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.

What happens to my passport during case processing?

For C-visa applications, your passport must be submitted to VFS and will remain at the embassy until the application is processed.

Applicants travelling to South Africa to submit C-visa applications should take note of the following:

• The standard processing time for C-visa applications is 15 calendar days. That period may be extended up to a maximum of 45 calendar days in individual cases, notably when further scrutiny of the application is needed.
• Applicants are advised to plan their stay in South Africa accordingly and should expect to remain for at least 2–3 working days. This allows sufficient time for the Embassy to verify passports and return them if applicants need to travel back to their home country before a decision is made.
• If your application is approved, you will be required to resubmit your passport through the VFS application centre.
• Please be aware that additional VFS service fees may apply for this process.

We recommend that applicants plan their travel and accommodation carefully to make room for these requirements.

For residence permit and D-visa applications, you may request to get your passport back while your application is being processed, if needed. If your application is approved, you will need to submit your passport to VFS again. Please note that additional VFS fees may apply.

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.

To find out where the passport is, please use the:

TRACK YOUR APPLICATION - ONLINE TRACKING for South Africa. 

TRACK YOUR APPLICATION - ONLINE TRACKING for Malawi

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.