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Updated: How are post-Brexit residency applications going in Denmark?

A survey by The Local has found that Denmark's authorities are for the most part handling post-Brexit residency applications from Brits fairly efficiently, with the process taking between two and four months from the moment of application.

Published: 24 August 2021 12:09 CEST
Updated: 2 September 2021 17:12 CEST

Updated: How are post-Brexit residency applications going in Denmark?

In Aarhus, applicants need to leave biometric information at Siri's offices in the Dokk 1 building. Photo: Dokk 1

How long are Danish authorities taking to process residency applications?

According to figures obtained by The Local, Denmark’s integration agency Siri claims it took an average of one and a half months to process applications for permanent residency from Brits in the first half of this year.

That is faster than it processes other residency applications in its “fast-track” category, so it seems like British applications are being prioritised.

As of May 31st, Denmark was nonetheless behind neighbouring countries such as Sweden, The Netherlands, and France in the share of its British residents whose post-Brexit residency applications had been completed, according to the fourth report of the EU and UK’s Special Committee on Citizens’ Rights.

This may be due to Denmark’s slow start, and its decision to ask British residents in Denmark to wait to apply until a certain month, based on their date of birth, to avoid receiving an unmanageable surge in applications.

In November 2020 all British citizens and family members of British citizens in Denmark received an information letter with relevant information about applications for their new residence status in accordance with the withdrawal agreement between The UK and the EU. Siri will send a reminder letter in autumn 2021.

What processing times are The Local's readers reporting?

Brits in Denmark are reporting the process taking between five weeks and four months from the moment of sending in their application to holding their new residency card in their hands.

This includes a two to three-week wait to receive an invite to supply biometric information, then between one and three weeks before an appointment was available at their nearest citizen centre.

Once applicants had given fingerprints etc, it then took between ten days and six weeks to receive a residency card, with the average being about two to three weeks.

"I had to apply in May, did so mid-month and got invited for my biometrics about 6 weeks later. That process was very smooth, only about a 10-minute wait and all very efficiently managed," said Sofie Blakstad.

Rosie Madsen received her residency card four weeks after the biometric test. "I was applying as an already permanent resident, so there was minimal stuff to send in and biometrics went smoothly."

"I had to apply in January and the process was easy at first," said John Barton. "I went to Aarhus for the biometric which was easy for me. The new residence card took over 3 months but I have it for 10 years now."

Has anyone experienced unexpected problems?

Moira Paulsen applied early, but when she got her residency card in April, discovered that the birthdate was wrong.

"I rang Siri as number 27 in a queue only to be told that they knew and that they were 'trying' to rectify the error and that I would hear from them," she said.

"We are now at the end of August and still no card! I have emailed them, rung six times, and get a very kind and patient person telling me that it is their supplier who is having difficulties delivering!! I asked what would happen if I came back from UK and got stopped at the border because the date does not match my passport 'just ask them to ring us'!"

Because Blakstad is a self-employed entrepreneur who has had long periods without pay, she received an email after submitting her biometrics, asking for proof that she had been in Denmark.

"That made me a bit nervous; there was a two-week deadline and although I submitted it immediately, it wasn't clear whether anyone had seen it," she said. "I phoned the next week and they couldn't find it (although they said that was normal), which made me even more nervous, but obviously it got processed and before the deadline, I got an email confirming that I'd been approved."

The process of getting a residency card can take more than three months. Photo: Siri

What other obstacles have come up?

Hasan Salim, a purchasing manager, said that the requirement to submit a work contract signed by your employer within 30 days of the application submission, and also for your employer to fill in the arbejdsgivererklæring, or "employer's statement", might be a barrier for some applicants.

For Davy Smith, who moved to Denmark in 1985, the online aspect of the application has been difficult to manage.

"I had lots of problems finding someone to help me with the online shit. I am old, with no knowledge of IT," he said. "It's totally ridiculous that a permanent residency permit was revoked after 30 years of residency. What happens if I can't take care of myself in 10 years' time, when everything must be renewed?"

What happens when you submit your biometric information?

