Dual Citizenship Between Norway and the USA: Rules, Taxes, and FBAR

Dual citizenship between Norway and the USA is legally available from both sides: Norway began allowing dual nationality on January 1, 2020, and the United States has long tolerated it in practice despite the renunciation wording in the naturalization oath. To hold both passports you still have to meet each country’s naturalization requirements on their own terms, and once you do, U.S. tax and foreign-account reporting rules follow you for life.

What Changed in 2020

Before January 1, 2020, Norway forced a choice. Anyone who voluntarily became a citizen of another country lost Norwegian nationality, and foreign nationals naturalizing as Norwegian had to renounce their original citizenship first.¹

The 2020 law removed that restriction. Norwegians can now acquire a second nationality without losing their Norwegian status, and foreign nationals can become Norwegian without giving up what they already have.² One caveat matters: if your other country of citizenship still forbids dual nationality, you could lose that citizenship when you naturalize as Norwegian. Norway won’t block you, but it can’t override the other country’s rules. For Americans this is not a problem, because the United States permits dual nationality.

Reclaiming Norwegian Citizenship Lost Before 2020

If you lost Norwegian citizenship before 2020 by naturalizing elsewhere, you can reclaim it through a simplified notification with UDI. This is not a full new citizenship application — it’s a shorter administrative procedure created specifically for people who lost their status under the old single-citizenship rule.³ You submit the notification through UDI’s online portal, and you do not have to move back to Norway to file it.⁴

Becoming a Norwegian Citizen as an American

A U.S. citizen applies through the Norwegian Directorate of Immigration (UDI). Since the 2020 law change, you keep your American citizenship throughout, with no renunciation required on either side.

Residency

The standard rule is eight years of residence in Norway within the last eleven years, backed by valid residence permits that each lasted at least one year.⁵ Several groups get shorter periods:

Spouses of Norwegian citizens: five years of residence in the last ten, plus a combined total of at least seven years when you add your residence period and the length of your marriage.
Asylum holders: seven years within the last ten.
Applicants with sufficient income: six years within the last ten.
People born in Norway or who arrived before age 18: five years within the last seven.⁵

Time outside Norway is where many applicants stumble. Absences of two months or less in a calendar year do not affect your residency calculation. Go beyond two months, though, and UDI deducts the entire period abroad for that year, not just the excess.⁶ A three-month work trip can cost a full year of credit. Gaps between an expired permit and a new application don’t count either, and neither does any period of unauthorized stay.

Language and Knowledge Tests

Applicants aged 18 to 67 must pass two tests before applying. The first is an oral Norwegian test at B1 or higher, roughly intermediate conversational level. Certain groups, including stateless persons and some applicants over 55, may qualify at the lower A2 level.⁷

The second is either the citizenship test or the social studies test, taken in Norwegian and covering history, laws, and institutions. If you took the social studies test earlier in another language, you have to retake it in Norwegian. Applicants over 67 are exempt from both tests.⁸

Criminal Record

You’ll submit a criminal record certificate. Convictions, police fines, or open investigations trigger a waiting period whose length depends on the offense. Minor items like parking tickets or mediation outcomes don’t trigger a delay.⁹

Cost and Timeline

The adult application fee is NOK 6,500, roughly $600.¹⁰ As of late 2025, UDI estimates about 24 months from the day you submit your documents to the police until you receive a decision.¹¹ Plan employment and travel around that wait.

Becoming a US Citizen as a Norwegian

A Norwegian applicant must first hold a Green Card. There’s no direct path to citizenship without going through lawful permanent residency first.

Residency

The standard track is five years of continuous permanent residency before filing. If you are married to and living with a U.S. citizen, that drops to three years.¹² “Continuous” is a defined term. An absence of more than six months but less than a year during the statutory period creates a presumption that continuous residence is broken. You can try to rebut that presumption with evidence that you kept your U.S. job, home, and family ties, but the burden is on you.¹³ If you can’t, the clock restarts and you build a new period after returning.

English and Civics Tests

At the naturalization interview a USCIS officer tests your ability to read, write, and speak basic English: you read one of three sentences aloud and write one of three sentences correctly.¹⁴ A civics portion covers U.S. history and government. You get two attempts at each part; failing both leads to denial.¹⁵

The Oath and Your Norwegian Citizenship

The Oath of Allegiance contains language about renouncing all allegiance to foreign states.¹⁶ That wording worries many Norwegian applicants. The U.S. government does not treat it as a forced relinquishment of your other nationality. The State Department explicitly acknowledges that U.S. law does not require a person to choose one citizenship over another.¹⁷ Because Norway’s 2020 law also permits dual citizenship, you keep both.

Cost and Timeline

You file Form N-400. The fee is $710 online or $760 by paper, with a reduced fee of $380 and full waivers available based on income.¹⁸ Nationally the typical processing time from filing to ceremony runs roughly five to eight months as of early 2026, though field offices vary. That is considerably faster than Norway’s current 24-month estimate.

