Visitor’s visa and residence permit

A visitor's visa allows you to stay in Norway or other Schengen countries for up to 90 days over a period of 180 days. A residence permit gives you the opportunity to work in Norway and to stay for more than 90 days.

The Norwegian Embassy in Pretoria is responsible for processing applications for Schengen visas and residence permits from Botswana, Eswatini, Lesotho, Malawi and South Africa. Residence permit applications from Angola, Madagascar, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

All applications must be submitted through the services of VFS Global in South Africa.

For information about the application procedures and requirements for applicants outside South Africa, kindly select your country from the list on www.norway.no.

Information regarding the return of passports

Applicants must submit their passports when lodging their applications at VFS.

Applicants who know at the time of submission that they need the passport back sooner than the residence permit/visa processing time, should notify VFS staff about the date they need their passport back.

Applicants may request the return of their passport while the application for residence permit is still under processing. In such cases, the applicant must pay two courier fees when they opt for courier return of their passport: one for returning the passport to VFS when the visa is ready to be issued, and one for returning the passport to the applicant.

All passports are returned to VFS. Applicants are requested not to send their passports directly to the Embassy.

Applicants who did not notify VFS at the time of submission should contact the visa section by email to request the early return of their passport before processing is finalized.

Information regarding appointments

Please submit your application to the correct application center depending on where you live and whether you are applying for a Schengen visa or a residence permit.

You can apply for a Schengen visa provided that you are legally in a country, but in order to apply for a residence permit in Norway you have to have a permit for the last six months in order to be able to apply from the country where you are residing.

You should be able to find an appointment within 3 working days.

If there are problems with the booking of appointments, please contact VFS.

VFS does not have the authority to refuse to accept your application if you wish to submit it.

If you are several people applying together and cannot get an appointment at the same time, contact VFS to arrange this

Access to information regarding an application

If you want someone to act on your behalf regarding your application, you must first grant the person power of attorney to function as your legal representative. Please visit the UDI website for more information and the relevant form. Only the person who needs the visa or someone with a written power of attorney will be given information about a specific case.

New and important information as of 26th January 2024. Please click this link.

Family members of EU/EEA nationals

If you are a close family member of an EU/EEA citizen residing in Norway, or a Norwegian citizen who is living in another EU/EEA country on a permanent basis and you are going to travel together with, or visit, this person, you will normally be given a visa. EU/EEA family members can apply directly at the Embassy and can book an appointment by email.

By close family member means:

spouse/partner/cohabitant
child who is under the age of 21 or supported financially by the parent
parent who is supported financially by their child

For more information, please visit Directorate of Immigration's (UDI) website.

Diplomatic and official passport holders

Holders of diplomatic and official passports from South Africa are exempt from the visa requirement.

APPLICANTS RESIDING IN MALAWI

Applicants residing in Malawi who wish to travel to Norway, Austria, Belgium, Denmark (visa and recidence permit), Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, The Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland (only Diplomatic and Service passport holders) can book appointments and submit their visa applications at the VFS Visa Application Centre for Norway in Lilongwe, Malawi: Welcome to VFS Global | vfsglobal.

APPOINTMENTS ONLY.

Visitor's visa

Holidays, visits to family and friends, business

Residence permit

Work, studies, family immigration

Representation agreements

A Member State may agree to represent another Member State that is competent in accordance with Article 5 of the Visa Code for the purpose of examining and deciding on applications on behalf of that Member State.

Norway represents the following Schengen countries in Malawi: Austria, Belgium, Denmark (visa and residence cases), Finland, France, Germany, Iceland, Italy, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland (diplomatic and service passport holders).

If you apply for a visa to one of the countries represented by Norway, the rules and routines are the same as if you apply for a visa to Norway.

Norway is representing Denmark in visa and residence cases in Malawi. If you apply for residence permit to Denmark, you can find the routines on the Embassy’s website.

Norway is also represented by other Schengen countries for visa applications:

Finland is representing Norway in Namibia
The Netherlands is representing Norway in Zimbabwe
Sweden is representing Norway in Zambia
Portugal is representing Norway in Angola and Mozambique
Switzerland is representing Norway in Madagascar

Please note that when a visa application is processed by another Schengen country in representation, it is handled according to their rules and regulations.

Service complaints