Maintenance payments from abroad

If we do not receive payments from the person liable to pay maintenance, who lives abroad, we’ll try to collect the maintenance in Norway through enforcement proceedings.

Enforcement proceedings abroad

If there is no basis for enforcement proceedings in Norway, we ask foreign authorities for help with the collection. We can only do this if both Norway and the foreign authority are covered by the same convention or agreement.

In cases where there is no international agreement or when collection through an agreement is not possible, we must rely on the maintenance payer to make payments voluntarily.

Conventions that include collection abroad

The most important conventions that Norway are covered by are:

• the Nordic convention of 23 March 1962
• the Hague convention of 23 November 2007
• other agreements and conventions that include Switzerland, Australia, and certain Canadian provinces

Resource-intensive process

The process of enforcement proceedings in foreign countries is resource intensive. There is never a guarantee that we’ll successfully recover the money. Collection can be unpredictable and often takes a very long time.

Our ability to influence the collection process after we have contacted a foreign authority is limited. Therefore, we must be cautious about sending reminders to foreign authorities that have confirmed they have received our collection request.