These two are confused more often than any other pair in Norwegian immigration, including by people who ought to know better. Permanent residence requires the oral Norwegian test at A2. Citizenship requires it at B1. They are separate applications with separate requirements, the levels were raised on different dates, and even the social studies test works differently between them — for citizenship it must be passed in Norwegian, for permanent residence it can be taken in a language you understand.
Sources: UDI — krav om prøver for å få norsk statsborgerskap; UDI — endringer i kravene om norsk og samfunnskunnskap, permanent oppholdstillatelse; UDI — unntak fra prøver ved søknad om permanent oppholdstillatelse; UDI — endrede krav til norskkunnskaper for å få norsk statsborgerskap; G-04/2025; utlendingsloven § 62 første ledd bokstav d og e; statsborgerloven §§ 7 and 8.
This article covers the language and social studies requirements only. Both applications have other conditions, including residence time, which are set out on UDI’s pages and are not dealt with here.
Side by side
| Permanent residence | Citizenship | |
|---|---|---|
| Oral Norwegian | A2 or higher | B1 (or B2) |
| Social studies test | In a language you understand | Must be in Norwegian |
| Alternative test | — | Citizenship test also accepted |
| Age range | 18–67 | 18–67 |
| Level raised | 1 September 2025 (from A1) | 1 October 2022 (from A2) |
| Where exemption is decided | Municipality; and since Sept 2025 the police and UDI can assess it too | UDI |
Both requirements attach to the oral subtest of the Norskprøve rather than to all four parts.
Permanent residence: what changed in September 2025
Two things changed at once, and one of them made the route easier rather than harder.
The oral level rose from A1 to A2 for applications submitted to the police on or after 1 September 2025. Applications submitted before that date remain on A1.
There is an important second limb to that transitional rule, and it is easy to miss: UDI states that if your only requirement today was training, you do not acquire a test requirement. Some applicants under the old rules had an obligation to complete instruction but no test obligation at all — and they end up with neither. If that describes you, do not book an A1 test you do not need.
The training requirement was removed. Before 1 September 2025, applicants had to have completed instruction in Norwegian and social studies. That obligation no longer applies — the requirements now sit directly in utlendingsloven § 62 første ledd bokstav d og e rather than being tied to the integration legislation, and they are expressed as tests passed rather than courses attended.
The transitional rule follows the same pattern as the citizenship change. If you registered the application on udi.no before 24 August 2025 and could not get a police appointment before 1 September, the old A1 requirement applies. Register on 24 August or later without an earlier appointment, and A2 applies.
Since 1 September 2025 the police and UDI can also assess whether you qualify for an exemption from the oral test for permanent residence. Note what this does and does not change: it adds a route, it does not close one. A decision from the municipality exempting you from the obligation to attend instruction or to sit the final test remains one of the grounds UDI lists for exemption.
Worth knowing alongside this: UDI lists eight separate grounds for exemption from the oral test for permanent residence, including a grade of 2 or higher in Norwegian or Sami in grunnskolen or upper secondary, 30 ECTS of Norwegian or Sami study at university level, and meeting the admission requirements for Norwegian-language higher education. If you have been schooled or studied in Norway, check the list before booking anything.
Citizenship: what changed in October 2022
The oral level rose from A2 to B1 for applications submitted to the police on or after 1 October 2022. Applications submitted before then remain on A2.
Alongside it sits the citizenship test or the social studies test — and for citizenship the social studies test must be passed in Norwegian. A pass in another language does not satisfy the citizenship requirement, even though the same test in another language can satisfy the permanent residence requirement.
That asymmetry is the single most useful thing on this page. Someone who passed the social studies test in their own language for permanent residence has not thereby met the citizenship condition, and may need to sit it again in Norwegian — or take the citizenship test instead, which UDI describes as the easier of the two in Norwegian.
One more asymmetry worth knowing
The two regimes also treat school evidence differently, which is a trap for anyone assuming a single rule.
For permanent residence, a halvårsvurdering or midtveisvurdering in Norwegian or Sami at upper secondary, with grade 2 or higher, is among the accepted grounds. For citizenship, UDI states plainly that a halvårsvurdering alone is not sufficient. Do not carry an answer from one application across to the other.
Why the confusion is so persistent
Three reasons, all of them structural rather than anybody’s fault.
The levels moved in different years. Citizenship went to B1 in 2022; permanent residence went to A2 in 2025. Any guide written between those dates is correct about one and wrong about the other, and there is a great deal of such material still online.
Both changes were tied to police submission dates, not decision dates. Which means two people applying in the same month can be on different requirements depending on when they got an appointment.
The same test serves both, at different levels. The Norskprøve oral subtest is what you sit either way. Only the required result differs — which makes it easy to remember that “you need the Norskprøve” and forget which level attaches to which application.
What this means in practice
If you are working towards permanent residence, the target is A2 on the oral subtest, plus the social studies test in any language you understand.
If you are working towards citizenship, the target is B1 on the oral subtest, plus either the citizenship test or the social studies test in Norwegian.
If you intend to do both in sequence — which is the usual path, since permanent residence generally comes first — it is worth knowing that meeting the permanent residence requirement does not carry you towards the citizenship one automatically on either count. The oral level is higher and the social studies condition is stricter.
Planning for B1 from the outset is therefore not over-preparing, if citizenship is where you are heading. It is preparing once instead of twice.
What the CEFR levels describe sets out what the levels mean in practice, which is more useful than the labels suggest — the gap between A2 and B1 in speaking is larger than one step sounds.