Children born abroad

Are you Norwegian parents who have had children abroad? In order for the child to be registered as being resident in Norway, you must report to a tax office together with the child when you return to Norway.

You must bring the following

The child's passport

A Norwegian passport should be arranged via a Norwegian foreign service mission before you move/return to Norway. Read more about Norwegian national identity number to get a passport
If the child comes to Norway without a passport and was born in and moves to Norway from another Nordic country, instead of a passport you may bring a birth register extract/birth certificate and a photograph of the child similar to a passport photograph.
If the child is born in, and moves to Norway from a country within the Schengen area but outside the Nordic countries, considering the requirements to possess an identity document in these countries, you will normally have arranged for a passport for your child via a Norwegian foreign service mission before you move/return to Norway. If the child despite this has arrived Norway without a passport, you may instead of a passport bring a birth register extract/birth certificate and a photograph of the child similar to a passport photograph.

2. Completed change of address form for the child

You must report that the child, and the parents if they are not registered as Norwegian residents, is moving to Norway.

A child is a Norwegian citizen by birth if one of the parents is a Norwegian citizen at the time of the birth.

If the child is born in (country covered by the Group 3 countries in section 8-4-2 of the National Registration Regulations):

Europe: Andorra, Belgium, Estonia, France, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Croatia, Cyprus, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Malta, Monaco, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, San Marino, Slovakia, Slovenia, United Kingdom and Northern Ireland, Switzerland, Spain, Czech Republic, Germany, Hungary, the Vatican State and Austria
North-America: USA and Canada
Oceania: Australia and New Zealand
Asia: Japan

the birth certificate must be the original or a certified copy from a Norwegian foreign service mission in the country in which the child was born.

You must ask the foreign service mission to tell you whether an Apostille or legalisation will be necessary.

In addition to a birth certificate, a DNA test will usually be required if the child was born in (country covered by the Group 2 countries in section 8-4-2 of the National Registration Regulations):

Africa: Burkina Faso, Burundi, Côte d’Ivoire (Ivory Coast), Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Kenya, Liberia, Mali, Nigeria, Republic of the Congo, Sierra Leone, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, Uganda and Zimbabwe
Asia: Afghanistan, Bangladesh, India, Iraq, Myanmar (Burma), Pakistan, Philippines, Saudi - Arabia, Sri Lanka, Vietnam and Yemen
Europe: Kosovo

If the child was born in a country other than those mentioned above, the birth certificate must be endorsed with an Apostille or have been legalised by the foreign ministry of the issuing country.

If your family intends to live abroad, the child may be assigned a national ID number when the application for a Norwegian passport is received. You can obtain this by contacting a Norwegian foreign service mission in the country in which you are staying. Remember to take the child's birth certificate.

The woman who gave birth to the child will be considered the child's mother.

Even if the birth certificate from the country in which the child was born states that the Norwegian woman is the child's mother, this will not be accepted as a valid maternity in Norway if the woman did not give birth to the child.

According to Norwegian law, legal maternity can only be transferred through adoption.

Read more about registering a child born by a surrogate mother abroad.