🇳🇴 Norway

Do you need to do anything?

You do not need to apply to extend collective protection (kollektiv beskyttelse) in Norway — it is your right under the regulation. Immigration Regulations § 7-5a, fifth paragraph: a person holding such a permit "has the right to continued stay for one year from the expiry of the permit (extension). An extension is granted up to four times." The year is counted from the date on your card, not from the day UDI decides. So if that date has already passed and you have had no answer yet, your stay does not become unlawful: the right to that year comes from the provision itself. What is up to you: — keep your address current in the National Population Register (Folkeregisteret) so the decision and the new residence card reach you; — if UDI or the police call you or your child in to give a photo and fingerprints for the new card, attend at the appointed time; — if the date on your card has passed and nothing has arrived from UDI, do not wait in silence: contact UDI. When an extension may be REFUSED (§ 7-5a, paragraphs 6-9): there are grounds for cessation or revocation of the permit (§ 37, § 63 of the Immigration Act); at the time of extension you no longer belong to the group covered by the scheme (this includes, among other things, a second citizenship of a country the Norwegian authorities consider safe); you hold a residence permit on a basis other than § 34; or the scheme is wound up before your permit expires. Five years is the ceiling. Immigration Act § 34: the permit is valid for one year and may be renewed or extended "for up to five years from the time the foreign national first received a residence permit" — that is, four extensions and no more. After that collective protection is not extended; instead another temporary permit may be granted, one that can form the basis for permanent residence. The most important point about those five years. Your application for protection under § 28 is held in abeyance the whole time. When the five years expire (or the scheme is discontinued), you must be informed that the application will be processed ONLY if you expressly state, within a set deadline, that you want this. Miss the deadline and there will be no processing. This is the one action you really must take yourself, so watch for letters from UDI. The restriction on men aged 18-60 (§ 7-5a, second paragraph, letter c; regulation of 27.03.2026 no. 497, in force from 04.05.2026) applies, by its express transitional rule, only to applications submitted after it entered into force. It does not affect the extension of protection you already hold. Sources: lovdata.no — Immigration Act § 34 and Immigration Regulations § 7-5a. Practical details (how the decision arrives, when to expect the card) are on udi.no. Source: https://lovdata.no/dokument/SF/forskrift/2009-10-15-1286/KAPITTEL_7 (checked 03.09.2026).