The Famous Six-Month Wait for Icelandic Health Insurance Became Three Months on 1 August 2026, and a Real-Residence Test Arrived in the Same Amendment
Answer
The general rule applies to you
No exception is recorded for citizens of Bulgaria on this topic. That is the answer, not a gap - everything below is the rule you get, unchanged.
195 exceptions recorded across 74 countries · none match Bulgaria to Iceland · Access to healthcare
Health insurance in Iceland is not bought and is not tied to employment. Section 10(1) of the Health Insurance Act 112/2008 makes a person insured if they are resident in Iceland and have been for a stated qualifying period, unless an international agreement provides otherwise. That period was six months, counted before benefits were requested, from 2008 until 1 August 2026. Article 8(1) of Act 50/2026 replaced the words six months before benefits are requested with three months before rights are applied for or benefit payments are requested, and the same article added a real-residence test: the insurance agency must assess whether the person is actually resident here, by reference to the registered domicile in the national register and to data from the tax authorities, and may cancel the insurance of someone who is registered but not actually living here. Insurance ends when the insured person moves their residence away from Iceland, again unless an international agreement says otherwise - and for anyone moving between the Nordic countries the agreement that says otherwise is the Nordic Convention on Social Security concluded at Bergen on 12 June 2012, which Act 119/2013 gives the force of law in Iceland and prints in full as a schedule. The Convention extends Regulation (EC) 883/2004 to people the Regulation does not reach, and adds a right the Regulation does not give: the country you are visiting pays the extra cost of your journey home if illness forces you onto a more expensive means of travel.
At a glance
- Qualifying period
- Three months of residence before rights are applied for or benefit payments requestedas of 2026-08-01
Section 10(1) of the Health Insurance Act as amended by article 8(1) of Act 50/2026. It was six months, counted before benefits were requested, until 1 August 2026.
- What the agency now checks
- Whether you are actually resident here, not only registered
Section 10(4), third to fifth sentences, added by article 8(3) of Act 50/2026. The sources named are the domicile registration in the thjodskra and data from the tax authorities under section 34(3).
- Children
- Insured with their parents if resident here, including stepchildren and foster children
Section 10(2) of the Health Insurance Act. There is no separate qualifying period for them in the subsection.
- When it ends
- When you move your residence away from Iceland, subject to sections 11, 12 and 15 and to international agreements
Section 10(3). Section 11 keeps the insurance for someone posted abroad by an Icelandic employer paying the Icelandic payroll levy, and for a student abroad who is not insured in the country of study.
- Nordic extra right
- The country you are staying in pays the extra cost of the journey home if illness forces a more expensive means of travel
Article 7(1) of the Nordic Convention on Social Security, in force for Iceland since 1 May 2014. Article 7(2) excludes someone who travelled to another Nordic country in order to get treatment.
- Who the Nordic Convention reaches
- Anyone who is or has been subject to the legislation of a Nordic country, and their family members and survivors, whether or not they are EEA nationals
Articles 3(2) and 4 of the Convention. Article 3(3) cuts Denmark back to Nordic nationals for family benefits, article 64 of the Regulation and basic pension.
- Patient charges
- Set by ministerial regulation under section 29 of the Health Insurance Act, not by the Act
Section 29(1) lists what may be charged for - primary care, outpatient and emergency hospital care, contracted independent practitioners, tests and imaging, medical certificates, medicines - and requires the charge to be lower for the elderly, disability-card holders and children. No amount is in the Act.
Requirements
- Residence in Iceland, in fact and not only on the register
- Three months of that residence before rights are applied for or benefit payments requested, unless an international agreement provides otherwise
- Registration of domicile in the thjodskra under the Act on Domicile and Residence, which is what the agency looks at first
- For a child under 18 resident here, nothing further: the child is insured with the parents
In detail
The amendment is worth reading for what it quotes
An amending Act that substitutes words has to name the words it is replacing, so article 8(1) of Act 50/2026 is also the proof of what the rule used to be: six months before benefits are requested. Both halves of the change matter. Three months is half the wait. But the new wording also moves the point the clock runs to - from the request for benefits to an application for rights or a request for benefit payments - and article 8(2) deletes the second sentence of the subsection entirely. Anyone relying on a guide written before August 2026 has both the number and the trigger wrong.
Registered is no longer enough
The third change in the same article is the one that cuts the other way. Section 10(4) already said the agency decides whether a person counts as insured; it now says the agency must assess whether the person is actually resident here, names the registered domicile and the tax data as the evidence, and gives the agency power to cancel the insurance of someone who is insured but not actually living in Iceland. The shorter wait and the residence test arrived in the same article of the same Act on the same day.
