Registration as an asylum seeker

From 1 January 2024, those who want to be offered accommodation in an asylum reception centre must register their application for protection at the National Arrival Centre.

UDI cannot offer you a place to stay until you have registered at the National Arrival Centre. Accommodation or transport to the National Arrival Centre will no longer be offered to refugees from Ukraine who have travelled to other parts of Norway. This means that you must pay for and organise transport to the National Arrival Centre, which is in Råde municipality.
 
Unaccompanied minors or other particularly vulnerable persons may be provided assistance in travelling to the National Arrival Centre. Exceptions can also be made if there is a danger to the person's life and health. The requirement to register at the National Arrival Centre does not apply to asylum seekers who arrive in Norway at the Storskog border crossing point.

If you have found a place to live in Norway, where you can live at your own expense after your application has been registered, you can choose to register your application for protection at the National Arrivals Centre or at the police registration points in Kirkenes, Trondheim, Bergen, Jæren and Torp.

• Read more about registration with the police.

Which place you register at has no bearing on where you will be offered a reception place or where you will be offered to live if you are granted protection in Norway.

When you arrive at the National Arrival Centre, you will be welcomed by staff who will give you information about what will happen next. The National Police Immigration Service will register your application for protection at the centre.

You can read about what happens when you register at the National Arrival Centre on the Directorate of Immigration’s website.

Read more about registration at the National Arrival Centre.

At the arrival centre, you will have a meeting with the police and you will hand in your passport and other ID documents.

People usually stay at the arrival centre for a fairly short period.

When you go to the police, you will give your fingerprints and register information about yourself electronically. You will also hand in your passport and other ID documents.

• Read more about what happens when you register with the local police.

No, it does not matter where you register. This does not affect which settlement municipality you will be allocated by IMDi. However, it is important that you tell the police if you have close family members in Norway when you register. 

The Directorate of Immigration does everything it can to ensure that close families members can stay together in the same asylum reception centre.

There are two kinds of identification numbers in Norway:

• D number
• National identity number

Your identification number is unique and is used to identify you and give you access to services in Norway.

When you register as an asylum seeker from Ukraine, you’ll receive a temporary Norwegian identification number, a D number. Generally, you’ll receive information about your D number in an asylum seeker card, which you will get from the police.
If you get a residence permit, you’ll be assigned a Norwegian national identity number.

An electronic ID gives you online access to public services
When you have received a Norwegian identification number (national identity number or D number), you can get an electronic ID. An electronic ID gives you access to online services from local and public authorities. 

• How to obtain an electronic ID.

When you have received a Norwegian identification number (national identity number or D number), you can get an electronic ID. An electronic ID gives you access to online services from local and public authorities. 

• How to obtain an electronic ID.

When the police at the arrival centre or the local police have registered your application for protection, they will send your application to the Directorate of Immigration (UDI) for processing. 

When the UDI has received the application from the police, you will receive an email confirming this. 

In some cases, the police or the UDI must carry out additional investigations. You will be notified if the police or the UDI need to speak to you.

If you have fled the war in Ukraine and applied for protection in Norway, the UDI will process your application either as part of a group assessment (collective protection) or consider it individually (ordinary protection). 

On the UDI’s website, you will find information about protection in Norway for those who are going to apply, have applied or have received an answer to their application.

Refugees from Ukraine are eligible for collective protection in Norway. You will be granted collective protection if you meet the conditions for such a permit.

You can read more about who is eligible for collective protection on the UDI’s website.

You will be notified if you are not eligible for collective protection.

If you are not among those eligible for collective protection, the UDI will carry out an individual assessment of your application.

In some cases, it becomes clear already at the time of registration that an application does not meet the conditions for collective protection. In that case, your application will be transferred immediately to the ordinary procedure for protection. 

In other cases, it will only become clear later on in the processing of the application that the requirements for collective protection have not been met. Your application will then be transferred to the ordinary procedure for protection.  

• Read more about the difference between individual protection and collective protection. 
• Read more about who is not covered by the collective protection scheme.

Ordinary protection means that you are granted a residence permit as a refugee in Norway based on an individual assessment of your application.

You can read about the requirements for being granted ordinary protection on the UDI’s website.