Desirable cities to live/work in Norway

Hello,

Just one point to make. There is only really one place which could be called a city, and that's Oslo. I would steer clear of Bergen and Stavanger, as they are very expensive places to live. I would also rather avoid places in the north, such as Bodø and Tromsø. The winters there are very dark, and I can imagine they are not very nice to get through. The summers usually aren't very warm either. Some of the towns around Oslo might be a good idea. Somewhere like Haugesund between Bergen and Stavanger might also be a good idea.

Good luck,

David

P.S. All towns in Norway will be expensive. The housing/rental market is booming at the moment.

I don't actually mind long dark winters and cool summers. Job finding and survival is most important, as my country is poor and I can't get much starter cash for my staying, so finding a job is most important.
I didn't understand what's the bad thing about northern cities except the cold? I remember I read in a site it was quite easy to get a job in Tromso, but any town off the west coast or southern will do.

Is it possible to find a basic job (fast food or cafe worker, cleaner etc.) with just English? Some people from my country living there had the impression of norwegians as nationalistic and unhelpful. Of course, for living permits and citizenship, the Norwegian is a must, I guess.

If you don't mind the weather, I suppose the north is ok. It's not very well connected though. A train to Oslo from Bodø would take 18 hours (if I remember correctly). Of course, you can fly, but that costs more. I don't know what it's like for foreign workers there. I suppose they have a substantial number of foreign workers. That might help.

From what I understand from my friends working in entry-level jobs, it it very difficult to find anything at all if you can't speak Norwegian. Of course everyone here can understand English, but they want there workers to be able to speak at least basic Norwegian. With so much immigration to Norway, they can afford to turn anyone down for any reason. Perhaps this is why you have heard they can be unhelpful. If they can replace workers in basic jobs 10 times over, they are unlikely to want to spend time helping one particular applicant.

Norwegian attitudes to foreigners are very complicated. It depends a lot on where you come from. They are generally very proud of their country and their way of doing things and won't thank anyone for criticism. Attitudes to some immigrants can be hostile. For instance, I have a friend from Romania who couldn't get an apartment to live in because Romanians have a bad reputation. This despite the fact that he was a highly qualified (and highly paid) engineer. They can also be quite condescending. I have spoken to some Bulgarians living in Norway who have told me that many Norwegians they had spoken to had assumed that Bulgaria was a backward country with no culture. The can tend to be dismissive of countries they don't know much about. As a British immigrant, I had a very different experience, because Norwegians are more than familiar with British culture.

Given all this I hope you will think carefully. Even living a short time in Norway can cost a lot of money. Nothing is cheap. If you don't have a job to start as soon as you arrive, you will rapidly run out of money. Even if you do have a job, you will still need some savings to start you off. I probably wouldn't want to come here without at least 5000 EUR. That amount of money wouldn't last long.

The weather is not the biggest problem.
Any exact examples for good-to-try towns?

I would consider somewhere like Odda, Haugesund, Egersund, Bryne, Leirvik or somewhere like that.

Hello, I'm an English girl living in Tromsø. Just come to give you information on this city.

It took me almost the whole of my allowed 6 months to get a job, and I believe I only got it because I spoke a lot of Norwegian in the interview. It is a part-time job in a fast food restaurant. I didn't even get an interview before August, as that is when all the students start their education again. Currently Tromsø is having a huge problem with housing after a massive influx of students into the city for university, we have no permanent place to live at the moment ånd haven't had for a month.

Tromsø is very small for a city, it's not a shopping mecca! The main industries here are tourism (for the Northern Lights/Midnight Sun) and fishing. It's quiet a maritime-focussed city. Tromsø itself is on a little Island with mountains and fjords all around. There is a noticeable amount of immigrants here, and a fair amount of beggars on the city streets, which let's the city down a little bit. Housing can be anything from 3000-5000 NOK a month for a room in shared accommodation, to 6000-8000 NOK to rent a small apartment/bedsit. Be aware that the housing market here can be tough due to the students.

I find the climate here fascinating, the long dark winters, I don't find so bad and it is quite atmospheric around Christmas. You will also get to experience the Northern Lights many nights. The Summers, on the other hand, take some getting used to! 24 hour sunlight can get a bit unbearable.

