Norwegian immigration in talks with ministry on post-Brexit residency delays
Norway's immigration agency is holding talks with the justice ministry on how to speed up the handling of the 1,500 applications for post-Brexit residency it has yet to process, it has informed The Local.
Norwegian police passed 2,400 applications for post-Brexit residency to the Norwegian Directorate of Immigration (UDI) for processing. Of those, UDI has processed roughly 900 cases, leaving 1,500 still to be decided on.
Police in Norway only have the power to grant residencies, not to reject them, so if a police officer is not sure they can grant residence in a case, they pass it over to the UDI for processing.
"We have been in dialogue with the Ministry of Justice and Public Security regarding the processing of the remaining applications, intending to find solutions on how to process these applications as quickly as possible," Hanne Brusethaug, the responsible unit manager at UDI, told The Local in an emailed statement. "At the moment, we cannot elaborate any further on this."
The manager denied that any applications were on hold awaiting a decision from the ministry on the rules for post-Brexit residency, as some of those waiting for residency decisions told The Local they believed in a recent survey.
READ ALSO: What problems have Brits in Norway faced as a result of Brexit?
"No applications are suspended or stuck in UDI; applications are processed regularly," Brusethaug said. "However, we have received many more applications than we had expected to receive."
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Norwegian police passed 2,400 applications for post-Brexit residency to the Norwegian Directorate of Immigration (UDI) for processing. Of those, UDI has processed roughly 900 cases, leaving 1,500 still to be decided on.
Police in Norway only have the power to grant residencies, not to reject them, so if a police officer is not sure they can grant residence in a case, they pass it over to the UDI for processing.
"We have been in dialogue with the Ministry of Justice and Public Security regarding the processing of the remaining applications, intending to find solutions on how to process these applications as quickly as possible," Hanne Brusethaug, the responsible unit manager at UDI, told The Local in an emailed statement. "At the moment, we cannot elaborate any further on this."
The manager denied that any applications were on hold awaiting a decision from the ministry on the rules for post-Brexit residency, as some of those waiting for residency decisions told The Local they believed in a recent survey.
READ ALSO: What problems have Brits in Norway faced as a result of Brexit?
"No applications are suspended or stuck in UDI; applications are processed regularly," Brusethaug said. "However, we have received many more applications than we had expected to receive."
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