Police Directorate turn around on new passport rules

Norwegian passport, Norwegian citizenshipNorwegian passport. Photo: Norway Today media

The Police Directorate (POD) is implementing immediate measures to prevent tens of thousands getting “birthplace unknown” in their passports.

– We try as far as we can to act on the feedback we have received from Norwegian nationals who were not born in Norway, but who have experienced that their birthplace was not recorded in their new passports, said POD section manager Astrid Borge.

The new passport rules were changed in March, and the demand was tightened as to the kind of information was credible enough for  Norwegian authorities to put it into the passport. People born in 30 different countries – most of them in Asia and Africa – risked getting “birthplace unknown”listed  in their new passports, although they may have had  a Norwegian passport with the correct birthplace.

Justice Minister Anders Anundsen (FRP) last week made contact with POD to ask the Directorate to clear up the problem.
For adopted children, the police will now still be able to use the birthplace given in the adoption papers. In other cases where it is not possible to document what city someone was born in, they will instead list the native country as both the birthplace and country of origin.
Anyone who has received new passports with “birthplace unknown” after the new rules took effect, can get a new passport without paying a another fee, said POD.

Source: NTB scanpix / Norway Today

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