Seasonal worker
Last updated: 12/05/2011 // Seasonal work is unskilled work that can only be carried out during limited parts of the year due to climate variations, fluctuations in the availability of raw materials or other circumstances. Forestry, agriculture, the fish processing industry, plant nurseries and the restaurant and tourism industries are typical seasonal industries. Odd jobs such as carpentry, painting and other maintenance and restoration work are not considered seasonal work.
If you are to replace an employee in connection with holidays, this must be clearly stated in your application. There is no requirement as to when during the year holidays can be taken.
Who can be granted a residence permit as seasonal worker?
There are no formal qualification requirements for a seasonal work permit, but you must have reached the age of 18 and have a concrete offer of employment. The offer of employment must contain a job description and state the number of working hours per week, your hourly wage and the duration of the offer of employment.
If you have held a permit as a seasonal worker for six months, you can only be granted a new permit as a seasonal worker after you have stayed outside Norway for six months.
If you have been granted several permits as a seasonal worker, with a duration of less than six months, the total period of stay in Norway cannot exceed six months during a twelve-month period.
The position’s requirements
As a rule, the work concerned must be continuous full-time employment, but it can be divided between several employment offers from the same or different employers.
The pay and working conditions must comply with the current collective agreement or pay scale for the industry. If no such collective wage agreement or pay scale exists, the pay and working conditions must not be poorer than is normal for the occupation and place concerned. You must be guaranteed a minimum hourly wage.
The Norwegian Labour and Welfare Administration (NAV) must consent to a permit being granted (this do not apply for seasonal workers within agricultural and forestry). You get this assessment from NAV at county level. NAV assesses, among other things, whether the position can be filled by domestic labour or labour from the EEA area. In applications for permits for seasonal work in the agriculture and forestry industries we no longer need this consent from NAV.
Documentation list:
- Cover letter you received as confirmation on your e-mail (in your inbox this confirmation may appear with the title "application received") (PDF attachment) after you registered your application and booked time for submitting documents at Application Portal
- Passport photo not older than three months
- Passport and copy of used pages. Please be aware that there should be at least two free pages marked “ВІЗИ / VISAS”.
- One copy of all 16 pages of the domestic passport for Ukrainian citizens and for Moldavian national identification card applies
- “Offer of Employment” from Norwegian employer (signed by yourself and your employer)
- Documentation that you are guaranteed accommodation for the period that the application covers
- Advance approval from NAV. Norwegian employer has to contact NAV (the Employment Services) in Norway in order to obtain advance approval (forhåndstilsagn). This requirement to not apply to seasonal workers within agricultural and forestry.
Please remember to tick of the enclosed documents in our Document list 3 and bring the list together with the documents to the Embassy
How to apply
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