Passing Both Citizenships to Children

Children of a Norwegian-American couple can often acquire both citizenships at birth, but the rules turn on when the child was born and which parent holds which nationality.

For Norwegian citizenship, children born on or after September 1, 2006, receive Norwegian nationality automatically if either parent is Norwegian, whether the parents are married and whether the child is born in Norway or abroad.¹⁹ For children born before that date, citizenship passed automatically through the mother, and through the father only if he was married to the mother at birth.

For U.S. citizenship, a child born abroad to one U.S. citizen parent and one non-citizen parent acquires citizenship at birth if the American parent lived in the United States for at least five years before the child’s birth, with at least two of those years after age 14. This applies to children born in wedlock on or after November 14, 1986.²⁰ The rules differ for children born out of wedlock and for births before 1986.

Register a qualifying child with both countries: a Consular Report of Birth Abroad at the nearest U.S. embassy, and population registration in Norway.

The Tax Reality of Being a Dual Citizen

Tax compliance is the area where dual citizenship creates the most ongoing work, and where mistakes are the most expensive. The United States taxes its citizens on worldwide income regardless of where they live. An American citizen residing in Oslo still owes the IRS a return every year.²¹

How Double Taxation Is Actually Avoided

Two mechanisms do most of the work. The Foreign Earned Income Exclusion lets you exclude up to $132,900 in foreign earned income for tax year 2026.²² The Foreign Tax Credit offsets U.S. tax dollar-for-dollar against income taxes you’ve paid to Norway. Because Norwegian rates are generally higher than U.S. rates for most income levels, many dual citizens living in Norway end up owing little or no additional U.S. tax. You still have to file to claim either benefit.²³

A bilateral U.S.-Norway tax treaty sets the framework. On the U.S. side, the mechanism is the foreign tax credit. On the Norwegian side, Norway generally exempts income that is taxable in the U.S. under the treaty, though it may factor the exempted income into calculating the rate on your remaining Norwegian income.²⁴

Pensions follow their own rules. Norwegian pensions from public sources and the National Insurance Scheme are generally taxable in Norway even if you live in the U.S. Private occupational pensions tied to previous private-sector employment may be exempt from Norwegian tax if you can prove U.S. tax residency with a Certificate of Residence (IRS Form 6166).²⁵

FBAR and Form 8938

Two reporting requirements catch dual citizens off guard, both separate from the tax return itself.

The FBAR (Report of Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts) applies if the combined value of your foreign financial accounts, including checking, savings, brokerage, and pensions, exceeds $10,000 at any point during the year. You file FinCEN Form 114 electronically. The deadline is April 15, with an automatic extension to October 15.²⁶²⁷ The $10,000 threshold is low. A single Norwegian savings account with a modest balance can trigger it.

Form 8938, filed with your tax return under FATCA, covers a broader category of foreign financial assets and kicks in at higher thresholds. If you live outside the U.S. and file as an individual, you report when your foreign assets exceed $200,000 on the last day of the tax year or $300,000 at any point during the year. Joint filers living abroad have thresholds of $400,000 and $600,000.²⁸

Penalties are severe. A non-willful FBAR failure can cost up to $16,536 per account per year. Willful violations jump to $165,353 or 50% of the account balance, whichever is greater, and can involve criminal prosecution. For Form 8938 the initial penalty is $10,000, with an additional $10,000 for every 30-day period you continue to not file after IRS notification, up to $50,000 in additional penalties.²⁹ The IRS actively pursues offshore compliance cases.

Social Security and Pension Coordination

A U.S.-Norway Totalization Agreement prevents dual citizens who split their careers between the two countries from missing out on retirement benefits. If you don’t have enough credits in either system alone, the agreement lets you combine credits from both to meet eligibility.³⁰

For U.S. Social Security you need at least six U.S. credits, roughly a year and a half of work, before Norwegian credits can be counted toward eligibility. Your benefit amount is then reduced proportionally to reflect the share of your career under each system. For Norway’s basic pension you need at least one year of Norwegian coverage before U.S. credits can help you reach the three-year minimum. Credits are not transferred; they stay on record in the country where they were earned, and each country’s pension office contacts the other directly when you apply.

Military Service and Passports

Norway has compulsory military service for both men and women starting the year they turn 19. In practice the number actually called up is far below the eligible population; the armed forces select based on their needs, and most people never serve. As a dual citizen you are in principle subject to this obligation, though UDI notes that specific rules vary depending on your other country of citizenship.² If you live outside Norway, the practical chance of being called up is low, though the legal obligation exists.

U.S. law requires every U.S. citizen to enter and leave the United States on a U.S. passport, with no exception for dual nationals.¹⁷ For entry into Norway, the State Department advises you may need to use your Norwegian passport. The practical answer is to carry both whenever you travel between the two countries.

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