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Home* News and Stories → Nor­way untigh­tens ent­ry requi­re­ments – IMPORTANT UPDATE

Nor­way untigh­tens ent­ry requi­re­ments – IMPORTANT UPDATE

!!! In a later release, the Nor­we­gi­an govern­ment has poin­ted out that the untigh­ten­ed tra­vel rest­ric­tions as descri­bed below app­ly only to Nor­we­gi­an citi­zens. Details will fol­low later today in a new artic­le on this page.

The Nor­we­gi­an govern­ment has untigh­ten­ed the strict ent­ry requi­re­ments for tra­vel­lers to Nor­way. This comes into force today (Thurs­day, 27 May), accor­ding to an offi­ci­al press release.

In very short words, until yes­ter­day the sys­tem for ent­ry into Nor­way has been for months: “who are you and what do you want”, with the result that ent­ry was pos­si­ble or not depen­ding on natio­na­li­ty and tra­vel pur­po­se. And “not pos­si­ble” was usual­ly the ans­wer for non Nor­we­gi­an tra­vel­lers, unless they had an accept­ed reason such as a visit to clo­se rela­ti­ves, busi­ness etc.

From now on, the ques­ti­on is again: “whe­re do you come from”.

Ent­ry not based on “who are you and what do you want”, but “whe­re do you come from”

Tra­vel­lers from the Schen­gen trea­ty area as well as the UK may now enter Nor­way again pro­vi­ded coro­na infec­tion figu­res in their area of ori­gin meet cer­tain requi­re­ments. In the best case, the obli­ga­ti­on to spend some time in a qua­ran­ti­ne hotel may even be omit­ted: in the­se cases, tra­vel­lers are allo­wed to spend qua­ran­ti­ne time at home or ano­ther sui­ta­ble place of their choice. This appli­es to tra­vel­lers from Euro­pean count­ries (Schen­gen area and UK) with a coro­na inci­dence of less than 150 new infec­tions per 100,000 inha­bi­tants in the last 2 weeks (! the figu­res usual­ly com­mu­ni­ca­ted in most count­ries are based on one week), as long as the rate of posi­ti­ve tests is maxi­mum 4 %. So it is important to keep a good eye on data, which may obvious­ly chan­ge on rela­tively short noti­ce.

The­re is no dif­fe­ren­tia­ti­on bet­ween neces­sa­ry and unneces­sa­ry tra­ves any­mo­re.

Airport Oslo Gardermoen: Norway untightens entry requirements

Air­port Oslo Gar­de­r­moen: may beco­me a bit more lively again in the near future.

Many still have to do some time in a qua­ran­ti­ne hotel

The fol­lo­wing per­sons will need to spend some time in qua­ran­ti­ne in an appro­ved hotel. It still is a bit com­pli­ca­ted when it comes to the details, but it appli­es to most tra­vel­lers that they will have to spend at least 7 days in a qua­ran­ti­ne hotel befo­re they can get tes­ted out. Ever­y­bo­dy is obli­ged to spend 7 days in qua­ran­ti­ne, but the ques­ti­on if this has to be done in an appro­ved hotel near Oslo Gar­de­r­moen (the air­port) or in ano­ther place of one’s own choice may make a huge dif­fe­rence for many tra­vel­lers.

  • Tra­vel­lers from count­ries out­side the Schen­gen area or the UK still have to spend 7 days in a qua­ran­ti­ne hotel.
  • Tra­vel­lers from the Schen­gen area or the UK also have to spend time in a qua­ran­ti­ne hotel if the coro­na inci­dence in their regi­on of ori­gin exceeds the values descri­bed abo­ve modera­te­ly. The­se per­sons have the chan­ce to con­ti­nue their qua­ran­ti­ne at ano­ther sui­ta­ble place of their own choice after a mini­mum of 3 days and a nega­ti­ve test. The qua­ran­ti­ne ends after a mini­mum of 7 days and a nega­ti­ve test.
  • What about tra­vel­lers from the Schen­gen area or the UK with a coro­na inci­dence that exceeds the values descri­bed abo­ve dra­sti­cal­ly? The Nor­we­gi­an govern­ment has not yet deci­ded on the details, but the­se tra­vel­lers will have to spend at least 7 days in a qua­ran­ti­ne hotel befo­re they can be tes­ted in order to poten­ti­al­ly lea­ve from qua­ran­ti­ne.
  • Pro­per Nor­we­gi­an aut­ho­ri­ties may give dis­pen­sa­ti­on from the obli­ga­ti­on to qua­ran­ti­ne. Such dis­pen­sa­ti­on will, howe­ver, only be given in spe­cial cases and this needs to be done befo­re ente­ring the coun­try.

The door has ope­ned – a litt­le bit

As a bot­tom line, Nor­way has ope­ned the door again a litt­le bit after months of ent­ry rest­ric­tions which were among­st the toug­hest in the wes­tern world. We are still far away from free tra­vel­ling as known from times befo­re coro­na, but tra­vel­ling for tou­rists from Euro­pean count­ries is at least not some­thing com­ple­te­ly unthinkable any­mo­re. It is not yet known when and how the regu­la­ti­ons now in force will be untigh­ten­ed fur­ther. Tech­ni­cal aut­ho­ri­ties have sug­gested 3 days in qua­ran­ti­ne also for ful­ly vac­ci­na­ted peo­p­le, but regar­ding this, no decis­i­on has been made as of now.

Ent­ry for vac­ci­na­ted and reco­ver­ed peo­p­le

Decis­i­ons are yet to be made, but ever­y­thing points to more free­dom, pos­si­bly up to free ent­ry, for peo­p­le who are vac­ci­na­ted or who have reco­ver­ed from a coro­na infec­tion. Nor­way will join the Euro­pean sys­tem of a digi­tal vac­ci­na­ti­on cer­ti­fi­ca­te, which needs to be in place befo­re we may see such faci­li­ta­ti­ons. Accor­ding to Nor­we­gi­an news (e.g. NRK Dags­re­vy­en, 26.5), pre­pa­ra­ti­ons for such a cer­ti­fi­ca­te are well advan­ced in Nor­way and the sys­tem may be ope­ra­ting at some point in June.

And Spits­ber­gen?

A nega­ti­ve coro­na test is still requi­red to tra­vel to Spits­ber­gen and not­hing has been said about when this will be omit­ted.

Antigua, Spitsbergen

SV Anti­gua in Spits­ber­gen, with a touch of eary win­ter. It is curr­ent­ly impos­si­ble to know for sure if Anti­gua and other ships will be able to ope­ra­te in Spits­ber­gen in the late sea­son, but the­re is still some hope.

It is also not know if oppor­tu­ni­ties to ope­ra­te “coas­tal crui­ses” will come up this sea­son. Months ago, the Nor­we­gi­an govern­ment has announ­ced to come back to this until the end of May, so the­re may soon be new infor­ma­ti­on rele­vant to tho­se who have plans for ship-based tra­vels.

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last modification: 2021-05-31 · copyright: Rolf Stange
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