Biometric information is submitted at one of Siri's six offices, which are in Valby outside Copenhagen, Aarhus, Odense, Aabenraa, Aalborg, and Bornholm.

According to one member of the Brits in Denmark Facebook page, the process was "straightforward".

"You input the number from your reply email, and this generates a ticket with a number on it. You sit down in the waiting area and wait for your number to appear on screen. Go to the desk and hand over your ticket and passport. Then there was a wait similar to when you park upon completion of your driving test, before she told me I would receive my Residence Document today, and my card would follow. We did the photo and fingerprints thing, and then my document was printed off and handed to me, together with a receipt indicating my Biometrics had been taken."

Others have reported waiting for an hour or more after the appointment time they booked.

Has everyone stuck to the recommended application dates?

In its information letter sent in December last year, Siri asked British residents born before 1946 to submit their applications during January, those born 1946-1951 during February, 1952-1958 during March, 1959-1964 during April, 1965-1969 during May, 1970-1972 during June, 1973-1975 during July, 1976-1979 during August, 1980-1984 during September, 1985-1989 during October, and 1990 during November.

But many Brits in Denmark have ignored this request.

"The suggested dates are just that -- suggestions. Timescales seem to vary between SIRI offices. But nobody gets penalised in any way for applying "out of turn", one Brit wrote on the Brits in Denmark page.

Madsen was supposed to apply in September, but applied sooner, as she was worried that her application might not be fully processed by the end of December, which she worried might cause problems with travel. It seems that this did not affect her application. She received her card four weeks after giving her biometric information.

What have people found has helped the process?

Those who already have permanent residency in Denmark dating back to when the UK was a member of the European Union report that this has made the process smoother. Applicants simply send a copy of their existing residency permit, together with a copy of their passport, and the application form.

Is there a risk that it might be hard to travel while you are waiting for your residency card?

Not really. Residency cards issued when Britain was a member of the EU will remain valid until December 31st, the confirmation you receive from Siri you have applied for residency also counts as proof of residency, and when applicants leave their biometric information, they also receive an official document stating that they are legal residents in Denmark.

What advice is the British Embassy in Copenhagen giving to people applying for residency cards?

Contacted by The Local to request relevant advice on the application process, the British Embassy in Copenhagen provided the following information via email:

"UK nationals who were legally resident in Denmark before January 1st 2021 must apply for a new residence document before 31 December 2021. The 'How to apply' pages on the Danish government’s website lists the supporting documentation you need to provide.

After you’ve applied online, you will receive an invitation to book an appointment at your nearest SIRI branch office to have your photo taken and record your fingerprints. We recommend that UK nationals read the Danish government’s guidance on the new residence document and application procedure. You should also read SIRI’s FAQs on residency.

British Embassy Copenhagen has furthermore created two how-to videos on applying for residency under the Withdrawal Agreement."

The two embassy videos can be found via the links below.

How to apply for WA residency in Denmark online

How to have your biometric features taken

Article updated to include response from the British Embassy in Copenhagen.

Member comments

Anonymous - 24 August 2021 at 21:50 CEST

Well, I was invited to submit my details quite early on, being a bit of an elderly (75yr old) applicant. Info, all OK – and asked to come for biometric stuff in early February. All OK…… and then, finally in the first
Anonymous - 24 August 2021 at 21:58 CEST

2. week of May I received my new residency card. Cue – huge excitement…. and then I read it so closely and discovered that my birthdate on the card was wrong ( by one day) so phoned SIRI the next day and was promised that I needed to do nothing else, that the problem was acknowledged and would be sorted and I needed to nothing more. Well by the beginning of July and I had nothing more I made a made another appointment with SIRI. SO in the second week of July I went back to SIRI….. no, nothing had been done to replace my incorrect card, but they would take new biometrics and set in process once again….. And now week 3 of August nothing has appeared in my letter box and I am hoping to be able to go to UK next month and re-enter Denmark at the end of September without a card…. It is all so stressful – but it shouldn’t be. I feel I have done my best by SIRI – but have not yet been done best by them. Don’t gi
ve up if you have problems but keep up the pressure as needed. S

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'I feel exiled': How Brits in Europe are locked abroad with foreign partners

Europe is home to hundreds of thousands of British nationals, many of whom have foreign partners and children. But if they want to move to the UK to live and work it will soon become more difficult.

