Going to Norway

Residency in Norway

The Norwegian equivalent of the Polish medical title lekarz is Lege. In Norway, residency is known as Lege i spesialisering (“Physician in specialisation”), often abbreviated as LIS, and has three parts or stages:

The time it takes to complete all three parts depends on the exact field you specialise in, but the minimum time to complete them is 6,5 years. LIS2 in Internal Medicine alone takes at least 30 months. After completion of LIS3, the physician may receive approval as Specialist physician.

Getting a spot for LIS1 is the challenging part; LIS2 and LIS3 are less so. Some hospital entities have recently introduced connected specialisation courses, where the LIS1-physicians may commit to LIS1 service with integrated entry to LIS 2/3 position, which obliges the employee to complete the different stages at the same relevant hospital entity. Learn more about the organisation and style of LIS1 at the different hospitals [in Norwegian].

During the LIS, the physician is regarded as employed at the hospital, thus, paid during the specialisation. To get an idea of what amounts to expect, seethe yearly net minimum wage in NOK based on which group of practitioners and seniority for each hospital entity in the past few years here [in Norwegian].

All questions about approval as a physician in Norway (authorisation or licence) should be directed to the Norwegian Directorate of Health regarding approval as a doctor in Norway, as well as questions regarding specialist training and approval in Norway.

Applying for authorisation

For medical practitioners, there are four normal situations involving application for licence or authorisation in Norway. These are student licence (after passing 9th semester), "Turnus" licence (practical service), authorisation and licence.

To apply for LIS1, you must first apply for authorisation as a physician from Norwegian health authorities. This is true for all physicians who want to work in Norway, regardless of where you are educated.

You can navigate and find more information on the process of applying for authorisation here.

Applying for residency

Residency admissions occur twice a year (once in spring and once in the autumn), with a combined number of 1185 spots for both admissions. This number has remained mostly unchanged since 2013, with small increments only in the years.

All ordinary LIS1 positions are advertised together twice per year, in the DOH's employment portal webcruiter.no. Recruitment takes place locally. The health institutions send out offers in several rounds, until all positions are filled. There is no opportunity to arrange a LIS1 position yourself in a hospital or municipality.

To apply, you must have received authorisation and document your knowledge in Norwegian. More information on applying here [in Norwegian].

When considering your application, some hospital recruiters follow a point-based system for LIS1 [in Norwegian]. You may be assigned points for certain things like:

Note that this is the official process, but it is known that interpersonal relationships and acquaintances play a large role, too. This system was put in place to exclude this, but it is still prevalent.

LIS1 application statistics

The number of spots for LIS1 is almost dwarfed by the number of applicants. In the spring of 2019 alone, it was 1282, according to this report. The number of applicants has been steadily rising every year in this century, but the number of residency spots does not really increase with it. Of these 1282 applicants, 219 were educated outside Norway and were not of Norwegian nationality.
In the spring of 2019, 457 physicians were offered a spot for residency, which is 36% of applicants. The report states that 94% of these were of Norwegian citizens. Only 18 non-Norwegians who attended medical school outside of Norway were offered a spot. The hospitals entitied that offered a spot to most students educated abroad were:
  • Vestre Viken
  • Sørlandet sykehus
  • Sykehuset Østfold
  • Sykehuset Innlandet
  • Nordlandssykehuset

Applying to these hospitals probably gives you a higher chance of being offered a spot for all physicians who attended medical school outside of Norway, whether your national Norwegian or not.

Norwegian medical graduate educated abroad

Norwegian IMGs – physicians of Norwegian nationality that attended medical school abroad,  apply for authorisation and then for LIS1. This process depends on where you are educated. First of all, you must be authorised as physicians in the country you are educated. For UMB graduates, this is the equivalent of the Polish title of lekarz (doctor).

IMGs have a harder time matching

Norwegian citizens who attended medical school abroad account for the majority of applicants for residency every year. At the spring admissions of 2019, 66% of applicants were not educated in Norway, almost all of which were Norwegians.
In the admissions of spring 2019, only 36% of applicants were offered a spot for residency. Of those applicants who were Norwegian, 59% attended medical school in Norway, 39% attended in the EEA, and 2% attended outside the EEA. It is an open secret that those who attend medical school in Norway have an easier time matching into residency. These numbers are even bigger in the autumn admissions.
Norwegian doctors who were educated outside of Norway comprised over 25% of physician working hours in 2016. Doctors educated in the EEA (excluding Norway and the Nordic countries) accounted for 45% of the new authorisations to work as a doctor in 2017. Doctors educated outside the EEA accounted for 13%.

Receiving authorisation if educated within the European Economic Area:
Medical education in the EEA is considered to be equally good as in Norway, so the process of authorisation in Norway for students educated in this area is relatively smooth. However, you can only receive authorisation in Norway if you are already authorised as a physician in the country you attended medical school in. In the majority of countries in the EEA, especially countries which are most popular among Norwegians students, you receive authorisation as soon as you finish the graduating year (usually the 6th year).

Special circumstances in particular countries

In some countries, i.e. Denmark, you only receive authorisation after completing residency in that country. In other words, Norwegian physicians educated in Denmark must first complete residency in Denmark (so-called KBU) before being able to apply for authorisation and residency in Norway. This causes double-residency for Norwegian graduates from Danish medical schools, which the Norwegian Medical Association deems redundant. This may be a matter to reflect on for students considering transfer.NB: This particular issue is undergoing judicial processes after the trade union decided to take legal action against the state in 2024, and there may be changes forthcoming.

Receiving authorisation if educated outside the European Economic Area:
This is a lengthier process. The Norwegian health authorities must go through all the details of your education. You must also fulfill the following:

• Master the Norwegian language at a B2 level

• Undergo compulsory courses in how the Norwegian health care system works

• Undergo compulsory courses in “national subjects”, which provide knowledge of Norway and Norwegian values

• Undergo compulsory courses in the safehandling of medications

• Undergo a practical, oral, and written proficiency test to evaluate your knowledge as a physician

These courses cost tens of thousands of Norwegian kroner, in addition to processing fees.

Set your sights on Norway after completing residency abroad?

As mentioned above, physicians who are not of Norwegian nationality comprise a not-insignificant number of physicians working in Norway. However, most of them complete residency outside Norway, and instead apply to the Norwegian health authorities to get authorised and have the specialisation approved, after which they apply for positions as physician specialists directly. This is sometimes called “converting” your speciality.

More numbers!

This report states that 1352 physicians got their speciality in Norway in 2017, while 336 (20%) got their specialty abroad and had it “converted” into a Norwegian speciality. Anesthesiology, Radiology, Orthopaedic Surgery, and OB/GYN are the specialities most frequently converted.
According to the same report, 38% of physicians in Norway had completed their medical education abroad. Among OECD countries, only New Zealand, Israel and Ireland have a higher percentage of physicians educated abroad than Norway. 
Norway is, by far, the Nordic country which authorises most doctors educated abroad, and it is the only Nordic country which authorises more doctors educated abroad than educated domestically.

This page is edited by

Hassan Baig

Class of 2024