Tromsø is not to everyone's taste, so it is maybe worth a visit first if you plan on moving here. I will state though, that moving to Norway, in any city, is HARD. I wouldn't recommend it to anyone that a. Doesn't know anyone here, b. Doesn't have several tens of thousands of Norwegian Krone saved up behind them or c. Doesn't already have a job offer. Norwegian people are also quite cold and unaproachable in most cases, so getting into the community is extremely difficult. I am only here because my fiance is Norwegian. People read the immigration information on the UDI as a simple "checklist" to complete or something, but be prepared that moving to Norway is infact a physical, mental and emotional battle. It is lonely, and it is hard and a lot of people end up leaving with nothing after their time here is over. Really seriously consider your move.

In Norway you would be avoided, just like those africans you are talking about. Being Bulgarian isn't that much better. Since Bulgaria is a poor country people would take a look and you and think maybe he would steal my bike. There is not that many africans here. There is some and i've actually not seen many of them comitting a crime.
There is not much crime in Tromsø, but ofc. there is some.

People don't mind africans these days. People are more afraid over eastern european since most of those countries are poor, and many of them do come over here with drugs or to steal.

I would recommend Tromsø. It is easy to get around, fear bus tickets, northern lights/midnight sun and lots of nature where you can fish in rivers/lakes or walk on mountains.

Maybe if I don't tell them where I come from they wouldn't think of me that way.. I actually have Scandinavian look-alike аppearance, with the tipical fair hair and blue eyes.
Too bad Bulgarian and Romanian stereotypes look like this in Norway. One of my cousins lived in Denmark for 2 years, but couldn't socialize as people rejected him and he was threwn out of the society. Later he just couldn't bear the loneliness and returned home.
Yes, for me Tromso sounded quite good, as I love mountaneous area and fishing and I am quite adaptable to cold climate (in fact, I would get used to the cold there easier than the 40 C summer heat here).
One more thing i read in the net was that Norwegian employers are disrespectfull for skill and experience. Although I don't know what kind of experience you need to clean toilets, flip burgers or carry boxes.
Loneliness at start won't be a problem for me as I don't have many/any friends here. Neither nostalgia. The biggest problem would be the starter cash/job finding.
I still have contacts with a family from a student exchange project from my highschool, but they live in Moss/Rygge. Anyway, I'm not quite sure they would help me out with accomodation, but they may at the least help me with the language, in best case job finding.

But if I manage to get a job and obtain a long-term residence permit, I will consider moving to Trondheim or Tromso, as I am into fishing, hiking, lots of snow, mountains, fjords and stuff. After all, one goes there for the nature, not to watch TV and munch on Cheetos. For this kind of people Canada will be better.

Thank you for the current help, would be glad for more, as moving to this country has been my dream since i was 16 yrs.old. Considering my homeland is NOT an option, I am nobody here,have no friends, our economy goes down with every year. And the other thing is that I just can't withstand our summer heatwaves.

If you are 100% sure that Norway will be for you, the best advice I can give is to save as much money as you can! The job-seeking registration process in Norway is easy, but unfortunately EVERYTHING else requires a lot of money, patience and time. Getting a job and place to live is very hard. A lot of the hotels here in Tromsø have many immigrant workers, that is a good place to start here, I had an interview for one, but ended up getting another job first. I'd say that the end of July is a good time to move to Norway, forget summer jobs! I've been here since February and didn't get any job interviews until August, just before my 6 months were about to run out! I suddenly just got 2 interviews and managed to get one of the jobs.

Mre92 is my fiance, and he is totally right about the views towards Eastern Europeans. The beggars I mentioned earlier are Romanians. Having a "Scandinavian appearance" may well be of help, I don't want to make it sound that Norwegians are extremely racist, but they certainly are "cautious" of immigrants. This is fuelled by the fact that the country is currently having a lot of problems with Romanian illegal immigrants in Oslo.

Tromso seems awesome, although many wouldn't like it because of the harsh climate.

I would like this city the most, although it has some quite serious cons: It is far from Oslo, the cold winters might be a pain in the a** if you don't have high income for affording proper heating, or worse if you can't rent any apartment at all. Since I have connections to people in the south, I hope southern part around Oslo would be a good starter, and as soon as I settle down (getting work permit) I would certainly move to a northern city because of the fjords, cool summers, fishing and hiking.

Norway has problems with Romanian immigrants? Didn't know that. They perhaps are Roma, because there aren't that MANY romanian immigrants.

Is it true that people of the north are generally more friendly and acceptive than the southerners?

Heating is often included in the rent here, underfloor heating is very common here The houses are a good standard, people don't go cold.

Northern Norwegians get fed up of always hearing about down south though. There's more to Norway than the south! I've only ever been to Oslo to use the airport!

As for friendliness, I can honestly say that I can count the amount of friendly Norwegians I've met on my hands. Unfortunately, I've noticed that many Norwegians lack the basic manners that most British people are brought up with. I've never got thanks for holding the door open for someone, for example.