The Nordic agreement the other records could not find
Finland's record notes that section 157(3) of its Aliens Act refers to what the Nordic countries have agreed on population registration without naming the instrument, and that the agreement was not located. Denmark's notes that the Nordic agreements behind section 1 were not read. The social-security side of that family of agreements is readable here: Act 119/2013 gives the Bergen Convention of 12 June 2012 the force of law in Iceland and prints it in full as a schedule, so the treaty text is in the statute book rather than in a treaty series. Its preamble explains what it is for - the Nordic states had been applying the Union's coordination rules to movement between them since the EEA Agreement, and wanted an instrument that reached the people the Regulation does not. That is article 3(2): anyone who is or has been subject to the legislation of a Nordic country, regardless of nationality.
A right the Union rules do not give
Article 7(1) is small and concrete. If you live in one Nordic country, are entitled to care there, and fall ill while temporarily in another, the country you are in pays the extra cost of getting you home where the illness forces you onto a more expensive means of travel. Regulation 883/2004 covers the treatment; it does not cover the flight. Article 7(2) takes it away from anyone who travelled to the other Nordic country in order to be treated, which is the obvious abuse.
Country-level policy
Almost everything a person needs in Iceland hangs on one registration: the logheimili, the registered domicile kept by Registers Iceland under the Act on Domicile and Residence 80/2018. Health insurance counts three months of residence and the insurance agency looks first at the domicile register. The Income Tax Act decides who is domiciled for tax by reference to this Act. The Nationality Act defines resident here as having a logheimili, and counts the years from it. Marriage-based residence permits require spouses to have the same registered domicile. Section 14 of the Act then says who may have one: a person staying or intending to stay for work or study for three months or more may register, and anyone staying six months or more must. An EEA or EFTA national may stay three months without registering, six if seeking work. Anyone else intending to stay longer than three months needs a valid residence permit from the Directorate of Immigration before they can register at all - and article 23 of Act 37/2026 added a sentence excluding one permit from that: the short-term residence permit in section 21 of the Aliens Act, the one the remote-work route now runs on. Section 14 also names the instrument that governs a move of domicile to or from the other Nordic countries: the Nordic Agreement on Population Registration, as it stands from time to time.
What applies to you
Nothing changes for a citizen of Bulgaria
We have no rule recorded that treats your citizenship differently here, so the general rule above is the one that applies to you. That is an answer, not a gap.
What the law says
«Sjúkratryggður er sá sem er búsettur á Íslandi og hefur verið það a.m.k. síðustu»Our translation - not official
A person is insured who is resident in Iceland and has been so for at least the last
The qualifying period that follows is printed inside the lagasafn's editorial brackets as substituted by Act 50/2026, which is why it is quoted from the amending Act instead.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
The consolidated collection of Icelandic Acts, published under section 9 of the Act on Stjornartidindi and the Legal Gazette 15/2005. The minister is responsible for publishing it and a three-member editorial board appointed for five years at a time oversees it, one member nominated by the Speaker of Althingi; it is hosted on the parliament's own site. Each edition carries a number and a date - the one read here is Utgafa 158a, Islensk log 1. oktober 2026 - and an Act is served at a pinned address of the form https://www.althingi.is/lagas/<edition>/<year><number>.html, with /lagas/nuna/ as an always-latest alias. Every Act's header prints the date it came into force and a Breytt med line naming every amending Act with its own commencement. Amending Acts are worked into the parent Act, new Acts are added and repealed Acts are removed at each update. Passages inserted or substituted by a later Act are printed inside square brackets with a numbered footnote naming the amending Act and section, and repealed provisions are printed as an ellipsis with the same kind of footnote, so the page shows what has gone as well as what is there. Treaties given the force of law are printed in full as schedules, which is how the EEA Agreement and the Nordic Convention on Social Security are readable in Icelandic inside the statute book. The parliament separately serves each Act as passed at https://www.althingi.is/altext/stjt/<year>.<number>.html.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: The lagasafn is a statutory consolidation and it is still subordinate to the gazette: section 9(1) of Act 15/2005 says that where the lagasafn text and the text published in Division A of Stjornartidindi diverge, the Stjornartidindi text governs. It must not be cited as the authentic text. It is a snapshot and not a running text - the Um lagasafn page says it is updated as a rule three times a year, at the start of the year, in spring and in autumn, with the edition numbered by legislative session and lettered a, b or c - so an Act passed since the edition date is simply not in it, and the site keeps a separate Nylega samthykkt log page for those. The square-bracket convention means a figure substituted by a later Act is printed inside brackets with a footnote marker beside it, so the number is in the collection but is not quotable as a clean sentence; the amending Act's own text has to be used instead. The collection publishes Acts only: regulations are at island.is/reglugerdir and are a different publisher. It says nothing about how an agency applies an Act - no subsistence amount, no fee, no processing time and no country list is in it.
