NorgeStart
Moving to Norway: residence, D-number and national ID
EU/EEA citizens may move to Norway, live and work without a residence permit, but must register with the police after three months. Everyone else needs a permit granted before travelling — most often a skilled worker permit that requires a concrete job offer. Whichever route applies, the first practical step after arrival is the same: get an identity number, because a D-number or national identity number is what unlocks a bank account, BankID and a tax card. A fastlege is the exception — entitlement to one follows from being registered as resident in a municipality, not from holding the number.
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.
EU/EEA citizens
- If you are an EU/EEA or Swiss citizen, no residence permit is needed — you may live and work freely. Everyone else normally needs a permit approved before travelling; see the next section. Staying over 3 months → register with the police (registreringsordningen) once, free, online form + one appointment.
- Bring: passport/ID, work contract or proof of funds/study.
- Family from outside the EU can join you under EU rules — see UDI.
Non-EU citizens
- You need a residence permit BEFORE moving (work, study, family, seasonal). Most apply from their home country via udi.no; processing takes weeks–months.
- After arrival: police appointment for ID check & residence card; workers can use SUA centres (Oslo, Bergen, Stavanger, Trondheim, Kirkenes) which bundle police + tax office.
- Working without a valid permit is a deportable offence — never start "informally while papers are pending" unless UDI explicitly allows it.
Who may actually work in Norway
- EU/EEA and Swiss citizens may move here and start work immediately. No permit, no waiting. You only have to register with the police within three months, and registration is free.
- Everyone else needs a residence permit before working. The usual route is the skilled worker permit, and it starts with a concrete job offer from one named employer — you cannot get it to come and look.
- "Skilled" has a specific meaning: a completed vocational programme of at least three years at upper secondary level, or a university degree, or special qualifications from long experience in the field.
- There is a pay floor. For a post requiring a master's degree the salary must be at least 624 700 kr a year before tax; for a bachelor's-level post, 545 400 kr. Pay and conditions may never be poorer than is normal in Norway for that work.
- Seasonal work has its own permit — farm work, tourism, holiday cover — and caps you at six months in any twelve.
- Some short assignments under three months need no permit at all, and a few professions have their own routes. Check UDI for your exact situation rather than assuming.
- Non-EU/EEA applications carry a fee; EU/EEA citizens and their close family pay nothing.
Working without the right permit is not a small administrative problem: it can end the job, the permit and any future application. If an employer says paperwork can wait, that is the employer's risk being moved onto you.
ID numbers — the key to everything
- Staying under 6 months → D-number (comes with your tax card application).
- Staying 6+ months → report your move at a Skatteetaten ID office within 8 days of arrival → national ID number (fødselsnummer).
- Without an ID number: no bank account, no BankID — this is priority #1 on arrival.
- The two numbers do not buy the same things. A D-number covers tax, banking and digital services. A fastlege follows from being registered as resident in a municipality — most people holding only a D-number are not entitled to one, though necessary healthcare remains available to them.
The long game
- Permanent residence — how long you must have lived here: 3 years on a work permit, or on family immigration with a Norwegian, Nordic or other foreign citizen who does not hold protection status. 5 years if your permit is based on protection (asylum), resettlement as a refugee or strong humanitarian grounds — and for family members of those. "Continuously" is strict: no more than 3 months in total without a valid permit, and no more than 7 months outside Norway on the three-year track (10 months on the five-year one).
- Language and social studies — this changed on 1 September 2025. You no longer have to complete Norwegian and social studies courses. Instead you must pass an oral Norwegian test at level A2 and a social studies test in a language you understand. The old A1 level only applies if your appointment with the police was before 1 September 2025.
- You must also be able to support yourself — the requirement people most often miss. If you are between 18 and 67 you need an income of at least 341 373 kr before tax over the last twelve months, earned by you: a spouse's income, gifts and savings do not count, and several NAV benefits (qualification benefit, employment scheme benefits, survivor's pension, housing support, child benefit, lump-sum birth grant) do not count either. Exemptions exist for full-time students, disability, long-term illness and victims of abuse in a relationship.
- A criminal punishment does not bar you permanently, but it delays you: a quarantine period applies, and its length depends on the sentence.
- Citizenship: normally 8 of the last 11 years in Norway, on permits each valid for at least a year — some groups qualify sooner, so check your own case. You must pass an oral Norwegian test at level B1 and either the citizenship test or the social studies test in Norwegian. Dual citizenship has been allowed since 1 January 2020 — you do not have to give up the citizenship you have.