Thank you for the information , thrasher07. But anyway, I have some more questions about Tromso

For the manners, I've been in Britain (not England, but Cornwall, it's part of England but locals get offended if you say it's England) and I really got the impression of english people being helpful and polite. Anyway, not this impression in Norway. At least in my country we are friendly and accepting, but we usually do not behave like a sir and never hold door open for anyone, unless it's an attractive girl or an old person. Never be excessively helpful, unless you want tons of bitterness in your stomach when noone acknowledges your kindness.

Now, the questions.

Are there any places in the town where you can stay in emergency if you can't find accomodation for the winter?

You said you got part-time job in a fast-food, what is your montly salary (with the taxes)?

I hope you've been there for more than a year, how is the maintainance of the road in winter? I am asking because with that much snow it needs proper treating.

And if you have experience with socialization there, give me some advice how to approach/talk to people, what are their interests in general etc.

Am must say am really happy that such forum exist where people can ask questions and seek for advise.Actually am from Africa,Nigeria to be precise and i applied for masters degree in university of Tromso.Even though i have not been offered any admission yet,am very much optimistic that i would be admitted.I have carried out a thorough research on the climatic condition  of the country and i understood that Tromso of all places happens to be the coldest.That is to say that living there could pose a little bit of a problem but that i can overcome and adapt to.The only thing that is bothering me is the resultant effect the extreme weather condition will have on the number of available jobs,that is point no.1.
The second point now has to do with where i come from.Would being a black from Nigeria jeopardize my chances of getting a part-time job in Tromso because frankly speaking,with out a job,then my stay in Tromso would be a living hell to say the least given the high cost of living in Norway.so i need some kind of prior advise and tips.

haha you are quite right - Tromsø certainly is cold and high up north, but even Oslo is very cold in winter.

Coastal Norway will be least cold in Norway (Stavanger, Bergen).

Please check if your visa allows you to work in Norway or not.

Yes, it can be difficult for foreigners to find jobs in Norway, especially if they dont speak the language.

stdunstan wrote:

Am must say am really happy that such forum exist where people can ask questions and seek for advise.Actually am from Africa,Nigeria to be precise and i applied for masters degree in university of Tromso.Even though i have not been offered any admission yet,am very much optimistic that i would be admitted.I have carried out a thorough research on the climatic condition  of the country and i understood that Tromso of all places happens to be the coldest.That is to say that living there could pose a little bit of a problem but that i can overcome and adapt to.The only thing that is bothering me is the resultant effect the extreme weather condition will have on the number of available jobs,that is point no.1.
The second point now has to do with where i come from.Would being a black from Nigeria jeopardize my chances of getting a part-time job in Tromso because frankly speaking,with out a job,then my stay in Tromso would be a living hell to say the least given the high cost of living in Norway.so i need some kind of prior advise and tips.

is that so?sure,the student can apply for a job permit on arrival after certain conditions must have been fulfilled.In that case,i will have to enrole for a language class.that would be easy since even the university made provision for language courses.Once i am able to learn the basic,i believe i have an added advantage right?.Is norwagian a difficult language to learn?

Hello! I'm back to answer questions about Tromsø.

I actually moved back to the UK with my Norwegian partner 6 weeks ago, because HE could not find work!!

Tromsø is not as cold as you would think it is and is certainly not the coldest place in Norway!  (Bardufoss is pretty cold and places that are further inland.) Right now in Tromsø,  they have been having 24c + weather, warmer than here (Isle of Wight, UK, in fact.)

As for "ermergency housing",  me and my partner could not find shelter when we were homeless (huge university influx, with no places to rent.) We spent over a month living in a garage before finding a place quite far off for reasonable rent (5000kr without bills.) Don't count on finding a place to live there during the begining of the university year, or even during the summer. There were around 2,000 homeless students last year and also many homeless working people. Norwegians would rather rent to Norwegians, too.  If you are going to study at the University, make house-hunting your FIRST priority!!! I cannot stress this highly enough, people end up leaving the university befire they've even begun because of not having anywhere to live.

Yes, you'll need a job to survive there, student, ot not. I must highly recommend Burger King (Tromsø has 2; Langnes and Storgata), Storgata is particularly good at hiring non-Norwegians and they spoke English to each other a lot of the time in there. I, however, worked at Langnes, but my Norwegian was already fairly decent and I had my interview in Norwegian, which probably helped me get a job. Second choice for work for immigrants would be hotel work, chambermaids etc, I had an interview for one such job (interview in English) where the lady who took the interview told me that all the employees there spoke together in English.

