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Norwegian citizenship For Members

UPDATED: How powerful is a Norwegian passport?

Frazer Norwell
Frazer Norwell - [email protected]
UPDATED: How powerful is a Norwegian passport?
Here's how handy the Norwegian passport is for travel. Pictured is a mock passport, Photo by Porapak Apichodilok from Pexels

One of the key benefits of dual citizenship is a second passport. Exactly how useful is the Norwegian identification and travel document?

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Norway allows dual citizenship, meaning many can enjoy the benefits of being a Norwegian citizen without sacrificing their existing citizenship. 

A Norwegian passport is, meanwhile, one of the strongest travel documents in the world, meaning it could save you the hassle of costly and timely visa applications.

The rules for applying for citizenship in Norway rely heavily on specific factors like, how long you have lived in Norway, when you came to Norway and whether you are married or the partner of a Norwegian. 

READ ALSO: Are there any ways to fast-track Norwegian citizenship?

In most cases, you must have lived in the country for at least seven of the past ten years to be considered eligible.

For those who have made the most of the new citizenship rules and bagged a Norwegian passport, then congratulations, the passport is among the most powerful in the world in terms of visa-free travel.

READ MORE: How to get a Norwegian passport after obtaining citizenship

A Norwegian passport allows visa-free or visa-on-arrival travel to 191 countries worldwide, according to an index by the London law firm Henley & Partners. Overall, the passport is ranked joint 4th in its power rankings. There were 13 countries judged to have better passports. 

However, these passports allowed access to between 192 and 194 countries, so there isn’t an enormous gulf between a Norwegian passport and those deemed even better.  

Norway’s ranking puts it on a par with Belgium, Luxembourg, Portugal, and the United Kingdom, but below its Nordic neighbours Sweden, Denmark and Finland.

The joint-4th place power ranking places it above the likes of Australia, Canada, the US, India and Poland, however.  

The most powerful passports in the world belong to citizens of Japan, Spain, France, Germany, Italy and Singapore, who can visit 194 countries worldwide without a visa.

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Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan have the weakest passports in terms of areas citizens can travel to without an entry permit – they have visa-free access to less than 28 and 31 countries worldwide.

The law firm Henley & Partners evaluates data from the International Air Transport Association (IATA), among other factors, and provides travellers with information on which countries they can travel to with their passports and whether a visa is required.

Each passport is scored on the total number of destinations that the holder can access visa-free. If no visa is required for each travel destination, then a score of 1 is given to that passport. This also applies if passport holders can obtain a visa on arrival, a visitor’s permit, or an electronic travel authority (ETA) upon entry.

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