Visitor's visa

• You should apply well in advance and as a rule no later than 15 days before you plan to travel. Due to the courier sending of documents in some countries, we recommend that you apply at least 4 weeks prior to your planned departure.
• You may submit your application up to six months before your planned departure, or up to nine months for seafarers.
• We recommend that you do not buy your ticket until a visa has been granted.
• You must register your application online before you can hand in the required documentation.
• When you hand in your application, you will be asked to provide fingerprints, unless your fingerprints have been collected within the last 59 months.
• Travel to Svalbard requires you to apply for two or more entries.

• Applicants who are neither nationals or residents of Australia must document that they are legally in Australia and must provide justification for lodging the application at one of the Norwegian application centers (VFS Global) in Australia. Applications will in most cases not be processed for applicants who are in Australia on a tourist or short stay visa.
• If you wish to allow another person, including your reference person, to make enquiries or receive information on your behalf, you must provide a written Power of Attorney. The form for granting Power of Attorney is available for download on UDI's website. 
• A Schengen visa will generally not give the holder right to work in the Schengen area. This includes working remotely for an overseas employer. If travelling for business, it is the visa holder’s responsibility to ensure that the business conducted does not require a work permit.

Please note that it is your responsibility to ensure that all required documentation is provided.  If you do not submit all required documents, the application may be delayed or rejected.

Checklists 

Checklist - Visitor Visa

Checklist - Visit Family of EU/EEA National

Checklist - Seaman/Seafarer

Other form

Sponsorship form

Sponsorship and invitation for visitors

Sponsorship and invitation form if a sponsor (a private person or an inviting company) is covering your expenses to travel and stay in Norway (Sponsor for visitors - UDI). Your sponsor can fill out a digital sponsorship and invitation form with their electronic ID or use our paper form.

If you have a minimum of NOK 500 per day/person and can document this through e.g., a statement of account from your bank or a wage specification for the past six months, you do not need to use a sponsorship form. However, you may still use the form if you believe that will help your application.

Before you can hand in your passport and other documentation, you must register your application online and pay the fee. If this is the first time you are registering an application in the portal, you will need to create a user account first.

Once you have completed the application form online and paid the fee, you will receive confirmation by email with a copy of your application form (schengen.pdf), application summary and payment receipt attached. You need to print the application form (schengen.pdf) and submit it together with the other required documentation

Application fee

The visa fee is EUR 90. Children under six years do not pay a fee. Children from the age of six years and below the age of 12 years shall pay a visa fee of EUR 45. Please visit the UDI website for information about other groups exempted from the visa fee.

Please note that you pay the fee when registering the application in the portal. Applicants exempted from the visa fee requirement will have the fee refunded.

If you are a applying for a visa as a family member to an EU/EEA citizen you are not required to pay the application fee.

The application fee must be paid by credit card online when you register your application. Information regarding the current fee is available on the UDI website.

Please note that once supporting documents have been submitted and the application has been accepted as admissible by the Embassy, the application fee is non-refundable. This also applies if the application is later withdrawn or rejected.

In Australia, applications are received by VFS Global. An additional service and courier fee is payable to VFS Global when you hand in your documents. See VFS Global's website for more information.

You must bring with you:

• a printout of the application form (schengen.pdf) received by email;
• the checklist and the documents listed.
• Your passport (must be valid for at least three months after your planned departure from the Schengen area)
• Photograph (must comply with international standards)
• Your travel health insurance policy
  • You should be covered for at least EUR 30 000, including expenses in connection with repatriation for medical reasons, treatment in medical emergencies and/or emergency hospital treatment, and death
  • Your insurance should be valid in all Schengen countries
  • It should cover the whole of your planned stay in the Schengen area
  • It should as a rule be purchased in your home country. If this is not possible it may be purchased in another country.

The application process will start once all the required documents have been submitted.

Where to hand in the documents

VFS Global has application centres in Adelaide, Brisbane, Canberra, Melbourne, Perth and Sydney. Appointments are booked online via the VFS Global website.

When you apply for a visa, the application will be sent from VFS Global to the Norwegian embassy in Bangkok for processing. 

The processing time for applications is normally up to 15 calendar days after the embassy or consulate has received the application. In some cases, applications are sent to the Directorate of Immigration (UDI), and the processing time in these cases may be up to 45 calendar days.

When further scrutiny of an application is needed and additional documentation is required, the processing time may also be extended up to a maximum of 45 calendar days.

For citizens of certain we cannot grant a visa before we have consulted other Schengen member states. This process takes up to seven days. For information on which countries such prior consultation applies to, please click here.

Apply well in advance of your travel
Please note that it will take some days from the application is submitted at the VFS until it is received at the Embassy in Bangkok. We strongly advice to submit an application well in advance of the planned travel dates.

We recommend that you apply at least 4 weeks prior to departure. You may register and submit your application 6 months before your planned trip.

The processing time is counted from the day the application is received at the Embassy until the passport is picked up by the VFS courier in Bangkok. Therefore, please take the extra courier/transport time between the Embassy, VFS Bangkok and Australia into account.

You will be notified when your application has been processed.

If you have been granted a visa, a visa sticker will be placed in your passport to allow you to travel to Norway. VFS Global will contact you to let you know when you can collect your passport. 

If your application has been rejected, you will receive a written explanation as to why it was rejected. You can appeal the decision. See information below.

You can pick up your passport at the VFS Global visa application centre where the application was submitted. If you opted to provide a self-addressed pre-paid envelope with your application, VFS Global will send the passport to you directly.

Please check the following information on the visa sticker:
- That name and surname is correctly spelled 
- The visa's period of validity
- Permitted number of entries
- Permitted duration of stay
- Passport number

If there is an error on the visa sticker, please contact the Royal Norwegian Embassy in Bangkok

Appealing a decision

The appeal must be signed by you, your authorized representative or your lawyer, and should contain information about which decision you are appealing and why you believe the decision you have received is incorrect. The appeal must be written in Norwegian or English. If you have any new information or documentation, you must enclose this.

You must submit the appeal to the Royal Norwegian Embassy in Bangkok via the Norwegian Directorate of Immigration's (UDI) document upload service: Send documents to UDI - UDI.

Processing time for an appeal is currently approximately 12 weeks.

We will review your appeal. We can either overturn our decision or forward the appeal to the UDI for consideration. If your appeal is sent to the UDI, they will review your appeal again and either reject your appeal or overturn our decision. If the UDI also rejects your appeal, there are no further possibilities of appeal.

If the application was rejected by the UDI, you must also use the document upload service.

More information about the appeal process and processing times can be found on the UDI website.

When you cross the border into the Schengen area, you will have to present:

• your passport with the visa sticker
• proof that you have enough money to support yourself during your stay (e.g. cash or a credit card). If you have a guarantee form, you should also bring a copy of this with you.
• documentation showing the purpose of your visit, such as an invitation, hotel reservation, etc.
• a return or round trip ticket if you are visiting the Schengen area for tourist purposes or private reasons

You may be asked to provide fingerprints by the border control officer, in which case these will be compared with the fingerprints provided when you applied for your visa.
As long as your visa is valid, you can travel around freely in the Schengen area, or in the specific Schengen countries covered by the visa. If you leave the Schengen area, for example to visit the UK or Svalbard, you will need a multiple entry visa.

Please note that your short-stay visa is a requirement for, but does not automatically entitle you to enter the Schengen area.

A visa does not automatically entitle you to cross the Schengen border. It is therefore recommended that you carry with you copies of the documents which you presented when you applied for the visa.