We re-read it every 60 days. More about this source
«úr sjúkratryggingum að uppfylltum öðrum skilyrðum laga þessara, nema annað leiði af milliríkjasamningum.»Our translation - not official
from health insurance, the other conditions of this Act being met, unless an international agreement provides otherwise.
About this source
The consolidated collection of Icelandic Acts, published under section 9 of the Act on Stjornartidindi and the Legal Gazette 15/2005. The minister is responsible for publishing it and a three-member editorial board appointed for five years at a time oversees it, one member nominated by the Speaker of Althingi; it is hosted on the parliament's own site. Each edition carries a number and a date - the one read here is Utgafa 158a, Islensk log 1. oktober 2026 - and an Act is served at a pinned address of the form https://www.althingi.is/lagas/<edition>/<year><number>.html, with /lagas/nuna/ as an always-latest alias. Every Act's header prints the date it came into force and a Breytt med line naming every amending Act with its own commencement. Amending Acts are worked into the parent Act, new Acts are added and repealed Acts are removed at each update. Passages inserted or substituted by a later Act are printed inside square brackets with a numbered footnote naming the amending Act and section, and repealed provisions are printed as an ellipsis with the same kind of footnote, so the page shows what has gone as well as what is there. Treaties given the force of law are printed in full as schedules, which is how the EEA Agreement and the Nordic Convention on Social Security are readable in Icelandic inside the statute book. The parliament separately serves each Act as passed at https://www.althingi.is/altext/stjt/<year>.<number>.html.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: The lagasafn is a statutory consolidation and it is still subordinate to the gazette: section 9(1) of Act 15/2005 says that where the lagasafn text and the text published in Division A of Stjornartidindi diverge, the Stjornartidindi text governs. It must not be cited as the authentic text. It is a snapshot and not a running text - the Um lagasafn page says it is updated as a rule three times a year, at the start of the year, in spring and in autumn, with the edition numbered by legislative session and lettered a, b or c - so an Act passed since the edition date is simply not in it, and the site keeps a separate Nylega samthykkt log page for those. The square-bracket convention means a figure substituted by a later Act is printed inside brackets with a footnote marker beside it, so the number is in the collection but is not quotable as a clean sentence; the amending Act's own text has to be used instead. The collection publishes Acts only: regulations are at island.is/reglugerdir and are a different publisher. It says nothing about how an agency applies an Act - no subsistence amount, no fee, no processing time and no country list is in it.
We re-read it every 60 days. More about this source
«Í stað orðanna „sex mánuðina áður en bóta er óskað“ í 1. málsl. 1. mgr. kemur: þrjá mánuðina áður en sótt er um réttindi eða réttindagreiðslna óskað.»Our translation - not official
In place of the words six months before benefits are requested in the first sentence of the first paragraph there shall come: three months before rights are applied for or benefit payments are requested.
This is the whole of the change. The amending Act quotes the words it is replacing, which is how the old six-month rule is established here rather than from memory.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
Althingi's service of each Act as passed, at https://www.althingi.is/altext/stjt/<year>.<number>.html. The page is the parliamentary document for the bill as enacted - it prints the thingskjal number, the session, the case number and the line Log nr. N <date> - and gives the Act's own text including its amending articles and its commencement article. This is the only way to read what an amending Act actually said, which matters because the lagasafn folds amendments into the parent Act and prints only the result. It is also where the words being replaced are recorded: an Icelandic amending article is written as in place of the words X there shall come Y, so the Act itself is the evidence of what the rule used to be. A PDF and a WordPerfect version are linked from each page.
Standing: Issues the instrument
Cannot be cited for: This is Althingi's reproduction of the enacted text, not the gazette. The authentic publication is Division A of Stjornartidindi at stjornartidindi.is, and section 8 of Act 15/2005 ties legal effect to publication there. An amending Act read here is also the text as passed and carries no later amendment of itself, so it must never be cited for what the law is now - only for what a particular Act did on a particular day. It does not say whether the change it makes is still in force.
We re-read it every 90 days. More about this source
«Lög þessi öðlast gildi 1. ágúst 2026.»Our translation - not official
This Act enters into force on 1 August 2026.
About this source
Althingi's service of each Act as passed, at https://www.althingi.is/altext/stjt/<year>.<number>.html. The page is the parliamentary document for the bill as enacted - it prints the thingskjal number, the session, the case number and the line Log nr. N <date> - and gives the Act's own text including its amending articles and its commencement article. This is the only way to read what an amending Act actually said, which matters because the lagasafn folds amendments into the parent Act and prints only the result. It is also where the words being replaced are recorded: an Icelandic amending article is written as in place of the words X there shall come Y, so the Act itself is the evidence of what the rule used to be. A PDF and a WordPerfect version are linked from each page.
