As a EU citizen I enjoy some privileges that other foreign workers don’t. For example I get a permanent residency from day one with my job. All I had to do is go to the UDI (Utlendingensforvaltningen which is part of the police) and register which will lead to an appointment with the tax office where you ultimately get properly registered.

The Skatteetaten gives out so-called P-numbers, fødselsnummer or personnummer (literally birth number). Which is the number one thing you need in Norway. Without one, you don’t exist. It consists of your birthday plus a 5 digit number (e.g. 01029512345 if you’re born on the first of February 1995). If you’re temporarily in Norway, I was as a student, you get a different type of number, a D-number which is basically for administrative purposes like student jobs etc. just without social security etc. It looks practically the same like the P-number but a constant (40) is added to the day of your birth. The D-number would look like 41029512345 in that example.

Without any of these numbers you literally don’t exist. Everything relates to that number, phone contracts, banking, taxes, pensions, everything.

Registration is relatively painless, all you need to show is your work contract and your passport. Make sure that the starting date on the contract is not too far into the future as I ran into troubles with that (so I had to go twice).

And that was it… I was ready to start working 🙂