In the Netherlands you carry one number your whole life. Norway has two, and which of them you get depends on what you have come to do and how long you are staying. That difference decides almost everything in your first weeks: your bank account, your tax rate, your doctor. Here they are, in the order you actually meet them.
Two numbers, two meanings
A fødselsnummer is the permanent Norwegian national identity number. Eleven digits, issued when you are registered as a resident in Folkeregisteret, the national population register.
A D-nummer is the temporary number for people who have business with Norwegian bodies without living here: a job of a few months, a property purchase, a seat on the board of a Norwegian company. Also eleven digits, with four added to the first digit of your date of birth. You usually do not apply for it yourself. Your employer, your bank or the estate agent applies on your behalf. A D-number can lapse if nothing happens with it for years.
So a D-number is not a lesser fødselsnummer. It is a different thing for a different situation.
Reporting your move within eight days
If you come to Norway as an EU or EEA national and intend to stay at least six months, you report a flytting til Norge, a move to Norway, to Skatteetaten, the Norwegian Tax Administration. You cannot do it before you arrive, and it has to be done within eight days of arriving. Skatteetaten then assesses whether you are registered as bosatt, resident. If you are, a fødselsnummer follows.
Whether you meet that six-month test is a judgement about your circumstances, not about your intentions. If you arrive on a short contract, or keep your Dutch house, expect questions.
The ID check
The report is only complete once you have been through an ID-kontroll. You appear in person, with your family, at a tax office that carries out identity checks. Not every office does. In some places the service sits inside a servicesenter for utenlandske arbeidstakere, a service centre for foreign workers, where Skatteetaten and the police share a building.
Find out which office near you performs the check and book an appointment early. Waiting times climb over the summer and around the new year.
What you bring depends on why you are here, but count on:
- a valid passport or national identity card, for each family member separately
- proof of your basis for being here: employment contract, student enrolment, or evidence of sufficient means
- your Norwegian address, and usually your tenancy agreement
- birth and marriage certificates for children and partner, preferably the multilingual Dutch versions
If anything is unclear, email that office beforehand and ask what they want to see in your situation. Going twice costs weeks.
The EU/EEA registration is separate
If you are staying longer than three months, you also register your right of residence as an EU or EEA national. You start that through UDI, the Directorate of Immigration, and then appear in person at the police or a service centre. You are given a registreringsbevis, a registration certificate, which does not expire.
This is a different procedure, at a different body, with its own appointment. The two get mixed up constantly. You need both.
The chicken and egg problem
Without a Norwegian number, most things stall:
- A bank may only take you on after a statutory identity check, and in practice asks for a fødselsnummer or D-number.
- No bank account means no BankID, and without BankID you cannot get into the digital counters where most business is done.
- Without a skattekort, a tax deduction card, your employer withholds at the statutory default rate, fifty percent. You get the excess back later, but you feel it in the first months.
- A fastlege, a regular doctor assigned to you, comes only once you are in Folkeregisteret and a member of folketrygden. Until then care runs through legevakt, the out-of-hours clinic, and your European health insurance card. Helsenorge shows you later who your fastlege is.
What to do in the gap
Ask your employer to apply for a D-number as soon as you have a contract, even if you will later be registered as resident. Book the ID check appointment before you fly. Keep your Dutch bank account and phone number until everything stands, because you will need an SMS at moments you did not expect. Bring more paper than you think you need, and bring everything twice: original and copy.
What holds for you depends on your basis for being here. Employment, your own company, study, family member or sufficient means each lead to different documents and sometimes to a different outcome. This is not legal advice, and we do not assess individual cases.
The platform lays this sequence out as appointments and document lists, with the Norwegian words you will hear at the counter next to each one.