Norway Digital Nomad Visa

The regulation prints no figure at all, and it replaces the figure with a test on where the money comes from — miss that test and the whole route reads backwards.

Section 6-18 sets three conditions for a self-employed person intending to run a lasting business:

First, the work to be done in the business must require that the self-employed person hold skilled-worker competence under section 6-1; second, it must be shown that there is an economic basis for the operation; third, the business must hold any authorisation required under other legislation.

Subsection 2 defines the economic basis, and that definition names no level:

The economic basis is shown where it is likely the self-employed person will obtain sufficient funds from operating the business to meet the subsistence requirement in section 10-7 third paragraph; funds from public grant schemes may be included in assessing that basis.

Section 10-7 lists four ways subsistence counts as secured, as follows: income from work of sufficient scope, full-time work being as a rule sufficient. A pension or other fixed periodic payments of sufficient scope.

Having own funds regarded as sufficient, on which branch the Directorate of Immigration may require a specific amount to be transferred to a Norwegian bank and may tie up all or part of it for a fixed period; or a student loan or grant of sufficient scope.

Payments under the social services legislation do not count as subsistence. The decisive sentence sits in the third paragraph of section 10-7 and it ranks the branches: for a permit as self-employed under section 6-18, it is a precondition that subsistence will in essence be secured through the business activity itself.

Subsistence must therefore come mainly from the business: the provision does not exclude savings, a pension or a loan outright, but they cannot replace revenue as the main source, and a third-party financial guarantee is accepted only exceptionally under the fourth paragraph of section 10-7. The actual figures are delegated, and section 6-18 delegates them three separate times in the one section: the Directorate of Immigration may issue more detailed guidelines.

The figure in the options table, a pre-tax business profit of 341,373 kroner a year, is the guidance level the Directorate of Immigration published on udi.no, read on 14 September 2026. That level is not in the Regulations, and the Directorate may change it without amending section 6-18. The figure equals exactly 2.5 times the national insurance basic amount in force from 1 May 2026, which NAV gives as NOK 136,549; the basic amount is adjusted on 1 May each year, so if the guidance level is set by reference to it, it also changes after each adjustment.

The full text of the Directorate of Immigration guidance has not been verified again since that date.

The permit is bound to the business named in the application: section 10-16 of the Regulations allows a first permit of up to two years under Directorate of Immigration guidelines, section 10-24 allows each renewal for up to two years, and section 10-21 allows renewal only for the same business. Section 6-18 still allows the holder to take work as an employee where special grounds so indicate. Neither the Regulations nor the Immigration Act require the business to take any particular legal form; any requirement as to form belongs to Directorate of Immigration guidance, the full text of which has not been verified.

What is granted is a residence permit for the self-employed under Section 6-18 of the Immigration Regulations, and the regulation frames it as a right: a self-employed person who meets the conditions is entitled to the permit, not merely eligible for it.

That right arises only where the person's presence in Norway is necessary for the business. The five mandatory documents for the file are recorded in the cost cell of this page.

Section 6-18 has been amended twice, by regulations of 19 December 2014 and 9 September 2021, and the Directorate of Immigration may issue more detailed guidelines.

The regulation sets no processing deadline: Chapter 17, the chapter actually headed case processing, does not mention processing time in any provision.

The correct conclusion is therefore that the authority does not bind itself by a deadline at regulation level, not that the answer could not be found.

What the regulation does fix is three dates belonging to the applicant, and all three fall before the file starts moving. First, section 17-10 requires the fee to be paid at the latest simultaneously with filing — until it is paid the application does not stand.

Second, section 6-18 requires five items to be produced with the application, two of which must be obtained from outside and therefore constitute a waiting period of their own: financing and budget plans, accounts where they exist, and an advance statement from another authority confirming that the necessary permits will be granted.

The file's real timetable is thus anchored to a second agency's calendar, not only to the immigration authority's.

Third, at the renewal stage the regulation penalises late filing indirectly but heavily.

Where the application is filed less than one month before the permit expires, the deciding authority, in assessing whether the person is to have continued residence on the same terms, must weigh whether the application can be expected to be granted. So filing close to the deadline means status during the wait is no longer automatic.

Two further procedural points apply to applicants from Vietnam. First, a first permit must be granted before entry under section 56 first paragraph of the Immigration Act, and section 10-1 of the Regulations, which lists the cases that may apply after entering Norway, does not include the self-employed route under section 6-18. Second, according to the Norwegian embassy, applications from Vietnam for visas and residence permits are submitted at the VFS Global centres in Hanoi or Ho Chi Minh City, and the Norwegian Embassy in Bangkok is the mission responsible for applications from Vietnam.

This permit is tied to one specific business, and that is the heaviest constraint on the route.