Standing: Issues the instrument
Cannot be cited for: This is Althingi's reproduction of the enacted text, not the gazette. The authentic publication is Division A of Stjornartidindi at stjornartidindi.is, and section 8 of Act 15/2005 ties legal effect to publication there. An amending Act read here is also the text as passed and carries no later amendment of itself, so it must never be cited for what the law is now - only for what a particular Act did on a particular day. It does not say whether the change it makes is still in force.
We re-read it every 90 days. More about this source
«Við þá ákvörðun skal metið hvort einstaklingur sé raunverulega búsettur hér á landi. Skal m.a. miðað við skráningu lögheimilis í þjóðskrá samkvæmt lögum um lögheimili og aðsetur og gögn frá skattyfirvöldum skv. 3. mgr. 34. gr. Sýni þau gögn sem sjúkratryggingastofnunin aflar fram á að einstaklingur, sem er sjúkratryggður, hafi ekki raunverulega búsetu hér á landi er stofnuninni heimilt að fella niður rétt viðkomandi til sjúkratryggingar.»Our translation - not official
In making that decision it shall be assessed whether the individual is actually resident in this country. Regard shall be had among other things to the registration of domicile in the national register under the Act on Domicile and Residence and to data from the tax authorities under section 34(3). Where the data the health insurance agency obtains show that an insured individual is not actually resident in this country, the agency may cancel that person's right to health insurance.
About this source
The consolidated collection of Icelandic Acts, published under section 9 of the Act on Stjornartidindi and the Legal Gazette 15/2005. The minister is responsible for publishing it and a three-member editorial board appointed for five years at a time oversees it, one member nominated by the Speaker of Althingi; it is hosted on the parliament's own site. Each edition carries a number and a date - the one read here is Utgafa 158a, Islensk log 1. oktober 2026 - and an Act is served at a pinned address of the form https://www.althingi.is/lagas/<edition>/<year><number>.html, with /lagas/nuna/ as an always-latest alias. Every Act's header prints the date it came into force and a Breytt med line naming every amending Act with its own commencement. Amending Acts are worked into the parent Act, new Acts are added and repealed Acts are removed at each update. Passages inserted or substituted by a later Act are printed inside square brackets with a numbered footnote naming the amending Act and section, and repealed provisions are printed as an ellipsis with the same kind of footnote, so the page shows what has gone as well as what is there. Treaties given the force of law are printed in full as schedules, which is how the EEA Agreement and the Nordic Convention on Social Security are readable in Icelandic inside the statute book. The parliament separately serves each Act as passed at https://www.althingi.is/altext/stjt/<year>.<number>.html.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: The lagasafn is a statutory consolidation and it is still subordinate to the gazette: section 9(1) of Act 15/2005 says that where the lagasafn text and the text published in Division A of Stjornartidindi diverge, the Stjornartidindi text governs. It must not be cited as the authentic text. It is a snapshot and not a running text - the Um lagasafn page says it is updated as a rule three times a year, at the start of the year, in spring and in autumn, with the edition numbered by legislative session and lettered a, b or c - so an Act passed since the edition date is simply not in it, and the site keeps a separate Nylega samthykkt log page for those. The square-bracket convention means a figure substituted by a later Act is printed inside brackets with a footnote marker beside it, so the number is in the collection but is not quotable as a clean sentence; the amending Act's own text has to be used instead. The collection publishes Acts only: regulations are at island.is/reglugerdir and are a different publisher. It says nothing about how an agency applies an Act - no subsistence amount, no fee, no processing time and no country list is in it.
We re-read it every 60 days. More about this source
«Sjúkratrygging fellur niður þegar sjúkratryggður flytur búsetu sína frá Íslandi, sbr. þó 11., 12. og 15. gr., nema annað leiði af milliríkjasamningum.»Our translation - not official
Health insurance lapses when the insured person moves their residence away from Iceland, subject however to sections 11, 12 and 15, unless an international agreement provides otherwise.
