Will raise the issue of residence permits for researchers in meeting with UDI

After the newspaper Khrono in September raised the problems of foreign researchers with residence permits after grading assignments or other external assignments, Forskerforbundet has received a number of inquiries from members with similar problems.

Forskerforbundet's president Steinar A. Sæther was among those who asked the Government to sort this out, and since then both Minister of Research and Higher Education Sigrun Aasland and former State Secretary in the Ministry of Labour and Social Inclusion (AID), Per Olav Hopsø, have promised to look into the problem.

Now Forskerforbundet is taking the matter a step further.

– I sent an inquiry to the Ministry of Labour and Social Inclusion (AID), and received a response stating that this is an issue that must be handled by the immigration authorities. AID writes that exceptions can be made to the main rule of one employer, based on an assessment of what is normal in the relevant occupational group. We have therefore requested a meeting with the Norwegian Directorate of Immigration (UDI). There is no doubt that external assignments for other institutions are common practice in academia, says Sæther.

See also: – We have to find a solution at the political level