.
Parental responsibility is the right and duty of parents to make decisions for their child in personal matters. Parents must exercise parental responsibility based on the child's needs and interests. As the child grows older, parents must place increasing emphasis on caring for the child, appropriate to the child's age and maturity.
Parental responsibility provisions are contained in Chapter 5 of the Children Act .
Parental responsibility
If the parents have joint parental responsibility, both of them must agree on important decisions regarding the child. The parents with parental responsibility decide on the child's name, whether he or she should be enrolled in a religious community, health care issues, etc.
If the parents have joint parental authority, both must agree to apply for a passport for the child. Joint parental responsibility also means that both must consent to the child's going abroad.
Single parent
All children born on or after January 1, 2020, have parents with joint custody. This applies to children whose parents are married, children whose parents live together and children whose parents do not live together. See more about parental responsibility for cohabiting children .
In the case of children born before January 1, 2020, parental responsibility results from the law at the time of the child's birth:
- For children born before January 1, 2020, spouses automatically receive joint parental responsibility for the children they had together.
- In the case of children born before 1 January 2006 whose parents cohabited, sole parental authority was exercised by the mother.
- For children born between 1 January 2006 and 1 January 2020, cohabiting parents automatically received joint parental responsibility for their children together.
- In the case of children born from cohabitation before 1 January 2020, sole parental authority was granted to the mother.
Choosing a parent
Parents can agree that they will have joint parental responsibility or that the father will have sole parental responsibility. For the contract to be valid, it must be sent to national register . The agreement must be in writing and signed by both parents.
Parents who had children before 2020 without living together but later move together do not receive joint parental responsibility as a result of the move notice. They must send their own joint parental agreement to the tax office.
Parental responsibility - complete the documents
You must attach a copy of both parents' passports, driving license or other identification document containing:
- name
- Date of birth
- signature and photo
Send the form to:
The tax authorities
Postbox 9200 Greenland
0134 Oslo
To register parental responsibility, we must:
- the child must live in Norway
- both parents sign the same contract
- both parents must be registered as parents in the National Register of Citizens
- submission or delivery of the original contract (not a copy)
