UK → NORWAY Moving to Norway: how customs works, and the documents to expect

Norway is in Europe and outside the EU, so a van from London crosses two customs borders, not one. The first is the Channel, where your goods leave the UK on an export declaration. The second is at Svinesund, where the E6 enters Norway from Sweden, after the van has crossed the Øresund link that joins Denmark to Sweden. Svinesund’s customs office, at Sponvika on the Norwegian side, is open around the clock for road traffic. Services beyond the crossing itself keep weekday office hours, which is one reason a delivery range is a range. London to Oslo is 21.5 hours of driving, and the two sea crossings on the way count as the driver’s rest. So every size on this route starts on day 3, on the tachograph’s 9-hour driving day.

People on this lane sometimes doubt the figures: a full van to western Norway in a few days, customs included, sounds too quick. It works because we do the clearance work before the van leaves, not at the border post. We lodge the export, and the Norwegian import declaration travels with the van, so the stop at Svinesund is a presentation rather than a negotiation. The two stages are on our transfer of residence page; the guide, how long does a removal to Europe take, shows the arithmetic behind the days.

Norwegian Customs admits your household goods free of duty and tax when you move to Norway, on three conditions. You have lived abroad continuously for at least one year. You owned and used the goods during that stay, and you will go on using them in Norway. And they arrive within a reasonable time, no later than one year after you move. There is no minimum period you must keep them afterwards, which sets Norway apart from its EU neighbours. Vehicles are never exempt, the relief leaves out alcohol and tobacco, and tools of a trade and food need a declaration of their own.

The claim is the RD-0030, the declaration for the import of removal goods. The rule about it is simple: the person carrying your goods across the border must be able to present the declaration you signed. A removal company clears through a customs broker, and you sign no power of attorney for us. We tell you what goes in the form, and it reaches us 7 days before your collection window. Anything you post to yourself instead needs the inventory and the signed declaration inside the parcel.

Norway is the only Nordic route where our matrix offers four sizes rather than five, 5, 10, 15 and 30 m³, and the allowances are lower than on the EU routes: 800 kg on the 15 m³ and 1,600 kg on the 30 m³. The shared loads keep the usual 300 kg and 600 kg, while the same 15 m³ van carries more on an EU lane than its 800 kg here. Those caps are limits we enforce, not guidance. So we check the inventory for weight before we assign a vehicle. A 30 m³ load of books and tools can reach 1,600 kg long before it fills the walls. Our guide, how much can a 3.5 tonne van carry, does that sum for a smaller van.

People ask us how to weigh a flat without scales. The honest method is a list, a room at a time, and our page on how to pack for moving house shows how.

A British citizen may visit Norway for 90 days in any 180 without a visa, and no longer. One who was not resident by the end of 2020 and means to stay applies to UDI for a residence permit as a third-country national. The permit comes before the move, not after it; the separate Brexit route for people already in Norway closed at the end of 2021. Then, if you are staying more than six months, you report the move to the Norwegian Tax Administration. You do that in person at a tax office that carries out ID checks, by booked appointment. The National Registry entry that follows is what produces the residence certificate, the bostedsattest, named in the pack on this page. So the order is permit, address, registry, van.

Approval of the move is also what brings your national identity number, the eleven digits every Norwegian service runs on. If the registry has not issued the certificate by the time the pack is due, your rental agreement or utility bills, or a work contract, stand in for it. Our customs officer has seen this lane before.

A move ending in Nordland, Troms or Finnmark runs on a longer winter: there the 5 mm tread rule for heavy vehicles holds from 16 October to 30 April, and the carrier plans the days around it. And anyone who once held a D-number, Norway’s temporary identity number, can report the move online only within 30 days of its issue; after that it is a fresh ID check at a tax office.

Three smaller rules save a wasted trip. A Nordic citizen arriving from Denmark, Finland, Iceland or Sweden reports no move at all, but a British one does, and UDI’s work permits come in several categories, the skilled worker’s among them. A recreational boat is never ordinary moving goods, so Norwegian Customs has a separate application for it. And a carrier’s toll tag can be collected on the cross-border ferries as well as at the border posts. Two dates deserve a second look. In 2026 Constitution Day falls on a Sunday, so most people get no day off for it, and Romjul, the days between Christmas and New Year, is not a public holiday, however quiet the streets feel.

Norway’s road rules for heavy vehicles are strict in winter. Winter tyres are mandatory on anything over 3.5 tonnes from 15 November to 31 March, with at least 5 mm of tread from 1 November. The vehicle must also carry chains for snow and ice. A carrier on this route is equipped for all of it; what winter changes for you is the hours of daylight at an Oslo kerb in December.

The London to Oslo examples we read on 13 October 2026 were £2,564 for a shared 5 m³, £2,988 for 15 m³ and £5,721 for the 30 m³ vehicle. The price locks on every size when you book, the deposit is 25%, while goods in transit cover of £20,275 applies from loading until arrival, with a £481 excess. If the inventory outgrows the 15 m³, the next step is the 30 m³ at its locked price, because there is no 20 m³ on this route to stop at.