If you live in one EEA country but work in another and travel home at least once a week or whenever you have time off, you are what is called a “cross-border worker.”
As a cross-border worker you will, as a general rule, be a member of the social security scheme in the country where you work.
How do you apply for unemployment benefit if you work in Norway and live in another EEA country?
If you are a cross-border worker and work in Norway, you must register as a jobseeker and apply for unemployment benefit at your local NAV office if you become:
This will apply even if you are staying in your country of residence while out of work.
If you are not a cross-border worker but live in an EEA country other than where you work
you will generally be a member of the social security scheme in the country where you work.
If you become out of work you can decide whether to apply for unemployment benefit from the country where you work or your country of residence. The condition for receiving unemployment benefit from the country where you work, is that you continue to stay there and are registered as a jobseeker there.
If you have qualified for unemployment benefit entitlement and will be moving to another EEA country, you may take these entitlement with you.
Who can take the entitlement with them?
You can if:
Most countries require that you must have worked there for a period before you can have your transferred entitlement released. The employment requirements differ from country to country. You must investigate yourself what the requirements are in the country to which you are moving.
To get the entitlements released for which you have qualified as a member of the Norwegian social security scheme, they must also entitle you to unemployment benefit in the country where you are applying for benefit.
Even if you are covered by the transitional rules (citizens of Bulgaria and Romania) you can have the employment time you have earned in Norway accepted.
How do you apply?
In order to have the unemployment benefit entitlement you earned in Norway documented, you must apply to NAV for certificate E301.
Attachments to the application from all jobs in Norway:
Please send/deliver the application to NAV locally where you live.
You may take the unemployment benefit entitlement which you earned over the last three calendar years if you are moving from an EEA country to Norway.
If you have worked in several EEA countries, you can request your periods of employment and social security cover transferred on the E-301 certificate from the countries in which you were working.
Who can get unemployment benefit in Norway?
There is a prerequisite that the entitlements earned in the country you are moving from also entitle you to unemployment benefit in Norway. You must also satisfy the general conditions for unemployment benefit entitlement in Norway.
If you are a citizen of a country covered by the transitional rules, you are first able to receive unemployment benefit after you have been employed full-time here in Norway for 12 consecutive months, and you satisfy the conditions for receiving unemployment benefit. Under the transitional rules, the condition of full-time employment is considered satisfied by employment down to a full-time job percentage of 80% for the occupation concerned.
How do you apply?
You must arrange for all periods of employment and social security cover to be confirmed by the country/countries you have worked in for the last three completed calendar years on the E301 certificate (version for country where employed). The E301 certificate must be completed by the authorities in the country where you worked and be used as an attachment to the application for unemployment benefit in Norway. If necessary, your local NAV office can assist you in obtaining the E301 certificate from the authorities in the country where you worked.
From 1 May 2009 the transitional rules ceased to apply to citizens of the following EU/EEA member states: Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia, the Czech Republic and Hungary. Job seekers from these countries will therefore have the same rights pursuant to the EEA agreement as other EEA citizens. The transitional rules will continue to apply to citizens of Bulgaria and Romania.
What do the transitional rules mean for you as a jobseeker?
You are entitled to stay in Norway for up to six months while you look for work here. On request to NAV, you will be registered as a jobseeker and may use the services that NAV can offer you.
You are entitled to look for work in Norway for three months with unemployment benefit from your home country.
When you have obtained an offer of work, you must submit an application for a residence permit as an employee before you start work in Norway.
The condition for a residence permit as an employee is that you can submit:
Under the transitional rules, the condition of full-time employment is considered satisfied by employment down to a full-time job percentage of 80% for the occupation concerned. Pay and working conditions must not be less favourable than current collective wage agreements, or otherwise considered as normal for the occupation.
The first-time residence permit will state a term equivalent to the employment agreed but for a maximum of one year.
How should the application for a residence permit as an employee be submitted?
If you are staying in Norway, the residence permit application must be submitted to the nearest police authority.
If you are applying from your home country, the application should be submitted to the nearest Norwegian foreign service mission. Processing time varies.
How long do the transitional rules apply?
When you have legal residence in Norway as an employee in full-time employment for at least 12 consecutive months, you are no longer subject to the transitional rules. You will have the same rights under the EEA Agreement as other EEA citizens.
The transitional rules do not apply to:
Under certain conditions, you may receive Norwegian unemployment benefit or work assessment allowance
pending work while staying in the country from which you are applying for work.
Who may retain unemployment benefit?
The conditions are that you must:
You may not seek work in another EEA country if you:
You may only travel abroad with certificate E303 once per benefit period.
How do you apply?
You must apply to NAV for certificate E303 (NAV 04-02.01-only available in Norwegian). Please send/deliver the application to NAV locally where you live.
Remember that you cannot travel before you have been sent certificate E303. If you travel before, you will lose your entitlement to Norwegian unemployment benefit.
How long can you retain unemployment benefit?
Certificate E303 gives you the right to retain Norwegian unemployment benefit for up to three months while you are staying in another EEA country to look for work there.
However, you cannot receive unemployment benefit longer than the maximum benefit period of 52 or 104 weeks, or work assessment allowance pending employment beyond the maximum benefit period of 6 months.
Return to Norway
If you do not obtain employment in the country to which you travelled, you may continue the benefit period in Norway.
Further information about how to resume unemployment benefit on returning to Norway is obtainable from NAV Local Services.
You may seek employment in Norway with unemployment benefit from another EEA country.
How do you apply?
You must:
How long can you retain unemployment benefit?
For up to three months.