About this source
The consolidated collection of Icelandic Acts, published under section 9 of the Act on Stjornartidindi and the Legal Gazette 15/2005. The minister is responsible for publishing it and a three-member editorial board appointed for five years at a time oversees it, one member nominated by the Speaker of Althingi; it is hosted on the parliament's own site. Each edition carries a number and a date - the one read here is Utgafa 158a, Islensk log 1. oktober 2026 - and an Act is served at a pinned address of the form https://www.althingi.is/lagas/<edition>/<year><number>.html, with /lagas/nuna/ as an always-latest alias. Every Act's header prints the date it came into force and a Breytt med line naming every amending Act with its own commencement. Amending Acts are worked into the parent Act, new Acts are added and repealed Acts are removed at each update. Passages inserted or substituted by a later Act are printed inside square brackets with a numbered footnote naming the amending Act and section, and repealed provisions are printed as an ellipsis with the same kind of footnote, so the page shows what has gone as well as what is there. Treaties given the force of law are printed in full as schedules, which is how the EEA Agreement and the Nordic Convention on Social Security are readable in Icelandic inside the statute book. The parliament separately serves each Act as passed at https://www.althingi.is/altext/stjt/<year>.<number>.html.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: The lagasafn is a statutory consolidation and it is still subordinate to the gazette: section 9(1) of Act 15/2005 says that where the lagasafn text and the text published in Division A of Stjornartidindi diverge, the Stjornartidindi text governs. It must not be cited as the authentic text. It is a snapshot and not a running text - the Um lagasafn page says it is updated as a rule three times a year, at the start of the year, in spring and in autumn, with the edition numbered by legislative session and lettered a, b or c - so an Act passed since the edition date is simply not in it, and the site keeps a separate Nylega samthykkt log page for those. The square-bracket convention means a figure substituted by a later Act is printed inside brackets with a footnote marker beside it, so the number is in the collection but is not quotable as a clean sentence; the amending Act's own text has to be used instead. The collection publishes Acts only: regulations are at island.is/reglugerdir and are a different publisher. It says nothing about how an agency applies an Act - no subsistence amount, no fee, no processing time and no country list is in it.
We re-read it every 60 days. More about this source
«Þegar Norðurlandasamningur um almannatryggingar, sem gerður var í Bergen 12. júní 2012 og prentaður er sem fylgiskjal með lögum þessum, hefur öðlast gildi að því er Ísland varðar skulu ákvæði hans hafa lagagildi hér á landi.»Our translation - not official
When the Nordic Convention on Social Security, concluded at Bergen on 12 June 2012 and printed as a schedule to this Act, has entered into force as regards Iceland, its provisions shall have the force of law in this country.
The lagasafn's footnote to this section states that the Convention entered into force as regards Iceland on 1 May 2014.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
The consolidated collection of Icelandic Acts, published under section 9 of the Act on Stjornartidindi and the Legal Gazette 15/2005. The minister is responsible for publishing it and a three-member editorial board appointed for five years at a time oversees it, one member nominated by the Speaker of Althingi; it is hosted on the parliament's own site. Each edition carries a number and a date - the one read here is Utgafa 158a, Islensk log 1. oktober 2026 - and an Act is served at a pinned address of the form https://www.althingi.is/lagas/<edition>/<year><number>.html, with /lagas/nuna/ as an always-latest alias. Every Act's header prints the date it came into force and a Breytt med line naming every amending Act with its own commencement. Amending Acts are worked into the parent Act, new Acts are added and repealed Acts are removed at each update. Passages inserted or substituted by a later Act are printed inside square brackets with a numbered footnote naming the amending Act and section, and repealed provisions are printed as an ellipsis with the same kind of footnote, so the page shows what has gone as well as what is there. Treaties given the force of law are printed in full as schedules, which is how the EEA Agreement and the Nordic Convention on Social Security are readable in Icelandic inside the statute book. The parliament separately serves each Act as passed at https://www.althingi.is/altext/stjt/<year>.<number>.html.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: The lagasafn is a statutory consolidation and it is still subordinate to the gazette: section 9(1) of Act 15/2005 says that where the lagasafn text and the text published in Division A of Stjornartidindi diverge, the Stjornartidindi text governs. It must not be cited as the authentic text. It is a snapshot and not a running text - the Um lagasafn page says it is updated as a rule three times a year, at the start of the year, in spring and in autumn, with the edition numbered by legislative session and lettered a, b or c - so an Act passed since the edition date is simply not in it, and the site keeps a separate Nylega samthykkt log page for those. The square-bracket convention means a figure substituted by a later Act is printed inside brackets with a footnote marker beside it, so the number is in the collection but is not quotable as a clean sentence; the amending Act's own text has to be used instead. The collection publishes Acts only: regulations are at island.is/reglugerdir and are a different publisher. It says nothing about how an agency applies an Act - no subsistence amount, no fee, no processing time and no country list is in it.
We re-read it every 60 days. More about this source
«Ef einstaklingur er búsettur í norrænu landi og á rétt á aðstoð þar en fær aðstoð meðan hann dvelur tímabundið í öðru norrænu landi skal dvalarlandið standa straum af þeim aukakostnaði við heimferð til búsetulandsins sem leiðir af því að vegna veikindanna verður viðkomandi að nota dýrari ferðamáta en hann ella mundi gera.»Our translation - not official
Where an individual is resident in a Nordic country and entitled to benefits in kind there, but receives them while staying temporarily in another Nordic country, the country of stay shall bear the additional cost of the journey home to the country of residence that arises because the illness obliges that person to use a more expensive means of travel than they otherwise would.
