How to find a job in Norway as a foreigner

Norway is not in the EU but is part of the EEA, so the line runs between EU/EEA citizens and everyone else. Swedish, Danish, Icelandic and Finnish citizens may work without registering with the police. Other EU/EEA and Swiss citizens have the right to work and can stay up to six months looking for a job, but must register with the police no later than three months after arriving.

If you come from outside the EU/EEA, you need a residence permit to work, and UDI states plainly that you must normally find the job first. For most people that means a permit as a skilled worker: a relevant degree or a completed vocational qualification, a concrete full-time offer and pay no lower than normal in Norway. Our work visa guide walks through every route, thresholds and fees included.

One more gate applies to some professions. Nurses, doctors, health workers, dentists and teachers need authorisation before they can practise; there are 18 authorisation bodies and over 180 regulated professions. Engineers, economists, carpenters and most other occupations are not regulated, and the employer decides whether your qualifications are enough. Our qualification recognition guide explains the process.

The best official signal is NAV’s annual Business Survey (Bedriftsundersøkelsen), which asks employers whether they failed to recruit in the past three months. In spring 2026 NAV estimated a shortage of 33,750 people nationwide. That number has fallen every year since the 2022 peak of 70,250, which matches what many internationals report: Norway is hiring, but less urgently than a few years ago.

The shortages are concentrated. Health, care and nursing account for 9,200 of the missing workers, industrial work 5,750 and building and construction 4,750. By occupation, the largest gaps are health workers, nurses, carpenters and joiners, electricians, cooks, kindergarten teachers, plumbers and car mechanics. Regionally, Vestland (6,300) and Rogaland (3,750) have the most unfilled roles, while Nordland, Troms and Finnmark score highest on NAV’s tightness indicator, which compares the shortage with the number of people out of work.

Read this list against the language requirement. Most health and care roles need solid Norwegian and Norwegian authorisation, so the shortage is real but not open to everyone on day one.

Start with arbeidsplassen.no, NAV’s free national job portal. On 11 September 2026 it carried 14,230 ads covering 28,483 positions, and you can filter by county, occupation and working language. Norway’s official career guidance service also points job seekers to:

• FINN.no: the big marketplace site, whose jobs section is the other place official guidance tells newcomers to start.
• Jobbnorge and Webcruiter: recruitment systems used by universities, large employers and much of the public sector. You fill in your CV directly in the system.
• Staffing agencies such as Manpower, Adecco, Temp-Team and Dedicare, which place people with many companies. Register your CV with those that cover your field.
• Company career pages (look for “Ledige stillinger”, “Jobb hos oss” or “Karriere”) and LinkedIn, which EURES names as a common channel.
• The EURES portal, if you are an EU/EEA citizen searching from abroad.

Not every job is advertised. Karriereveiledning.no, the state’s career guidance service, advises telling friends, neighbours and former colleagues that you are looking, and says many private companies hire on tips from their own staff. An open application (åpen søknad) to a company you have researched is normal. If an older guide sends you to workinnorway.no, note that the site closed on 2 March 2026; its content moved to nyinorge.no.

Most applications are submitted online: a CV, a cover letter (søknad) and diplomas or references if the employer asks. EURES notes that some employers are dropping the cover letter because AI has made them look alike, so when one is requested it has to be clearly written for that job. Our Norwegian CV and cover letter guide covers format and tone.

Interviews may be in person or online, formal or informal, and usually cover your experience, your motivation and how you would handle real tasks, sometimes as a case. Prepare concrete examples; our STAR method examples help. Employers often want two references with name, role, phone and email.

• Public sector jobs: after the deadline, the employer must publish an applicant list with each applicant’s name, age, job title and municipality. You can ask not to be listed, but the employer may refuse.
• Contracts: you should get a written employment contract stating the position, pay, working hours, workplace and start date before you start.
• Trial period: often agreed, and never longer than six months.
• Notice: the statutory minimum is one month if you have been employed less than five years, so a Norwegian candidate who resigns usually cannot start straight away. Build that into your timeline too.

It depends on the job, and the official answer is honest about it. Karriereveiledning.no says practical jobs with clear, fixed tasks, such as warehouse, cleaning, production, transport, hotel and restaurant or seasonal work, can have lower Norwegian requirements. Jobs with a lot of contact with customers, pupils or patients, meetings, or writing reports and letters usually need good Norwegian: that includes most of health, schools, kindergartens, the public sector, customer service, administration and management.

English-language jobs do exist. On arbeidsplassen.no, 3,136 of 14,230 ads on 11 September 2026 listed English as a working language (an ad can list more than one). That is a real market, but a much smaller one. Our English-speaking jobs in Norway guide shows where they cluster and how to learn Norwegian alongside the search.

Everything runs on an identification number. There are two kinds. A D number is for people in Norway temporarily; if you do not already have an identity number, the Tax Administration issues one when you apply for a tax deduction card. A national identity number is permanent: you get one when you report a move to Norway with documentation that you will live here for at least six months, and holders of a residence permit are usually registered through the permit itself.

• Tax deduction card (skattekort): everyone who works in Norway needs one, so apply before your first payslip.
• ID check: you may have to attend in person with your passport. The Tax Administration offers ID checks at 42 tax offices, by appointment.
• Bank account: banks require residence in Norway, valid ID and a Norwegian identity number (D number or national identity number).
• Electronic ID: BankID or similar lets you file your tax return, log in to public services, sign contracts and book a doctor.
• EU/EEA citizens staying three months or more also need a registration certificate from the police.

The Service Centre for Foreign Workers (SUA) brings the police, the Tax Administration and the Labour Inspection Authority together in Oslo, Stavanger, Trondheim and Bergen. You must visit in person; the information desks help with tax cards, reporting a move, registration certificates and electronic ID.

Longer than most people budget for. The search itself typically runs for months, and several fixed clocks sit on top of it. If you want general recognition of a foreign degree from HK-dir, expected processing is currently 4–6 months once all documents are in, so apply early rather than waiting for an employer to ask. If you need a permit, UDI publishes waiting times by case type and warns that vocational-level applications, for example for cooks, car mechanics, carpenters, painters, bricklayers and hairdressers, can take longer because of document checks. Then add your notice period at your current job.

Two things shorten the wait. Skilled workers with a visa-free passport, or a valid visa, can enter Norway and stay while UDI decides. And if the police confirm early employment start to your employer, you can start working before the permit is granted.

UDI introduced a new check in 2026 because of a rise in fraud aimed at people who want to work in Norway. If you apply for a work permit yourself from abroad, the employer must confirm the offer directly with UDI and send you a code of four English words, and you cannot submit the application without it. An “agent” who cannot produce that code, or who asks you for money for the job itself, is a warning sign.

UDI publishes a list of real companies whose names have been misused in fake offers, including Adecco, ASKO, Coop Norge, Circle K and ISS Facility Services, and says the list is not complete. Submitting a forged job offer can lead to a five-year ban from the Schengen area, even if an agent prepared it. Norwegian authorities do not verify offers for you, so contact the employer yourself through its official website before you pay anything or send documents.

Karriereveiledning.no offers free career guidance by chat, phone and email, with a section written for people new to Norway in Norwegian, Ukrainian and English; each county also runs a career centre you can book. NAV lets anyone legally resident in Norway register as a job seeker, which gives you a counsellor’s assessment and access to NAV’s measures. Ny i Norge (nyinorge.no), run by the Directorate of Integration and Diversity (IMDi), collects the official information on permits, tax, work and housing in one place.