Section 6-18 says three things in succession in its closing paragraph: the permit is bound to the particular business; that permit forms a basis for permanent residence; and in addition, permission to take work as an employee may be given where special grounds so indicate.

The opening of the section carries a genuine presence obligation, rare in this table: the self-employed person has a right to a permit only where it is necessary for the establishment or continued operation of the business that they be in Norway and take active part in running it.

That obligation also has a quantified threshold: section 10-19a of the Regulations, read with section 60 fifth paragraph of the Immigration Act, requires the holder to stay in Norway at least six months in each one-year permit period, and where the permit is granted for several years, total time abroad must not exceed 182 days in any 365-day period. The section 6-18 route is not among the cases that provision exempts by name.

The conditions for permanent residence are set by section 62 of the Immigration Act: the foreign national must have resided for the last three years on permits forming a basis for permanent residence, must not have been outside the realm for more than seven months in total in those three years, must have passed an oral Norwegian test and a social studies test, and must have been self-supporting for the last twelve months. For those aged 18 to 67, section 11-9 of the Regulations sets the oral level at A2 or higher, and section 11-11 treats self-sufficiency as met where the person has had funds of at least 2.5 times the national insurance basic amount over those twelve months, business income included.

The way residence time is counted sits in section 11-2: residence time is counted from the point at which the foreigner was granted a permit capable of forming a basis for permanent residence, or, where it was granted before entry, from the date of notification to the police.

That same section contains an exception the self-employed route does not get, and this is the part to read closely:

A holder of a skilled-worker permit under section 6-1(1) or a specialist permit under section 6-2 may stay outside the realm for up to fifteen months in total without losing the right to permanent residence, provided at least eight of those months are due to assignments for the employer.

Section 6-18 is not on that list.

Once permanent residence is held, section 11-8 governs losing it, and how it counts is worth knowing:

Residence or actual stay outside the realm is treated as continuous even where the person has had one or several short stays back in the country; and it is also treated as continuous where, within a four-year period, the person has had several stays abroad totalling more than two years.

Two relief valves: stays abroad totalling under two months per calendar year do not count as time abroad at all; and where the person spends fifteen months in Norway between two periods abroad, a fresh two-year period starts running.

Even past two years a route remains: an application may be made to stay outside the realm longer without the permit lapsing, where it is clear the person will resettle in the country.

The nearest Norwegian category to a digital nomad permit is the residence permit for the self-employed, and because that permit forms a basis for permanent residence its holder qualifies as a reference person able to sponsor relatives.

There are four classes with four different conditions. A spouse is entitled to a permit, both parties must be over 18 and must live together, and where the marriage is newly contracted the further requirement of age 24 applies.

An unmarried partner is recognised where the couple have lived together in a stable relationship for at least two years and intend to continue, or have a child together, or are expecting one, provided both are over 18 and neither is married to someone else.

A child under 18 who has no spouse or partner is entitled where both parents hold permits, or where one holds a permit together with custody and the consent of the other; and for nationals of states party to the 1961 European Social Charter there is a further limb for unmarried, maintained children under 21.

For parents the door is narrow: only a sole mother or father of a reference person over 18, who must be over 60 and have no remaining spouse, partner or relative in the ascending or descending line in the country of origin.

Grandparents and siblings have no provision of their own; only the strong humanitarian grounds route remains.

The money requirement rises with the number of people and the number of months:

The reference person must show funds of at least 3.2 times the national insurance basic amount for the period the application covers; where the applicant is lawfully working in Norway that income is added. The general previous-year income requirement does not apply on this route: section 10-9 third paragraph (e) of the Regulations exempts a reference person holding a section 6-18 permit, so only the future-income test remains.

According to the Norwegian Labour and Welfare Administration (NAV), the basic amount is NOK 136,549 from 1 May 2026 and is adjusted on 1 May each year, so 3.2 times that amount is NOK 436,957 a year until the next adjustment.

The status this programme grants, whether a visa or a residence permit, does not replace the holder's passport. The holder still travels on the passport of their own country, so the figure below belongs to the Norway passport and becomes the holder's only once they are issued a Norway passport.

According to the Passport Index of Prosperous Intelligence, on data dated 30 September 2026, the Norway passport reaches 200 destinations without applying for a consular visa in advance. The figure combines three forms of entry and does not count an e-Visa that must be obtained beforehand:

It is therefore a measure of how easily the holder travels, not a count of visa-free countries in the narrow sense.

For comparison, on the same source and the same method of counting, the Vietnamese passport reaches 44 destinations. The two lists of destinations do not nest inside one another, so the difference is an indication rather than a list of places newly opened.

Prosperous Intelligence dates its data and advises checking with the destination’s official authorities before travelling.

The permit in this category contains no word about tax.

