AboutRoy Helge Rasmussen Expertise I live in the southern part of norway and can find my way around most of the country. I will answer questions about social life, culture, language and politics to the best of my knowledge. I am not so good at travel tips outside the south-eastern parts, although I will try to answer.
Experience I live here and have been guiding members of my family around when they visit from abroad for years.
Expert: Roy Helge Rasmussen Date: 10/3/2007 Subject: claiming of Norwegian Citizenship
Question I was a student of the University of Oslo>.I studied there and attained a final degree in Economics. I was there for more than 11years in two tranches and second time my family including my wife and one daughter. Later my son was born there in Oslo. As I was a student and had only part-time work permit I was compelled to leave Norway for economic stringensies. My daughter had gone to norwegian school for all those years. After coming back to India I had applied for Norwegian citizenship for my son and it was rejected. Even I had appealed to the justice department but of no effect.I wish to mention further that I have my own brother who is a Norwegian national and I had my cousin Late Dr.Amalendu Guha (a renowned economist) who was a Norwegian national also. Thereby I have all relevant reasons to be associated with Norway. Jeg snakker fremdeles akikkelig norsk og kan skrive.Dermed kan det være en grunn til å søke for norsk statsborgerskap for hele familien? Vil gjerne ha nødvendig veiledning. Vil gjerne takke så mye i forehånd.
Answer To accommodate other possible readers I will answer this in english and not in norwegian.
One should imagine that your 11 years in norway should give you some claim towards a norwegian citizenship, but sady it does not. But since your residence permit was a student exchange visa it actually makes it slightly more difficult for you. The reasoning behind student exchange visas given to students from developing countries (and for sake of argument - India is a developing nation in this respect) is that people should get an education and then go back home and make their home better with their new knowledge.
Thus it does not matter how long you stayed during your studies - you will be rejected any claim on citizenship on political reasons - and to stop any specualtion about norway brain-draining other nations.
The argument is rather weak, but it is official doctrine, so using your time of education in norway a sleverage is actually working against you in this respect.
On the other hand, your relevant affiliation with norway is indisputable, and could make it easier if you did apply for residency with other reasoning.
There are basically three ways you can achieve residency and ultimately citizenship:
1) Get a job:
Get a job in norway, and you will get a residence permit. After 7 years you can apply for either permanent residency or citizenship. As long as you hold a steady job, either will easily be granted. This permit will also follow your spouse.
2) Family reunion:
If your are married to a citizen or dependent upon a citizen you can apply for residency and citizenship in the same way. This is the way to bring in your old sick mother who is dependent on you to live when you allready have a residency permit or to bring in children that you support. Other relatives may also be your beneficiaries if the resident/citizen is the only person left to support them.
3) Special cases
You are asking if it is possible to apply for residency/citizenship on basis of your affiliation with norway and strong connection. Yes, it is possible, but because your affiliation is mostly based on a student visa, it is very enlikely to be accepted. Had your affiliation with norway been of any other nature than a student visa, your case would be strong - particularily if you could manage to get a job before applying. But your problem is that it is politically difficult to grant you any rights as explained before.
It may actually be easier for your daughter to claim strong ties with norway alone since her history is not based upon a student visa but circumstance. If your daughter still can speak a bit norwegian and she could get a promise of a job in norway, or get a relative in norway to vouch for her economically - I think she has a pretty strong case.
When your daughter has achieved residency, or even permanent residency it will be much easier to apply for family reunion to bring in you, the parents since you are dependent on your daughter for support in your old age (relatively).
