Norway · Employment
Norwegian Skilled Worker Permit
Open
Last verified July 2026
Open. Norway has no golden visa and no investment residence route of any kind.
Permanent residence in three years is quick by European standards, and Norway has permitted dual citizenship since 2020. But the tax architecture is the point: establishing Norwegian residence starts a wealth tax liability on your worldwide net worth and an exit tax clock on your shareholdings. Very few UHNW families should be entering Norway without a modelled exit.
Qualifying routes
341.4k NOK
Skilled worker
minimum gross annual pay; conditions must not be poorer than normal in Norway
The facts
- Qualifying figure
- 341.4k NOK
- Total landed cost
- Roughly NOK 6,300 application fee.
- Timeline
- 1–4 months — faster where the employer uses the fast-track scheme
- Physical presence
- Genuine employment and residence
- Family
- spouse or cohabitantchildren under 18 — decided simultaneously with the principal
- Permanent residency
- 3 years
- Citizenship
- 8 years within the last 11
- Language test
- Norskprøven B1 oral and A2 written, plus a social studies test which may be taken in many languages
- Dual citizenship
- Permitted
- Requirements
- completed 3-year upper-secondary vocational programme, a university degree, or special qualifications with typically 6+ years' experienceconcrete job offer with pay and conditions not poorer than Norwegian normsminimum gross pay of about NOK 341,373/year
What can go wrong
- Norwegian residence brings worldwide net wealth into the wealth tax and starts the exit tax exposure. This is the least tax-efficient major European country for a wealthy family to enter casually.
- Duration varies by qualification: vocational 1 year renewable, degree-holders up to 3 years renewable, assignment workers 2 years to a 6-year maximum.
- No golden visa exists. Norway is not in the EU (it is EEA), so a Norwegian permit does not give EU free movement.
- The B1 oral citizenship requirement is from secondary sources and we could not confirm it on UDI — verify before relying on it.
- Dual citizenship has been allowed since 2020 and requires no notification to UDI — but check whether your other country auto-revokes.