Section 6-18 of the Immigration Regulations, headed residence permit for self-employed persons, grants the permit where the business activity is of a lasting character and the direct presence and participation of the operator is necessary.

It sets three conditions: trade qualifications, proof of an economic basis for the activity, and any sectoral licence required by other law.

The economic basis is treated as shown where it is likely the operator will earn enough from that activity itself to meet the subsistence requirement, with money from public support schemes counting towards it.

The permit is tied to the specific business and founds a basis for permanent residence. The parent chapter of the Immigration Act likewise makes no mention of tax.

Norway does have a withholding regime for foreign nationals, and this category is excluded from it in terms readable in the statute rather than by inference.

The chapter heading names its subject: special rules on the taxation of foreign employees. Section 20-1 confines the scope to income taxable under section 2-3(1) points D to F or section 2-3(2).

Reading section 2-3(1) itself: point (d) is remuneration for personal labour in a service relationship performed in Norway during a temporary stay; point (e) is directors and board members fees; point (f) is bonuses and commissions from a company established in Norway.

Income from business activity is point B — outside the list in section 20-1.

Section 20-4 shuts it once more: where the taxpayer has any taxable income beyond section 20-1, they are taxed under the general rules on the whole of their income, with only three exceptions preserved — withholding tax on pensions, withholding tax on dividends, and income under the artists tax act.

A self-employed person under section 6-18, living on business income, therefore cannot enter that regime.

And here is a motif this campaign has not met before, running opposite to the usual reporting duty.

Section 17-7h of the Immigration Regulations obliges the tax authority, on request from the police, a Norwegian foreign mission, the immigration directorate or the appeals board, to supply information on a foreign national income and assets.

It must do so notwithstanding the duty of confidentiality in section 3-1 of the Tax Administration Act.

The listed matters include residence for work and study under chapter 3 of the Act, which covers this very category, along with renewals, permanent residence, revocation and expulsion.

Tax data flows from the revenue authority to the immigration authority, and the wall of tax confidentiality is lifted for precisely the class of file this record describes.

One limit must be recorded: the statute states no rate for the withholding regime — section 20-7 delegates to the Ministry the rules on who is covered, the income ceiling and the right of election, while the rate is set by the annual tax resolution of Parliament, and that instrument was not opened.

This cell therefore carries no rate. The remaining rules of that regime, so the reader knows what is being excluded: section 20-2 prohibits all deductions; section 20-3 returns a taxpayer above the income ceiling to the general rules; and section 20-6 permits a taxpayer to elect taxation under the general rules.

On the practical duties of a self-employed person, the Norwegian tax administration states three things: a self-employed person must pay advance tax when the business makes a profit; all foreign businesses in Norway are subject to a number of registration obligations; and everyone must submit a tax return.

Read this cell within its scope: the sources are the statute and the regulations rather than immigration guidance; no tax concession attaches to a section 6-18 permit.

The day-count thresholds for tax residence sit in section 2-1 of the Tax Act, under which a person is treated as tax resident after staying in Norway more than 183 days in any twelve-month period or more than 270 days in any thirty-six-month period, while the permit's own presence requirement is a separate immigration rule, recorded in the residence cell of this page; and section 20-5 addresses only the relationship between the withholding regime and the residence rules, saying nothing about the self-employed

This is one of the few routes where the fee schedule sits inside the regulation rather than being delegated elsewhere, so the figures can be read directly.

Section 17-10 requires fees to be paid at the latest simultaneously with registering an application for a residence permit or its renewal, and sets rates by category of case.

The category covering this route is work or studies under sections 23 to 26 of the Act: NOK 6,300.

Three carve-outs within the same category are worth recording so they are not confused with it: NOK 5,400 for students and for researchers funding themselves; NOK 9,300 for au pairs; and NOK 6,300 per worker on a group permit.

Two further rates matter because they belong to later stages of the same journey: NOK 11,900 for family immigration, but only NOK 4,400 where a renewal application is filed before the permit expires.

That gap of more than two and a half times is a late-filing penalty written in the form of a fee schedule; and NOK 4,000 for an application for permanent residence.

Beyond the state schedule, section 6-18 imposes four costs with no published price, all of which must be in hand at filing: documentation of the applicant's competence and role in the business;

A precise description of the nature of the business; financing and budget plans; and accounts where they exist. The fifth item is the least predictable in both money and time because it depends on another agency: an advance statement confirming that the necessary permits from that other authority will be granted.

For Vietnamese documents, the Norwegian embassy states that Norway and Viet Nam have both been parties to the Apostille Convention since 11 September 2026, so most Vietnamese public documents can now be apostilled instead of legalised. A document only in Vietnamese must be translated into English with a notarised translation, and both the document and its translation must bear an apostille; documents issued by diplomatic or consular missions and administrative documents related to commercial or customs activities still require legalisation.