If you are a doctor working toward Norwegian authorisation, there is a stage after it that almost nobody plans for. Being authorised does not let you begin specialising. Before that you must complete LIS1 — the first part of Norwegian specialist training — and two facts about it are worth knowing years in advance: the internship you already completed at home almost certainly does not count toward it, and places are awarded through a competitive appointment round in which a large share of applicants are not placed.

Last reviewed 30 July 2026. Sources: Helsedirektoratet — LIS1: søknad og frister (last professional revision 15 January 2026); Helsedirektoratet — praksisperioder i grunnutdanningen i andre EØS-land kan ikke inngå i LIS1; Helsedirektoratet — LIS1 statusrapport nr. 23, søknadsrunden våren 2024; Helsedirektoratet — ansettelseskrav, utdanningstid, fravær og overgangsregler; Helsedirektoratet — gebyr, saksbehandlingstid, vedtak og klage.

What LIS1 actually is

LIS1 is the first part of Norwegian specialist training, and it is compulsory before you can move on. The structure is fixed: one year in the specialist health service, followed by six months in the municipal health service — eighteen months in total, in that order. All learning objectives in LIS1 must be achieved before you can proceed to LIS2 and LIS3.

If you hold Norwegian authorisation based on an education from Norway or from outside the EU/EEA, you must complete Norwegian LIS1 in Norway before continuing to specialisation. Doctors authorised on the basis of an EEA education were exempt from that requirement only until 1 March 2019.

It is worth being clear about what LIS1 is not. It is not a licence stage everyone passes through on the way to authorisation, and it is not a short rotation programme. Authorisation comes first; LIS1 is specialist training that follows it.

Lisens is a narrow category, not a junior authorisation

A lisens is not a starter version of authorisation. Authorisation gives full rights to practise until you are 80. A licence gives a limited right, usually time-limited, and the categories Helsedirektoratet names are specific: health personnel over 80, student licences for medical and pharmacy students, and doctors covered by a transitional arrangement giving the right to complete LIS1 in place of obligatory practical service missing from their country of education.

That last category is the one relevant here, and it is worth asking about directly if your medical education did not include the compulsory practical service your own country requires — it is a defined route rather than an improvisation. Helsedirektoratet’s guidance ties it to a transitional arrangement, so check the current conditions against your own case rather than assuming eligibility.

Student licences are worth understanding for what they exclude: no right to the protected title, no independent medical practice, no bakvakt duty, no participation in legevakt arrangements, no billing in your own name — and they do not provide a basis for starting specialist training.

Your internship at home does not count

This is the single most expensive assumption a foreign-trained doctor can make, and it is settled policy rather than a case-by-case judgement.

The Ministry of Health and Care Services has determined that practical service required in order to practise independently as a doctor in your home country after finishing medical studies cannot count toward the learning objectives of LIS1. Helsedirektoratet names examples directly: internship or turnus such as KBU in Denmark and AT in Sweden.

The reasoning is structural rather than dismissive. LIS1 is an integrated, compulsory part of Norwegian specialist training and functions as a common platform for every doctor specialising in Norway. It is not a competence check that prior equivalent experience can satisfy — it is a shared starting point.

So a doctor who has already completed an internship abroad, and perhaps practised independently for years, still does eighteen months of LIS1 before specialising in Norway. Plan around it rather than hoping for an exemption.

The competition, in Helsedirektoratet’s own numbers

This is what turns LIS1 from a formality into the real bottleneck. The directorate publishes status reports on each application round, and the figures below are from its report on the spring 2024 round — the most recent ones we have verified. Later rounds have since taken place, so treat these as the shape of the problem rather than as this year’s numbers, and check the current status report before planning around a specific ratio.

In spring 2024 there were 1,181 applicants for 582 advertised LIS1 positions, with the proportion appointed recorded as 50 per cent that spring and 65 per cent in autumn 2024. In 2023 there were 1,184 applicants for 575 spring positions, and 913 applicants for 587 autumn positions.

Two structural points explain the pattern, and both are likely to persist. More medical students graduate in June than in January, so spring rounds consistently draw more applicants than autumn ones — if you have a choice of round, that asymmetry is worth knowing. And the total number of positions has been growing: 1,185 in 2024, a 25 per cent increase since 2019.

Nobody publishes an official “average wait for LIS1,” and you should be sceptical of any specific figure quoted as one. What is published is the ratio of applicants to places, round by round — and that ratio is what people are describing when they talk about waiting a year or more. Rounds run twice a year; if you are not placed, you apply again in the next one.

How the application actually works

Positions are advertised through Helsedirektoratet’s own recruitment portal, and the process resembles ordinary hiring more than a lottery: health trusts work with municipalities, assess applications and interview, then build a ranked list of qualified candidates and make offers from the top of it.

One feature works in your favour. Offers go out on the same day for every position in the portal, with the same response deadline for all applicants. A candidate holding several offers can therefore weigh them against each other rather than accepting the first out of fear of losing it.

To apply you must hold — or be qualified for — authorisation or a licence, but not a student licence. At appointment you must document authorisation or a licence under helsepersonelloven § 48 or § 49, and sufficient Norwegian for safe professional practice.

Some health trusts also offer combined positions linking LIS1 to a further specialisation track at the same institution, and travel and moving costs can be partly or fully reimbursed.

Reststillinger: the route people overlook

Positions that fall vacant outside the ordinary rounds are advertised continuously as reststillinger in the same portal — and it is possible to complete a whole LIS1 through them.

They are worth watching for two reasons. They appear between rounds, so they are not competing against the full seasonal applicant pool. And some are structured differently: hospitals have advertised reststillinger not linked to municipal service at all.

One route that can shorten what comes before

If you have worked in an EEA country with full professional rights for at least three years, you may be exempt from the additional requirements and from ECFMG verification — and Helsedirektoratet also prioritises those cases so that total processing time from application does not exceed 12 months, against a stated 23 months for outside-EU/EEA applicants generally.

That is a substantial shortcut on the road to authorisation. It does not change LIS1 itself. If it describes you, say so explicitly in your application and attach the documentation rather than waiting to be asked.

Where language fits

The language requirement appears twice in this process, and people frequently plan only for the first.

B2 is the documented requirement for authorisation if you trained outside the EU/EEA. Then, at LIS1 appointment, you must document Norwegian sufficient for safe professional practice — assessed by an employer, in an ordinary hiring process, against a ranked list of other qualified candidates. In a round where a substantial share of applicants are not appointed, the interview is not a formality.

B2 is the level the framework is built around, which side of the EU/EEA line you fall on determines what you face before this stage, and the doctors’ authorisation route itself is a separate piece. Speaking is the hardest part to judge from the inside, because it is the only skill you cannot rehearse silently. Practising it out loud against exam-style prompts is what muntligb1.com is built for.