Passports will be more expensive from the New Year

From January 1, the fee for getting a passport for adults will increase as much as 120 kroner and 72 kroner for children.

The government announced in the state budget this fall that the cost of passports would be raised but did not confirm what the new fees would be. Among the reasons for the increase are criticism from the Office of Auditor-General of Norway about the cost of case handling, the development of secure technical solutions for passports and the new national ID card, which will be introduced from next year.

On December 20, however, the passport law was changed and the previous fee of 450 kroner for adults and 270 kroner for children under 16 were raised to 570 kroner and 342 kroner respectively.

“On December 18, the Storting decided to amend the passport law and increase the passport fees. That message went out to the police districts shortly afterwards,” said Marit Johanne By, section head at the special section of the City Center Trondheim police station, to Adresseavisen.

Trøndelag police notified the public about the change in passport fees on Facebook on Friday afternoon. However, in other parts of the country the information is not published.

The fees on passports have not increased since 2008. At that time, they were sharply reduced after it had previously cost NOK 990 for adults and NOK 430 for children to obtain a passport. In 2007, the prices of children’s passports were first reduced to NOK 270 in mid-summer. In December of that year, authorities followed up by more than halving the passport for adults. The following year, the rates were adjusted somewhat to what have been today’s prices.

© NTB Scanpix / #Norway Today