- Norwegian courses: free for refugees and some permit types via the introduction programme; EU workers usually pay (kommune adult education, Røde Kors free language cafés).
How to get a D-number, step by step
- A D-number is a temporary Norwegian identification number for people who are not registered as resident. You cannot apply for one on your own initiative — an employer, bank, or public body that needs you to have one requests it for you, and the most common route is applying for a tax deduction card, which triggers a D-number automatically. You then attend an ID check in person at one of the Tax Administration's selected offices, bringing your passport. A D-number is what tax, banking and most digital services need from you. It does not, on its own, give you a fastlege — most people holding only a D-number are not entitled to one — but you are still entitled to necessary healthcare, which the municipality must provide.
- You are working in Norway temporarily, or have just arrived and are not yet registered as resident.
- You have been told by an employer, a bank, or Skatteetaten that you need a Norwegian identification number.
- You own property in Norway, sit on the board of a Norwegian company, or otherwise have Norwegian tax liability.
- Not you if you are moving to Norway for more than six months and registering as resident — you should be applying to register a move, which gives you a national identity number instead.
- 1. Get the thing that triggers it — You do not apply for a D-number directly. Something else applies on your behalf. For almost every new worker that is the tax deduction card application, which asks for a D-number as part of the same process. Banks, NAV, the Mapping Authority and the immigration authorities can also request one.
- 2. Apply for a tax deduction card — Do this before your first day of work if you can. The application asks for your employment contract and personal details, and it is what puts the D-number request into the system.
- 3. Book an ID check appointment — The Tax Administration verifies your identity in person. Appointments are booked through Skatteetaten's booking system, and the check is carried out at 42 selected tax offices — not every office does it, so check which one before travelling.
- 4. Attend in person with your passport — Bring the original document, not a copy. Which document is accepted depends on your citizenship (see below).
- 5. Wait for the number, then give it to everyone — Once issued, send it to your employer immediately, and use it when you open a bank account. Your employer cannot deduct the right tax without it.
- What to bring: Nordic citizens: passport, or a national ID card showing your photograph, citizenship and gender. EU/EEA/EFTA citizens: passport, or a national ID card with photograph and citizenship. Everyone else: a passport. A national ID card is not enough. Asylum seekers, refugees and victims of trafficking: a Norwegian residence card, refugee travel document or asylum certificate is accepted in place of a passport. Your employment contract, if the D-number is coming through a tax card application. If a certified copy of your passport is requested by post instead of an in-person check, it must be in colour, both sides, no more than three months old, and certified by a notary, court, bank, the police, NAV or another authorised professional.
- What it costs: The Tax Administration does not charge a fee for a D-number, the ID check, or a tax deduction card. If you are asked to pay someone for “getting you a D-number”, you are being charged for something that is free. The only costs that can legitimately arise are indirect: travel to an office that performs ID checks, and a notary or bank fee if you need a certified copy of your passport.
- How long it takes: Skatteetaten does not publish a guaranteed processing time for a D-number, and we will not invent one. What we can tell you is what determines it: how quickly you can get an ID-check appointment, which varies by office and by season, and whether your application is complete. Plan for it taking weeks rather than days, and start before you arrive if your employer will let you. Check the current appointment availability in Skatteetaten's booking system rather than relying on what a colleague experienced last year.
- Waiting for your employer to sort it out — Many will, but you are the one who is paid 50% tax in the meantime. Ask on day one whether they have applied, and apply yourself if they have not.
- Travelling to the wrong tax office — Only 42 offices perform ID checks. Booking confirms the location; turning up at your nearest office does not.
- Bringing a national ID card when you need a passport — If you are not an EU/EEA/EFTA or Nordic citizen, only a passport is accepted. This turns a booked appointment into a wasted day.
- Assuming the D-number is permanent — A D-number goes inactive after five years. If you stay, register your move and get a national identity number — do not keep using a number that is quietly expiring.
- Paying an agency — It is free. Anyone charging you for the number itself is charging you for nothing.
- EU/EEA citizens may come to Norway, live and work without a residence permit, and can get a D-number as soon as an employer or bank requests one. If you stay more than three months you must register with the police, which is a separate process from the D-number. Non-EU citizens normally need a residence permit granted before travelling — usually a skilled worker permit tied to a concrete job offer. The D-number follows the permit and the job; it is not a substitute for either, and having one does not give you the right to work.
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