINN.no ↗Moving to Norway or just arrived? NorgeStart explains Norwegian bureaucracy, work, taxes, housing, healthcare and daily life in plain language — with an AI assistant that explains important documents and gives clear, source-based answers.