According to data from Statistics Norway (SSB), foreign nationals married to a Norwegian are more likely to become Norwegian citizens and may be eligible for citizenship in a shorter amount of time. Thai citizens make out the highest citizenship group of foreign nationals married to a Norwegian coming to live in Norway which indicates that a large number of Thais will likely become Norwegian eventually.
The report has assessed the status of the 850,000 foreigners who moved to Norway between 2005 and 2019 and of these, about 100,000 have become Norwegian citizens. The SSB data reveals that 12 percent of these people moved to Norway to reunite with their family and foreign spouses of Norwegians tend to obtain Norwegian citizenship faster compared to those without a Norwegian spouse.
Previously Norway had long denied people the possibility of dual citizenship and the report states that 95 percent of people chose to remain in the country after obtaining citizenship. This constant was however lifted a year ago and now SSB expects that a higher number of foreign nationals will want to obtain Norwegian citizenship.
73 percent of Thai citizens are married to a Norwegian spouse when they come to Norway and it is the highest citizenship group followed by Russians, Ukrainians, Pakistanis, and Americans who make out about 20 percent. It is therefore to be expected that a majority of these Thai citizens will become Norwegian eventually.
The highest citizenship group to obtain Norwegian citizenship is however still essentially Somalis, Eritreans, and Afghans refugees without a Norwegian spouse.