About this source
The consolidated collection of Icelandic Acts, published under section 9 of the Act on Stjornartidindi and the Legal Gazette 15/2005. The minister is responsible for publishing it and a three-member editorial board appointed for five years at a time oversees it, one member nominated by the Speaker of Althingi; it is hosted on the parliament's own site. Each edition carries a number and a date - the one read here is Utgafa 158a, Islensk log 1. oktober 2026 - and an Act is served at a pinned address of the form https://www.althingi.is/lagas/<edition>/<year><number>.html, with /lagas/nuna/ as an always-latest alias. Every Act's header prints the date it came into force and a Breytt med line naming every amending Act with its own commencement. Amending Acts are worked into the parent Act, new Acts are added and repealed Acts are removed at each update. Passages inserted or substituted by a later Act are printed inside square brackets with a numbered footnote naming the amending Act and section, and repealed provisions are printed as an ellipsis with the same kind of footnote, so the page shows what has gone as well as what is there. Treaties given the force of law are printed in full as schedules, which is how the EEA Agreement and the Nordic Convention on Social Security are readable in Icelandic inside the statute book. The parliament separately serves each Act as passed at https://www.althingi.is/altext/stjt/<year>.<number>.html.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: The lagasafn is a statutory consolidation and it is still subordinate to the gazette: section 9(1) of Act 15/2005 says that where the lagasafn text and the text published in Division A of Stjornartidindi diverge, the Stjornartidindi text governs. It must not be cited as the authentic text. It is a snapshot and not a running text - the Um lagasafn page says it is updated as a rule three times a year, at the start of the year, in spring and in autumn, with the edition numbered by legislative session and lettered a, b or c - so an Act passed since the edition date is simply not in it, and the site keeps a separate Nylega samthykkt log page for those. The square-bracket convention means a figure substituted by a later Act is printed inside brackets with a footnote marker beside it, so the number is in the collection but is not quotable as a clean sentence; the amending Act's own text has to be used instead. The collection publishes Acts only: regulations are at island.is/reglugerdir and are a different publisher. It says nothing about how an agency applies an Act - no subsistence amount, no fee, no processing time and no country list is in it.
We re-read it every 60 days. More about this source
«Samningur þessi gildir einnig um eftirtalda einstaklinga sem falla ekki undir persónulegt gildissvið reglugerðarinnar: a. einstaklinga sem heyra undir eða hafa heyrt undir löggjöf í norrænu landi, b. aðstandendur eða eftirlifendur sem rekja rétt sinn til einstaklinga sem um getur í a-lið.»Our translation - not official
This Convention also applies to the following individuals who do not fall within the personal scope of the Regulation: a. individuals who are or have been subject to the legislation of a Nordic country, b. family members or survivors deriving their rights from individuals referred to in point a.
About this source
The consolidated collection of Icelandic Acts, published under section 9 of the Act on Stjornartidindi and the Legal Gazette 15/2005. The minister is responsible for publishing it and a three-member editorial board appointed for five years at a time oversees it, one member nominated by the Speaker of Althingi; it is hosted on the parliament's own site. Each edition carries a number and a date - the one read here is Utgafa 158a, Islensk log 1. oktober 2026 - and an Act is served at a pinned address of the form https://www.althingi.is/lagas/<edition>/<year><number>.html, with /lagas/nuna/ as an always-latest alias. Every Act's header prints the date it came into force and a Breytt med line naming every amending Act with its own commencement. Amending Acts are worked into the parent Act, new Acts are added and repealed Acts are removed at each update. Passages inserted or substituted by a later Act are printed inside square brackets with a numbered footnote naming the amending Act and section, and repealed provisions are printed as an ellipsis with the same kind of footnote, so the page shows what has gone as well as what is there. Treaties given the force of law are printed in full as schedules, which is how the EEA Agreement and the Nordic Convention on Social Security are readable in Icelandic inside the statute book. The parliament separately serves each Act as passed at https://www.althingi.is/altext/stjt/<year>.<number>.html.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: The lagasafn is a statutory consolidation and it is still subordinate to the gazette: section 9(1) of Act 15/2005 says that where the lagasafn text and the text published in Division A of Stjornartidindi diverge, the Stjornartidindi text governs. It must not be cited as the authentic text. It is a snapshot and not a running text - the Um lagasafn page says it is updated as a rule three times a year, at the start of the year, in spring and in autumn, with the edition numbered by legislative session and lettered a, b or c - so an Act passed since the edition date is simply not in it, and the site keeps a separate Nylega samthykkt log page for those. The square-bracket convention means a figure substituted by a later Act is printed inside brackets with a footnote marker beside it, so the number is in the collection but is not quotable as a clean sentence; the amending Act's own text has to be used instead. The collection publishes Acts only: regulations are at island.is/reglugerdir and are a different publisher. It says nothing about how an agency applies an Act - no subsistence amount, no fee, no processing time and no country list is in it.
