Visitor’s visa and residence permit

Some Schengen countries represent Norway for Schengen visa applications in locations where Norway is not present and Norway represent Denmark (also for residence permits), Iceland and Sweden in some locations. You should 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 should be able to find an appointment within 3 working days. 

If there are no available appointments within 3 working days, please contact VFS. 

VFS are not permitted to ask you to go to a different location to submit your application and VFS does not have the authority to refuse to accept your application if you wish to submit it. 

Applications sent by mail/courier service are not accepted and will be returned without processing. 

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

Some applicants who do not need a Schengen visa may apply for a residence permit after travelling to Norway. Check this link whether you qualify.

For questions or queries regarding visa applications, please contact the visa application center where you intend to submit your application: 

When contacting VFS, please mention the applicant’s full name, DOB and passport number. If an application has already been submitted, please also include the VFS reference number when contacting VFS. The VFS reference number is not used by the Consulate or UDI.

VFS will reply to e-mails within 24 hours. 

If you cannot call international numbers, you can instead call the switchboard of the Royal Norwegian Consulate General in New York both when the Consulate General is open and closed, and choose extention 3 to be transferred to UDI free of charge. UDI is open from 10 am to 3 pm Central European Time Monday to Friday except Wednesdays, when the call center of UDI is closed. 

Sending an e-mail with multiple recipients creates delays, as it causes doubts as to whom the mail is addressed to and who is responsible for following up. Frequently such e-mails are also blocked by the spam filter, particularly when sending repeated e-mails about the topic. When contacting the Consulate, the Visa Section should be the sole recipient and e-mails should be addressed to the Visa Section as a whole, not to individual staff members. 

The Consulate will reply to e-mails regarding visas within maximum 7 days and other inquiries within maximum 14 days. It is not necessary to resend e-mails or follow up with phone calls. 

It is not necessary to register a new application in the application portal if a mistake is discovered in the first registration. Just correct it on the printed form and inform VFS and the Visa Section will update the information during the registration process. 

If the information or documentation you have submitted changes before a decision has been made, you can send the updated information/documentation to the Visa Section to be included in your application. 

If the plans change after the decision has been made, it is necessary to apply again with the new documentation to change the visa. 

Visas are issued with a 15 days period of grace, which makes it possible to postpone the visit up to 2 weeks and still travel the same number of days, without applying for a new visa, but it is not possible to stay more than the number of days mentioned in the visa sticker without applying with new documentation for the prolonged visit. 

The passport that will be used for travelling must always be submitted to VFS together with the application. 

Applications will not be processed without a passport. 

In the USA and Canada, VFS will send the passport to the Consulate General in New York together with the application. 

Applicants with passports that do not require a visa to travel to Schengen, will get their passport returned immediately after the Consulate has registered the application. 

If you cannot wait for your passport to be checked by the Consulate, you should make a new appointment with VFS after you have used your passport and can submit it with the application. 

If a visa is required, the Consulate will keep the passport until the application has been processed. 

Applicants may request that the passport be returned during the processing, but in such cases, the applicant must pay a second courier fee to return the passport to the Consulate General in New York when a visa is to be issued. 

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

Applicants who did not inform VFS about the early return of their passport, should send an e-mail to the visa section to get the passport returned before the processing is finalized.

Applicants living in Bermuda are recommended to use the VFS application center in New York and contact the visa section of the Consulate General in New York before making their appointment with VFS. 

In South America, VFS will send the passport together with application to the Consulate General in New York when a visa is required. 

If no visa is required, VFS will give the passport to the local Norwegian foreign service mission and return it to the applicant after the passport has been checked. 

Applicants in South America who require a visa to travel to Schengen, but need their passport to return to their country of residence, if different from the country where the VFS application center, should inform VFS about this when handing over their passport together with the application. The passport will then be returned after checking by the local Norwegian foreign service mission and not sent to the Consulate General in New York. The applicant must in such cases pay for a return courier to the Consulate General in New York after returning to their country of residence for the visa to be issued. 

Previously a stamp was placed in passports at the time of accepting the application as admissible. This stamp is no longer in use and does not have any legal implications. 

If you want someone to help you in connection with your application, you must authorise this person to do so. 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.

If the e-mail address used when registering the application does not belong to the applicant, it will not be used for personal information about the individual case without a written power of attorney to the person whose e-mail it is. 

When the rejection letter has the logo of the Consulate General, the appeal should be sent to the visa section of the Consulate General by the e-mail address given in the rejection letter.

The appeal has to be set forward within three weeks from the receipt of the rejection letter.

The appeal must be signed by the applicant or the holder of the power of attorney.

The appeal should mention the grounds on which the appeal is based and any other information of importance to the hearing of the appeal.

The Consulate General will review the case. If we do not find grounds to reverse the decision, the case will be sent to the Directorate of Immigration.

As soon as a decision has been made, the applicant will be notified. Until the decision is made, the case is under processing and no status updates are given.

When the rejection letter has the logo of UDI, the appeal should be uploaded here:

The processing time for appeals can be found in the overview of the waiting time for applications according to the type of application. 

Refunds are only possible before the application has been submitted to VFS. 

Requests for a refund should be directed to the Consulate General in New York with a copy of the receipt from the application portal. 

The Consulate General in New York can only refund fees that have been paid to us. If the fee was paid to another mission or to the police in Norway, the applicant needs to ask that office for the refund.