Language requirement law passes vote in Norwegian parliament
MPs passed a version of the law, by a majority of 88 to 22, with MPs from the ruling Labour Party, the Conservative Party opposition, the Centre Party and the populist Progress party all voting in favour, and the other five parliamentary parties voting against.
If passed the bill will mean that applicants for permanent residency no longer need to document that they have completed mandatory training in Norwegian language and social studies up to the most elementary A1 level, according to the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR).
It will also change the law over the right to family reunion for children under the age of 18 to bring their, preventing residence permits from being granted to their parents if this might lead to bigamy.
The bill will also abolish the au pair scheme for citizens of country's outside the EEU or EEA.
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Since the Norwegian parliament abolished its second chamber in 2009, bills need to be voted on twice before they are passed, so that MPs have an opportunity to change their position, something which happens very rarely.
The bill's second vote has yet to be scheduled, but it likely to be held before the parliament adjourns for the summer on June 20th.
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