We re-read it every 60 days. More about this source
«Ef ekki er annars getið í þessum samningi skal rýmka gildissvið reglugerðarinnar og framkvæmdarreglugerðarinnar þannig að reglugerðirnar taki til allra þeirra sem heyra undir þennan samning og eru búsettir í norrænu landi.»Our translation - not official
Unless otherwise provided in this Convention, the scope of the Regulation and of the implementing Regulation shall be extended so that they apply to everyone covered by this Convention who is resident in a Nordic country.
About this source
The consolidated collection of Icelandic Acts, published under section 9 of the Act on Stjornartidindi and the Legal Gazette 15/2005. The minister is responsible for publishing it and a three-member editorial board appointed for five years at a time oversees it, one member nominated by the Speaker of Althingi; it is hosted on the parliament's own site. Each edition carries a number and a date - the one read here is Utgafa 158a, Islensk log 1. oktober 2026 - and an Act is served at a pinned address of the form https://www.althingi.is/lagas/<edition>/<year><number>.html, with /lagas/nuna/ as an always-latest alias. Every Act's header prints the date it came into force and a Breytt med line naming every amending Act with its own commencement. Amending Acts are worked into the parent Act, new Acts are added and repealed Acts are removed at each update. Passages inserted or substituted by a later Act are printed inside square brackets with a numbered footnote naming the amending Act and section, and repealed provisions are printed as an ellipsis with the same kind of footnote, so the page shows what has gone as well as what is there. Treaties given the force of law are printed in full as schedules, which is how the EEA Agreement and the Nordic Convention on Social Security are readable in Icelandic inside the statute book. The parliament separately serves each Act as passed at https://www.althingi.is/altext/stjt/<year>.<number>.html.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: The lagasafn is a statutory consolidation and it is still subordinate to the gazette: section 9(1) of Act 15/2005 says that where the lagasafn text and the text published in Division A of Stjornartidindi diverge, the Stjornartidindi text governs. It must not be cited as the authentic text. It is a snapshot and not a running text - the Um lagasafn page says it is updated as a rule three times a year, at the start of the year, in spring and in autumn, with the edition numbered by legislative session and lettered a, b or c - so an Act passed since the edition date is simply not in it, and the site keeps a separate Nylega samthykkt log page for those. The square-bracket convention means a figure substituted by a later Act is printed inside brackets with a footnote marker beside it, so the number is in the collection but is not quotable as a clean sentence; the amending Act's own text has to be used instead. The collection publishes Acts only: regulations are at island.is/reglugerdir and are a different publisher. It says nothing about how an agency applies an Act - no subsistence amount, no fee, no processing time and no country list is in it.
We re-read it every 60 days. More about this source
Practical notes
No patient charge is published here because none is in the Act. The amounts are in ministerial regulations made under section 29, which were not read.
Regulation 3/2024, made under section 10(5) and carrying exemptions from the residence condition, was not read. It is the place any exception to the three months would be.
The Icelandic reception of Regulation (EC) 883/2004 for EEA nationals was not traced for this record. Section 10 handles it with the words unless an international agreement provides otherwise, and the agreement is not named in the Act.
Whether Sjukratryggingar Islands has begun using the new cancellation power, and what evidence it treats as showing actual residence, is not something this record can say: nothing published by the agency was read.
- consolidatesLog um sjukratryggingar, 2008 nr. 112 16. september
Lagasafn, Althingi · consolidated to 2026-10-01
About this source
The consolidated collection of Icelandic Acts, published under section 9 of the Act on Stjornartidindi and the Legal Gazette 15/2005. The minister is responsible for publishing it and a three-member editorial board appointed for five years at a time oversees it, one member nominated by the Speaker of Althingi; it is hosted on the parliament's own site. Each edition carries a number and a date - the one read here is Utgafa 158a, Islensk log 1. oktober 2026 - and an Act is served at a pinned address of the form https://www.althingi.is/lagas/<edition>/<year><number>.html, with /lagas/nuna/ as an always-latest alias. Every Act's header prints the date it came into force and a Breytt med line naming every amending Act with its own commencement. Amending Acts are worked into the parent Act, new Acts are added and repealed Acts are removed at each update. Passages inserted or substituted by a later Act are printed inside square brackets with a numbered footnote naming the amending Act and section, and repealed provisions are printed as an ellipsis with the same kind of footnote, so the page shows what has gone as well as what is there. Treaties given the force of law are printed in full as schedules, which is how the EEA Agreement and the Nordic Convention on Social Security are readable in Icelandic inside the statute book. The parliament separately serves each Act as passed at https://www.althingi.is/altext/stjt/<year>.<number>.html.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: The lagasafn is a statutory consolidation and it is still subordinate to the gazette: section 9(1) of Act 15/2005 says that where the lagasafn text and the text published in Division A of Stjornartidindi diverge, the Stjornartidindi text governs. It must not be cited as the authentic text. It is a snapshot and not a running text - the Um lagasafn page says it is updated as a rule three times a year, at the start of the year, in spring and in autumn, with the edition numbered by legislative session and lettered a, b or c - so an Act passed since the edition date is simply not in it, and the site keeps a separate Nylega samthykkt log page for those. The square-bracket convention means a figure substituted by a later Act is printed inside brackets with a footnote marker beside it, so the number is in the collection but is not quotable as a clean sentence; the amending Act's own text has to be used instead. The collection publishes Acts only: regulations are at island.is/reglugerdir and are a different publisher. It says nothing about how an agency applies an Act - no subsistence amount, no fee, no processing time and no country list is in it.
