If you do not have a place to stay, you must contact the police. Everyone who applies for asylum in Norway is entitled to emergency accommodation or accommodation at an asylum reception centre through the Norwegian Directorate of Immigration (UDI). If you are arriving to Norway at the National Arrival Centre, let the staff know that you need a place to stay. If not, contact the police to ask for a place to stay and they will contact UDI for you. You can sleep at the National Arrival Centre in a tent hall until you are granted accommodation at an asylum reception centre, where you can stay while you apply and wait for approval of a residence permit.

At the National Arrival Centre, you will sleep in a tent hall. That is the accommodation everyone gets. There are a few rooms that particularly vulnerable people can use. They will evaluate the individual need to decide if a person needs a room.

Once you have received your residence permit, The Norwegian Directorate of Immigration (UDI) will find a municipality where you will be transferred. You will not be able to choose where to live. You will receive guidance from the employees at the asylum reception centre about this procedure.

Once you are granted a residence permit, there are two ways to find housing:

Either Norwegian authorities (IMDi) can provide you with a residence, meaning that you get help finding a place to live in a municipality. You cannot choose in which municipality to live. You only get one offer from a municipality, and it can be anywhere in Norway. It is voluntary to get help from the authorities to settle in a municipality. If you choose not to accept the offer from IMDi, it will have some consequences for your rights, including the risk of losing the:

• right to an emergency accommodation (reception centre)
• right to participate in the introduction programme
• right to receive the introduction benefit (money)
• opportunity for financial support from the municipality
• right to travel expenses when moving to a municipality

Alternatively, you may settle in a municipality without IMDi finding it for you. This is referred to as self-settlement. If you have not yet been assigned a settlement municipality from IMDi, self-settlement can be an option for you to choose.

Suppose you have found accommodation in a municipality and want to settle in the municipality. In that case, you must contact the municipality where the accommodation is located to see if you may live there. If the municipality says yes, the municipality must agree with IMDi. You must find a home in the municipality yourself, and the municipality must approve the house and rental contract before you sign the rental agreement. It is important that you do not sign a rental contract before receiving approval from the municipality.

If the municipality and IMDi agree on the self-settlement, you have the same rights and obligations as when you are settled with public assistance.

If you choose not to accept any help from IMDi or the municipalities, you must manage housing and the economy yourself and you will lose the rights described above.

You can also privately rent a property. There are no legal requirements, but most landlords would most likely ask for ID. Usually, landlords will also require that a safety deposit account is set up by the tenant in a Norwegian bank, but this is not always required. A Ukrainian citizen should be able to open an account in a Norwegian bank without any problem. DNB (the biggest bank in Norway) provides bank accounts even to refugees who don’t have valid ID.

You can use services like airbnb to find a place to stay.

If you plan to rent housing, it is better to look for it yourself than through an agency. We advise you to focus on Norwegian sites, because here you can be sure that the prices will not be inflated for foreigners.

One of the most popular sites is Finn.no . Ads in English are collected on Nespick.com and Rentberry.com . The monthly rent for a one-room apartment ranges from 800 to 1,200 EUR, depending on the city.

The cost of utility services in Norway also exceeds the average prices in EU countries. Basic utilities (heating, electricity and gas) for an apartment of about 85 m2 will cost you about €180 (1,800 kroner) per month. Home Internet - 45€ (475 kroner) per month.

EU4UA is a platform for finding housing in Europe together with other Ukrainians

A new roommate search function has been launched on the EU4UA platform.

Renting housing with other people will allow:

• save money by sharing housing costs with other people;
• have a greater choice of housing;
• to find friends, expand the network of social contacts and feel supported in a new country.

Go to the platform via the link .

If you have a place to stay with friends, family or other social networks, you can stay there until further notice. You do not need to show up at a National Arrival Centre for registration. This applies regardless of whether you have a biometric passport or other ID documents. However, you will have to apply for temporary collective protection in order to be granted certain rights, f.ex. The right to work and the right for your kids to go to school / kindergarten.

If you contact the police where you are now, they will help you with transportation to the nearest place you can register.

If you stay in Østlandet and want to apply for protection immediately, you can contact the police for help to travel to the National Arrival Centre and register.