CompanionIceland

Living in Iceland · Questions

Questions people actually ask

These are the questions foreigners type into a search bar at midnight, before and after they move. Each one gets a short answer first, in two or three sentences, and then a link to the page where the whole thing is explained properly.

Last verified 4 August 2026 · island.is, utl.is, skatturinn.is, sjukra.is, skra.is

Where an answer is a judgement rather than a rule, it is marked as an editor's note. The official Icelandic source always wins over anything written here.

Legalities, visas and moving logistics

Almost every problem foreigners hit in their first year starts with a permit question answered wrongly at the beginning.

How can a non-EU citizen move to Iceland?

A non-EEA citizen needs a residence permit granted before travelling, usually based on a specific job offer, a study place, or a family member already living here. Útlendingastofnun decides the application, and arriving first and applying later is the mistake that costs people the most time.

The permit type decides everything that follows: how long you may stay, whether you may change employer, whether your family may come, and whether these years will later count towards permanent residence.

Read the full residency page

Is it hard to get a job in Iceland as a foreigner?

It depends almost entirely on your passport. An EEA citizen can arrive and job-hunt freely; a non-EEA citizen usually needs the job first, because the permit is tied to one named employer and one role.

Iceland is a small labour market where a large share of jobs are filled through people who already know you. Registering with Vinnumálastofnun, joining a union, and using alfred.is covers the formal side, but a personal introduction still moves faster than an application form.

Read how people actually find work here

How do I get a kennitala in Iceland before moving?

You cannot get a residence kennitala before you arrive. It is issued by Þjóðskrá Íslands when you register your legal domicile here. A limited system kennitala can be issued earlier for tax or banking reasons, but it does not mean you are registered as living in Iceland.

The kennitala is the number that unlocks everything else: the bank, Auðkenni, the tax card, the health centre, the lease. Getting it is the first real task of your first week.

See the registration steps in order

Can I move to Iceland without a job offer?

If you are an EEA, EU or Nordic citizen, yes. If you are not, then normally no, because most work-based residence permits require a named employer and an approved contract before the permit is granted.

How long can I stay in Iceland while looking for work?

An EEA or EFTA citizen may stay and look for work, and must register a legal domicile with Þjóðskrá if the stay passes three months. A visitor from outside the EEA is limited to the Schengen rule of 90 days in any 180-day period and may not work during it.

Days spent anywhere in the Schengen area count towards those 90 days, not only days spent in Iceland. Overstaying is one of the few mistakes that follows a person for years.

See the 90/180 rule explained

Do I need to speak Icelandic to work in Reykjavík?

For many jobs, no. Tourism, construction, cleaning, kitchens and parts of tech run in English every day. Icelandic becomes decisive the moment you want public-sector work, care work, promotion, or citizenship, which requires passing a language test.

Editor's note. The honest version: you can live here for years in English and never be stuck. You will also never be fully inside the room. Most people who stay long-term eventually start learning, not because a form demanded it, but because they got tired of being the person the conversation switches away from.

The language requirement for citizenship

Housing and the cost of living

The single biggest shock for people moving here, and the area where the internet gives the worst advice.

How much money do you need to live comfortably in Iceland?

There is no honest single number, and we will not invent one. What exists officially is the minimum income Útlendingastofnun requires for certain permits, and Iceland's published price and wage statistics. Use those, not a figure from a forum.

The three things that actually decide your budget are rent, whether you own a car, and whether you have children in childcare. Two people on identical salaries can have completely different lives here depending on those three.

Official price and wage data: Hagstofa Íslands (Statistics Iceland).

Read the money page

Where do people look for apartments to rent in Reykjavík?

The open market runs mostly through leiguskjol.is, mbl.is, and large Facebook rental groups. What most newcomers do not know is that the open market is not the only track: non-profit and cooperative housing associations exist alongside it.