We re-read it every 60 days. More about this source
- issuesLog nr. 50 9. juni 2026 um breytingu a logum um sjukratryggingar og logum um ofrjosemisadgerdir (ymsar breytingar)
Althingi, Stjornartidindi A-deild texts
About this source
Althingi's service of each Act as passed, at https://www.althingi.is/altext/stjt/<year>.<number>.html. The page is the parliamentary document for the bill as enacted - it prints the thingskjal number, the session, the case number and the line Log nr. N <date> - and gives the Act's own text including its amending articles and its commencement article. This is the only way to read what an amending Act actually said, which matters because the lagasafn folds amendments into the parent Act and prints only the result. It is also where the words being replaced are recorded: an Icelandic amending article is written as in place of the words X there shall come Y, so the Act itself is the evidence of what the rule used to be. A PDF and a WordPerfect version are linked from each page.
Standing: Issues the instrument
Cannot be cited for: This is Althingi's reproduction of the enacted text, not the gazette. The authentic publication is Division A of Stjornartidindi at stjornartidindi.is, and section 8 of Act 15/2005 ties legal effect to publication there. An amending Act read here is also the text as passed and carries no later amendment of itself, so it must never be cited for what the law is now - only for what a particular Act did on a particular day. It does not say whether the change it makes is still in force.
We re-read it every 90 days. More about this source
- consolidatesLog um logfestingu Nordurlandasamnings um almannatryggingar, 2013 nr. 119 21. november
Lagasafn, Althingi · consolidated to 2026-10-01
About this source
The consolidated collection of Icelandic Acts, published under section 9 of the Act on Stjornartidindi and the Legal Gazette 15/2005. The minister is responsible for publishing it and a three-member editorial board appointed for five years at a time oversees it, one member nominated by the Speaker of Althingi; it is hosted on the parliament's own site. Each edition carries a number and a date - the one read here is Utgafa 158a, Islensk log 1. oktober 2026 - and an Act is served at a pinned address of the form https://www.althingi.is/lagas/<edition>/<year><number>.html, with /lagas/nuna/ as an always-latest alias. Every Act's header prints the date it came into force and a Breytt med line naming every amending Act with its own commencement. Amending Acts are worked into the parent Act, new Acts are added and repealed Acts are removed at each update. Passages inserted or substituted by a later Act are printed inside square brackets with a numbered footnote naming the amending Act and section, and repealed provisions are printed as an ellipsis with the same kind of footnote, so the page shows what has gone as well as what is there. Treaties given the force of law are printed in full as schedules, which is how the EEA Agreement and the Nordic Convention on Social Security are readable in Icelandic inside the statute book. The parliament separately serves each Act as passed at https://www.althingi.is/altext/stjt/<year>.<number>.html.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: The lagasafn is a statutory consolidation and it is still subordinate to the gazette: section 9(1) of Act 15/2005 says that where the lagasafn text and the text published in Division A of Stjornartidindi diverge, the Stjornartidindi text governs. It must not be cited as the authentic text. It is a snapshot and not a running text - the Um lagasafn page says it is updated as a rule three times a year, at the start of the year, in spring and in autumn, with the edition numbered by legislative session and lettered a, b or c - so an Act passed since the edition date is simply not in it, and the site keeps a separate Nylega samthykkt log page for those. The square-bracket convention means a figure substituted by a later Act is printed inside brackets with a footnote marker beside it, so the number is in the collection but is not quotable as a clean sentence; the amending Act's own text has to be used instead. The collection publishes Acts only: regulations are at island.is/reglugerdir and are a different publisher. It says nothing about how an agency applies an Act - no subsistence amount, no fee, no processing time and no country list is in it.
We re-read it every 60 days. More about this source