People who have been granted a residence permit in Norway and who cannot apply for a travel document from their home country, can apply to be issued a travel document from the Norwegian authorities.
Foreigners who have been granted refugee status are in principle entitled to a travel document for refugees. In cases where UNE has granted refugee status, an application for a travel document will automatically be created by the UDI. An application for renewal of a travel document should be sent to the local police district.
In UNE's opinion, applicants who have not been granted refugee status but hold another type of residence permit, can contact the authorities in their home country to apply for a passport or ID document. If they are not issued such documents, they can apply to the Norwegian authorities for an immigrant’s passport instead.
It is also possible to apply for a travel document for single journeys; read more about this on the UDI's website under the topic «Immigrant’s passport for a single journey» (external link).
What do we consider?
A number of applications for travel documents are denied because there is doubt about the refugee's identity. The immigration authorities right to reject applications for travel documents in such cases was clarified by the Supreme Court in a verdict from October 2017. You can read about the significance of the verdict and find a link to the verdict in this news update.
UNE rejects many applications for immigrant's passports because we believe that the applicants have not done everything in their power to obtain a passport or identity documents from their home country or at a foreign service mission.
Everyone who applies for a travel document must substantiate their identity. As a rule, applicants must present ID-documents that are approved by the Norwegian authorities. UNE will reject the application if the applicant’s identity has not been substantiated.
UNE very rarely reverses decisions where the refusal is due to doubts about the identity of the applicant.
UNE can reverse a decision if we believe that the person applying for an immigrant’s passport has done everything in his/her power to obtain a passport or identity documents from the authorities in his/her home country without succeeding. Among other things, copies of all relevant documents must be presented, including the authorities’ reply.
UNE very rarely reverses decisions in such cases.