My average monthly wage was around 9000kr after taxes, which is probably just enough to support yourself if you find a place with cheap rent (go for a shared place) and buy First Price food (Norway's budget brand). Life will not be particularly fun though. I worked part-time, but my hours could change from week-to-week, I always tried to work at least 22 hours a week and took overtime and other people's shifts when I could.

I was in Norway for 14 months, a little more on short stays too. The roads are usually well maintained in Winter, apart from smaller roads out in the countryside that can be a little worse. Winter tyres and Summer tyres must be changed at the right times every year. The roads can still be slippery, and we slipped about a little because our winter tyres were quite worn, but driving on those conditions is something that has to be practised and learnt. People will always slide around every now and then.

Socialising is something I'm not so good at! I met my partner online and until I got a job, had no real contact with anyone else in Norway. I did, however, meet some lovely people at work, but it took a while for them to get uses to me and vice versa. Some would speak in English, others in Norwegian, but if I got stuck, they would help out.

Hope this small essay helps!

thanks thrasher,ur mssg did help to a large extent and further gave room for more questions and clarifications.am glad to know to know that tromso experience summer at some point,was thnking it was snow all year round.the cold is not the problem,winter jacket will do the trick.
Gosh!is securing acomodation that bad?do u mean u paid as much as 5000nok just for a month?'"eyes poppin".Its really on the high side and it might even be worse since the population of those that are seeking admission this year far exceeds that of last year.hope i can easily find someone to pair  with and give him half of the money,i easily make friends,i guess i will use that gift to my advantage.
As regards to job,from what u said,i think a fair knowlege of there tongue would give one an edge.i dont really mind devoting little time as long as the language aint difficult to learn because from all indication,language knowldge is a big plus.It seems there pay  is nice.with xtra overtime at the early stage,one can be okey for the time bein.its not fun and wont be easy  actually,but one can have fun once in a comfort zone.

5000kr for a 1 bedroom 50m2 apartment is VERY CHEAP! We were extremely lucky to get a place that cheap, rent prices per month can easily exceed 10000kr. Our place was cheap because it was quite old, a little shabby (torn lino on the  floor, unpainted walls etc) and far away from the city center (about 25 mins drive), there was only one bus a day there too.

Start looking NOW for people to house-share with, Tromsø does not have any emergency shelters and last year people started putting up adverts to charge people rent for staying on their sofa etc... I saw adverts for people wanting to charge students 1000-2000kr per week to stay on their sofa in their living rooms. Students were also living in tents and renting caravans.

You can find house-share arrangements for around 3000-5000kr a month. Look on Finn.no and look for the word "bofelleskap". Even if you don't get on with Norwegians, there will be MANY people there from all over the world.

Good luck!

Yes it will be a good idea for you to enroll for Norwegian classes at your university - it will improve your chances significantly when applying for jobs - but yes it is hard to learn - it will take 1 year or so for you to be able to converse in Norwegians without problems.

stdunstan wrote:

is that so?sure,the student can apply for a job permit on arrival after certain conditions must have been fulfilled.In that case,i will have to enrole for a language class.that would be easy since even the university made provision for language courses.Once i am able to learn the basic,i believe i have an added advantage right?.Is norwagian a difficult language to learn?

stdunstan: You must also look for jobs on

finn.no/jobb/

nav.no

These will give you a rough idea of what type of jobs are available - try to search for "English-speaking" "callcenter" - if you use english keywords you will find the jobs which have these words in their ads.

[Moderated: off topic]

I am in Oslo and i want mouvement in tromso for job and liveing

Bobi khan wrote:

I am in Oslo and i want mouvement in tromso for job and liveing

Welcome to the forum
Could you please introduce yourself to the forum. What sort of job are you looking for. Are you looking to rent a place or share.

Hi

Bobi khan wrote:

Hi

Do you have any information to give regarding the subject. ??

Hi gank,

I just graduated from uni specializing in sustainable-renewable energy and am looking for opportunities in the energy sector in Norway. I understand Norway is one of the leading countries in renewable energy (at least that's what the studies have shown). Unfortunately, my search for potential opportunities is quite limited to my own knowledge of very few companies.

There are several areas I'd like to get to know more, namely:
- job availability in renewable energy field and relevant companies
- the chances of either local or international companies in Norway in hiring international graduate
- Visa option excluding student visa, simply because I'd prefer to acquire some industry experience prior to pursuing higher degree.

Any information regarding these matter would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers,
Boma Ranggadjati