Lögheimili

Legal domicile

A person residing in Iceland for six months or longer has to have a legal domicile in Iceland. A legal domicile is a place of permanent residence.
To be granted legal domicile in Iceland a person requires a residence permit (applies to citizens outside EEA) and Personal Identification Number (kennitala) (applies to all).
When a residence is registered, the legal domicile is registered at the same time. Registration in Þjóðskrá is made on the same date as the issue date of the residence permit (Applies to citizens outside EEA).
A legal domicile is registered at Þjóðskrá.
It is important to register a residence. Those who do not register a residence do not have rights to health care services and social services. They are therefore not health insured for sickness, do not receive unemployment benefits if they lose their employment and do not receive child-birth support benefit if they have a child while in Iceland.

A permanent residence is at the place where an individual is most of the time: where an individual keeps his/her assets, indulges in his/her hobbies and where he/she sleeps on a regular basis, apart from temporary absences such as for holidays, due to sickness, work commitments or other temporary reasons.
A legal domicile must be an address defined by a street or name. A guesthouse, hospital, working camp or other similar premises cannot be a legal domicile or permanent residence.
It is permissible to have only one legal domicile.
Husband and wife must have the same legal domicile. If they live in two homes the legal domicile is the address where their children live.
If a married couple do not share a residence and the children live with them both, or the couple do not have children, the couple will have to decide on a legal domicile. If an individual does not register a legal domicile then Þjóðskrá automatically does.
The same rules apply for co-habitual partners as above.
A child younger than 17 years old is registered at the same legal domicile as that of the parents if the parents live together, otherwise the child is registered with the parent that has custody.
An individual who moves away from Iceland and abandons his/her legal domicile should report this to the municipality where he/she lives, prior to moving away. It is also necessary to report it if the individual plans on residing in a foreign country.

Everyone that has a legal domicile in Iceland must be registered in Þjóðskrá.