Asylum and protection in Norway

You can apply if you are persecuted, or fear persecution or inhumane treatment, in your home country. You must be in Norway and ask the police for protection; applications cannot be made from abroad. Since 15 July 2024 everyone must register at the National Arrival Centre at Mosseveien 58, 1640 Råde, about 116 km south of Oslo Airport Gardermoen. You arrange and pay for the journey yourself, except unaccompanied minors, other particularly vulnerable people and cases where life or health is at risk. No accommodation is offered before you have registered there.

People outside Norway can only come as resettlement (quota) refugees: they contact UNHCR, which must recognise them as refugees and decide whether to submit their case to Norway. UDI then decides; individuals cannot send resettlement applications directly to UDI.

Applicants from countries whose citizens can get help from their own authorities are rejected within 48 hours. If you have already applied for protection, held a visa or residence permit, studied, have close family or entered irregularly in another participating state, your case is handled under the Asylum and Migration Management Regulation (AMMR). Norway, though not an EU member, takes part in it together with Iceland, Switzerland and Liechtenstein; it replaced the Dublin III Regulation on 12 June 2026. In an AMMR case UDI only decides which country is responsible, does not interview you on your protection needs, and you may be transferred there. People with protection in another safe country may be told to return there.

At the arrival centre you stay for up to 21 days with a bed and food, talk to the police, give personal information, fingerprints and a photo, hand in passports and ID documents, and are tested for tuberculosis. You receive an asylum seeker card. The asylum interview with UDI, with an interpreter, takes place either at the centre or later. You then move to an asylum reception centre assigned to you, or you may choose private accommodation at your own cost, and wait for UDI’s written decision by post.

Unaccompanied minors are given a representative and a lawyer and are offered an age examination.

You can live in an asylum reception centre. You may only work with a temporary work permit, which you can get after the asylum interview if you have a valid passport and no decision yet, or deferred implementation while UNE considers your appeal; it is not granted in AMMR cases or after a rejection or expulsion notice. You apply by post to the local police with UDI’s form, free of charge. Unpaid voluntary work for humanitarian, non-profit, religious or sports organisations of up to 30 hours a week does not need a permit.

If protection is granted, the letter explains your rights and duties, the police take your fingerprints for a residence card, and you are later settled in a municipality. If the application is refused, a lawyer is appointed free of charge, informs you of the decision and helps you appeal. UDI first reconsiders and then sends the case to the Immigration Appeals Board (UNE). Most applicants may stay in Norway while UNE handles the appeal. If the appeal fails you must leave, and you can apply for assisted return.

UDI refers asylum seekers to asylinfo.no for information in many languages and to asylbarn.no for children. After protection is granted, family members of refugees can apply for family immigration, and the income requirement is dropped if the family existed before arrival, the application is registered within six months and the family meets the application centre within one year. Permanent residence requires five years of continuous residence.