Bjarg, Búseti and municipal housing work on waiting lists and income limits rather than bidding wars. If you plan to stay years, joining a list early costs you almost nothing and can change your whole situation later.

Read about the housing associations

How expensive is rent in Iceland compared to the US or UK?

Rent in the Reykjavík area is high by European standards, and comparing it to another country by exchange rate alone is misleading, because Icelandic wages, union agreements and housing benefits are also different. Compare rent as a share of local income, not in dollars or pounds.

Housing benefit (húsnæðisbætur) reduces the real cost for many renting households and is applied for through island.is.

How renting actually works here

How do rental deposits work in Iceland?

A landlord may ask for security, most often a cash deposit or a bank guarantee, and the rules on how much and how it must be returned are set by the Rent Act. Register the lease and document the condition of the flat on the day you move in.

The dispute you want to avoid is the one at the end, when the flat is empty and it is your memory against theirs. Photographs with dates and a signed handover note settle almost all of them.

Deposits, leases and getting your money back

Is it easy to buy property in Iceland as a non-resident?

EEA and EFTA citizens buy property in Iceland on broadly the same terms as Icelanders. Buyers from outside the EEA who are not resident here generally need a permission from the Ministry of Justice, and mortgage lending is far harder without Icelandic income and credit history.

Buying, mortgages and what banks look at

What does food actually cost each month in Iceland?

We do not publish a monthly grocery figure, because it changes with the exchange rate and with where you shop. What is stable is the pattern: imported goods and anything fresh out of season are the expensive part, and the discount chains cost noticeably less than the convenience shops.

Editor's note. Nearly everyone who stays ends up shopping at the low-price chains, buying Icelandic dairy, fish and lamb, and treating imported fruit as an occasional thing rather than a habit. Official price statistics are published by Hagstofa Íslands.

Tax, banking and money

Nothing here is complicated once, but everything here is punishing if it is left undone.

How high is income tax in Iceland for a foreign worker?

Foreign workers registered as resident pay the same income tax and municipal tax as Icelanders, in bracketed rates set each year, with your personal tax credit subtracted. Pension contributions and, if you join, union fees are deducted separately.

Current rates and brackets are published by Skatturinn and change annually, which is why we point you there instead of printing a number that goes stale.

Read the tax page

How do I open a bank account in Iceland as a foreigner?

Go into a branch in person with your kennitala, your passport and proof of your address. The bank verifies your identity and, in the same visit, activates Auðkenni: the electronic ID that is the key to almost every public service here.

Do not leave the branch before Auðkenni works on your phone. Without it you cannot sign in to island.is, see your tax card, read letters from the authorities, or sign documents.

The Auðkenni step, explained

What is a tax card (skattkort) and how do I apply for one?

The tax card is your personal tax credit, which makes part of your income untaxed. It is digital: Skatturinn issues it automatically once you have a kennitala, and you simply authorise your employer to use it. There is no paper card to hand over.

If an employer is not using your tax card, you are being taxed without your credit and losing money every payday. Check it in your first month, not at the end of the year.

Tax cards, credits and unused credit

How do tax returns work in Iceland?

Everyone with a kennitala files an annual return in the spring through Skatturinn, and most of it arrives pre-filled from your employer and your bank. Your job is to check it, correct it, and submit it before the deadline.

Filing is not optional just because you arrived mid-year or earned little. A missing return can quietly block benefits and complicate a later permit application.

The filing year, step by step

Can I take my pension out of Iceland if I leave?

Mandatory Icelandic pension contributions generally stay in the Icelandic system and are paid to you as a pension later, wherever you live, rather than refunded when you move away. Rules differ between mandatory and supplementary contributions, so ask your own fund in writing.

Pensions, funds and supplementary savings

Healthcare, unions and daily life

The systems that decide what happens to you on your worst week here.

How long does it take to get public healthcare coverage in Iceland?

