Tips on job seeking and living in Norway

the biggest problem for nurses these days is getting American credentials recognized. This story has been in the news a lot lately, about an American midwife who had to fight the government for five years to get permission to work in her field in Norway:

http://www.nrk.no/ho/jordmor-kjempet-mo … 1.12370807

honestly, if you're serious about working here I'd see if you can find a way to study in Europe so your credentials would transfer more easily. This is the website with information on becoming certified in Norway:

http://www.sak.no/english/Sider/default.aspx

I don't personally know anyone who's used the job seeker visa route so I don't have advice on that, but the requirements do state how much money you need:

http://www.udi.no/en/want-to-apply/work … a#link-841

As for where you move (which at this point in your process isn't SUPER relevant since you have a lot to do), it's a rather large country and due to the topography can take quite some time to travel between places. I'd imagine you would want to move to the Oslo area as a start since this region has the highest concentration of people and therefore hospitals.

One final thing related to the size of the country: I'm skeptical that you'll learn to be fluent with "exposure and self-teaching" but whatever you do, make sure to expose yourself to the wide variety of dialects. I learned Norwegian in a school near Oslo, and I find it quite challenging talking to people with Sunnmøre accents, for example. Dialects are a point of pride here so people do tend to hold on to them even when moving around to different areas.

Hi, ECS!
Thanks for the informative reply. It's a little discouraging to hear about the credentials but what can you do?
Do you think studying in Spain would help? It would be much easier to study there since there wouldn't be a language barrier for me and it is also cheaper to live there than to live in Norway. If not, where in Norway would it be the cheapest to live in while at the same time studying there? Also, if I did my first two years of college here in the U.S, do you think it would count or would I have to start over?
In regards to the language, I have heard of the dialects, how widespread they are and the large differences between them. I plan on learning to understand at least the more common ones like Bergensk and Trøndersk once I have a better grip on Norwegian. Learning Norwegian isn't too hard for me since I already know a large amount of the vowel and consonant sounds from knowing both Spanish and English (I hope this doesn't make me sound like I'm gloating. If it seems like that I am sorry). What I do find tricky is the accent but I think I am starting to get the hang of it (at least the "Oslo" one).
In regards to the money for the six-month visa, I would ideally by then have been working for a year or two and have enough savings to survive for six to nine months in case I get accepted somewhere and while I start working so
hopefully that won't be a problem.

Thank you very much for the advice, ECS!

I recommend reading the SAK link above for more details on how and where you'd have best luck transferring skills. At least I do know one Spanish nurse who worked in Norway successfully.

regarding your school credits transferring, that's something you'd probably have to investigate too. I don't personally know much about it as I'm several years out of school.

As for learning the language, it's good that you're confident but I can tell you that knowing all the phonemes is a bit different than trying to understand someone speaking to you on the fly somewhere. I learned four other languages with a lot of overlapping phonemes and vocabularies and it's still taking me a while despite having an ear for languages.

Finally, keep in mind that Norway is constantly changing the visa types they offer so the six month jobseeker visa may not be available by the time you plan to use it. They used to have a much more liberal policy on jobseeker visas and they restricted it severely a few years ago. So, best to check again before you start planning an actual move.

Hi, ECS!
I have been thinking about whether being a doctor would be better for me on the long run (not in regards to Norway but just for me as a person). Would it be possible for me to do my bachelor's in the US and then transfer to a Norwegian medical school once I am done? I don't know if I'll be able to go there for college but I should definitely be able to afterwards for medical school. That way I can learn the "Norwegian way" of being a doctor plus I would learn all the medical terms in Norwegian from the get-go instead of having to learn them all later. Plus, I would have to fight or apply to get my credentials approved. Do you know if medical school is also free in Norway or would I have to take out loans as well? And do they give loans to help with the basic cost of living to medical students like they do with college students?

If you want to study at any sort of advanced level in Norway I'm pretty sure you have to pass the Bergenstest, which is the advanced level Norwegian exam. Friends who've taken it recently said it's become more challenging and requires a knowledge of idioms which may be hard to learn if you're studying the language from abroad. I recommend reading up on the exam to start with.

As for funding your schooling, I doubt the Norwegian government provides loans for foreign students, but again, I don't have any personal knowledge on that topic. I recommend reading about visa requirements as a start:

http://www.udi.no/en/want-to-apply/stud … sa#link-58