If you are going to work temporarily in Norway, you need to bring two documents with you from your home country: certificate A1 and certificate S1 .
Illustration: Morten Rakke / Helfo
If you are from an EU/EEA country or Switzerland and have an employer in your home country, and your employer sends you to do some work in Norway, you need to bring two documents with you from your home country: certificate A1 and certificate S1.
Contact the social security authorities in your home country to get certificate A1 and certificate S1.
Certificate S1 documents your right to be covered for healthcare services in Norway. Certificate A1 documents your national insurance membership in your home country, and that you should not pay a social security contribution to Norway.
Lech is Polish and is employed by a firm in Poland. He is going to work in Norway for this firm for a period. He makes sure he has certificate A1 and certificate S1 before he travels.
When you arrive in Norway, you need to send the right documentation to the right place.
Send certificate S1 to Helfo, Postboks 2415, 3104 Tønsberg.
Send certificate A1 to NAV.
Lech sends certificate S1 to Helfo and certificate A1 to NAV once he arrives in Norway.
If you fall ill, you are entitled to healthcare no matter how long you have been in Norway.
If you are recorded in the National Registry as resident in a Norwegian municipality, you are entitled to have a regular doctor, your GP. If you do not yet have a GP, you can find a list of them here at helsenorge.no. If you have a D number, you will generally not have a right to a GP. Find out more about the GP scheme here.
If you do not have a right to a GP, you are, however, entitled to be covered for expenses for necessary healthcare, but you yourself have to find a public surgery with spare capacity. The municipalities are responsible for ensuring that you receive the healthcare you need. Some municipalities have a list of doctors who accept patients who are not entitled to a regular GP. Check your municipality's website.
Contact the out-of-hours primary care service for urgent help in the evening or at weekends.
You will have to pay a user fee for treatment. The amount of the user fee will depend on which healthcare services you need. You pay user fees up to a certain amount over the year, after which you are entitled to an exemption card.
Lech needs to visit a doctor. Since he is not registered in Norway's National Registry, he is not entitled to a regular GP. Lech therefore has to find a doctor who has spare capacity. He checks the municipality's website and finds a list of doctors who accept patients who are not entitled to have a GP. After calling a couple of them, he finds a doctor who can see him. He pays this doctor a user fee, just as Norwegian citizens do. He is careful to keep the itemised receipt, so he can apply for an exemption card if he reaches the user fee threshold during the course of the year.