People arriving from outside the EEA are generally covered after six months of registered legal domicile, unless a social security agreement or an EHIC card covers them sooner. Those six months are the gap where people get hurt financially.

Private travel or health insurance for that first period is the cheapest protection you will ever buy here. Coverage is administered by Sjúkratryggingar Íslands.

Read the healthcare page

How do I register with a doctor (heilsugæsla) in Iceland?

You register with the health centre for your area, normally through Heilsuvera using Auðkenni, and you can request a named GP. The health centre is the first door for almost everything that is not an emergency.

Do this while you are healthy. Registering during an illness is when people discover that the waiting time is not on their side.

What to do when you are sick

What do trade unions (stéttarfélög) actually give you?

Union membership makes the collective wage agreement your legal minimum, and gives you a sickness fund, a holiday fund, education grants, and free help if an employer underpays you. Fees are deducted from your salary automatically.

For a foreign worker this is the most powerful protection in the country and the most under-used. The union will take up an unpaid wage case for you even if you have worked here only a few months, and it costs you nothing extra.

Unions, contracts and being underpaid

Is childcare expensive in Iceland for foreigners?

Childcare is heavily subsidised by the municipality and costs the same for you as for an Icelandic family, once your child is registered at your address. The real cost is not money but the gap between the end of parental leave and the day a place is offered.

Put your child on the municipal waiting list as early as your municipality allows. Places, fees and discounts are decided by each municipality, not by the state.

Children, leave and registration

What happens if I get sick or injured during my probation period?

Sick-pay rights in Iceland come from the collective agreement and build up with months worked, so a new employee has fewer paid sick days than a long-serving one, not none at all. A work accident is treated differently again and must be reported.

Tell your employer the same day, get a doctor's certificate, and call your union before you agree to anything about your contract. If it happened at work, make sure it is reported as a work accident.

Sick pay, accidents and your contract

Living here, honestly

No Icelandic authority publishes rules about loneliness or darkness. Everything below is my own experience of living here, written in the first person on purpose. Someone else could arrive, find a crowd in a week and recognise none of it. Take it as one person's account, not a rule.

What is the hardest part about living in Iceland as a foreigner?

My own experience, not an official source. For me it was not the cold or the prices. It was the slow realisation that the practical things are solvable and the social things take years.

Housing pressure and distance from family came next for me. What helped was one small routine that was mine alone: a pool, a class, a group that met again next week. Other people I know arrived, found a crowd immediately and never felt any of this. Both are normal.

How do you survive the winter darkness in Iceland?

My own experience. What worked for me was treating darkness as a season with a routine rather than a mood to wait out: outside in the light hours even when it is grey, a fixed sleep time, and something planned in January instead of enduring it.

Vitamin D is commonly taken here through the dark months. If low mood becomes persistent, that is a medical matter and your health centre is the right door, not something to push through alone.

Mental health and where to go

Is it hard to make Icelandic friends?

My own experience. Hard to start, unusually solid once it happens. The friendships I made came through doing something repeatedly beside people, not through conversation. Plenty of people arrive and find a social life in a month, so if this is not your experience, nothing is wrong with you.

The practical version, as I found it: join something that meets repeatedly. The swimming pool, a choir, a sports club, a volunteer group, a course. Repetition, not charm, is what turned an acquaintance into a friend for me.

What are the unspoken social rules in Iceland?

My own experience. Shower without a swimsuit before entering a pool, take your shoes off indoors, be on time, say what you mean plainly, and do not make a scene. Small talk is short and silence is not awkward.

Two more that surprised me: nobody is impressed by titles, and "yes, maybe" often means no. Directness here is not rudeness; it is considered the polite option.

If your question is not here

Start from the topic pages, which are written in the same order that life actually happens: arrive, register, work, live, plan.

See all topics

Companion Iceland translates official Icelandic sources into plain language. We are not lawyers and we are not an authority. Where our page and an official Icelandic source disagree, the official source is right.