Increased possibility for foreigners to work while on holiday in Norway
In today's digital world, many people keep an eye on their inbox while on vacation or work a little to extend their travels. This also applies to foreigners who are tourists in Norway. Has your company checked whether you have employees on holiday in Norway and whether they are allowed to work remotely while on holiday here?
Many believe that foreign tourists can work remotely while on holiday in Norway. However, it is not that simple. In Norway, we divide foreign citizens into three groups (Nordic countries - EU/EEA - other countries) when it comes to the legal requirements for work while in Norway.
The basics
If employees are citizens of the EU/EEA/Nordic countries, they can work to some or a lot while on vacation in Norway. If your employees are citizen of an EU/EEA country and they plan on staying in Norway more than three months in total, they must register with the Norwegian immigration authorities according to the registration scheme for EU/EEA citizens. This applies even if they have multiple purposes for their stay in Norway, such as both work and vacation. The total time spent in Norway is decisive.
If employees are citizens of countries outside the EU/EEA/Nordic region, known as third-country nationals (e.g. United States, Canada, and also the United Kingdom after Brexit), there are significant limitations on the work they can do while in Norway. Normally, they have to be granted a formal residence permit before they are allowed to work in Norway. Does this mean that they are prohibited from answering e-mails or work for a day or two while being tourists in Norway?
Tourist and remote work from Norway
After the pandemic, the Norwegian immigration authorities made it clear that the law did not allow third-country nationals to work in any capacity while being tourists in Norway. Even when their employer was based in another country and none of their work pertained to Norway or the Norwegian market, they were not allowed to do any remote work (answer e-mails, participate in digital meetings etc.) while on vacation in Norway. Such work required a residence permit that granted them the right to work remotely from Norway. Neither then, nor now does Norway have a residence permit solely for remote work from Norway (so-called digital nomad visa).
However, the authorities have recently re-interpreted the law. They now allow third-country nationals to keep an eye on their inbox, participate in Teams and phone meetings etc. (remote work) for their foreign employer while being tourists in Norway. A prerequisite for this is that the main purpose of their stay in Norway is not to work remotely, and that the work done remotely from Norway does not generate value or have any connection to Norway/the Norwegian market. This applies regardless of whether the third-country national needs a tourist visa before coming on vacation to Norway or not.
In other words, a citizen from the United States can now go on vacation to Norway and continue to monitor their inbox and perform job-related activities without any specific immigration-related permission or registration.
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In addition to providing employment law advice, Littler Norway assist foreign companies with corporate immigration when having employees coming to Norway on short or longer stays. Please reach out to our senior lawyer, Lise Gran (
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Please note that the translation of this article from Norwegian to English has been done by first using the AI tool ChatGPT and then reviewed by one of our attorneys to ensure correct quality.
