Everything but the Marriage Certificate: Unmarried Partners in Norwegian Immigration Regulation

Abstract Pandemic border closures separated previously transnational couples, including unmarried partners, revealing under-researched forms of transnational family life. From this point of departure, we reexamine Norwegian family immigration regulation for unmarried partners from the 1980s onwards. Societal norms around coupledom have shifted toward Giddens’s “pure relationship.” Yet, immigration regulations have focused on “problematic marriages,” such as forced marriages or marriages of convenience. While unmarried partners have a right to family reunification after two years’ cohabitation, this requires prior permission to live in the same country. We investigate three sites of contestation where appeals are made to intimacy norms: The Liberal party’s “love visa” proposal, sponsors’ statements in case files, and protests from same-sex couples. Even in “cohabitation land,” these appeals ultimately come up against immigration control. This investigation contributes to the literatures on the transformation of intimacy and family migration; in particular, immigration regulation for unmarried same- and opposite-sex partners.