When it comes to getting a partner visa, the UK has some of the strictest rules in Europe. In addition to hefty fees and a healthcare surcharge, the Home Office requires British citizens and long-term residents who bring their foreign partner to the UK to have a minimum income showing they can support them without relying on the social security system.

The minimum income up until now was set at £18,600 (€21,700), or £22,400 (€26,100) if the couple had one child, plus another £2,400 (€2,800) for each other child.

But these income requirements will rise steeply from April 11th 2024.

How it works: What Brits in Europe should know about UK’s new minimum income rules

From this date the minimum a British national or long-term resident will need to earn if they want to return home will increase to £29,000 (€33,800) and up to £38,000 (€44,313) by spring 2025, although there will no longer be an additional amount for accompanying children.

Alternatively, families need to prove they have at least £62,500 (€72,884) in cash, which from 11 April will increase to £88,500 (€103,207).

‘Family life has been destroyed’

To put this in context the Migration Observatory at the University of Oxford suggests that around 50 percent of UK employees earn less than the £29,000 threshold and 70 percent less than £38,700. The Observatory also says that while the number of people affected by the policy is small compared to the overall UK immigration (family visas represent 5 percent of all entry visas), the impacts on concerned families can be “very significant”.

The Migration Observatory notes that other European countries apply income thresholds to sponsor foreign partners. Spain, for instance, requires sponsors to have an annual income equal to the social security salary. In Denmark, sponsors must not have claimed social benefits in the three years before the application. But in Spain and the US, the partner’s foreign income also counts towards the threshold.

So what does this mean for mixed British and international families living in Europe who might want or even need to return to the UK to live?

Campaigners have complained that many Britons with foreign partners have simply been “locked abroad” or families have been separated while they try to meet the minimum income or savings requirement.

Reunite Families UK, a non-profit organisation supporting people affected by the UK spouse visa rules, says this policy causes distress, especially for children.

Some 65 percent of respondents in research carried out by the group said that their child received a diagnosis of a mental health condition due to the separation of their parents.

“Since its introduction, this policy has destroyed the family life of countless people and children,” Matteo Besana, Advocacy and Campaigns Manager at Reunite Families UK said.

“Women have been forced to become single parents to their children and live away from their partner and the father of their children only because they didn’t meet the threshold.

“As shown by our research on the mental health impact of the policy, these are scars that, particularly for children, will be carried for the rest of their lives,” Besana said.

The people most likely to be affected are women, who tend to earn less or not work because they took on caring responsibilities. Also heavily impacted are people under 30 and over 50 years of age, people living outside London and the Southeast of England where wages are higher, and those belonging to specific ethnicities, according to the Migration Observatory.

The Local spoke to two British women, in Italy and Sweden, struggling to return to the UK with their families because of these rules.

More savings needed

Sarah Douglas, who has been living in Italy since 2007, was planning to return to Scotland with her Italian husband and three children.

“It was always our long-term goal to move back to the UK after we had our children and once we’d have saved enough to buy a home in the UK,” she said.

“In hindsight, we should have gone after the Brexit referendum, but in the beginning it wasn’t clear what the final deal would be and I naively assumed that situations like mine would be taken into account and we would have the right to return… Once it did become clear, we were in the middle of the pandemic and it wasn’t the time to move,” she said.

Having stayed home to take care of the children, Sarah will find it hard to land a job near her family in Scotland that meets the minimum income required to sponsor a foreign partner for a UK visa.

Her husband, a computer programmer, has been trying to get an employment visa, “but most of them state that you must already have permission to work in the UK,” Sarah says. And applying for British citizenship is not an option for a non-UK resident spouse.

‘People need to be aware’

Sarah and her husband are trying to save as much as they can, an alternative to the income requirement, but the amount they need is rising to almost £90,000, meaning it may be a long time before they have enough to move home.

While the aim of the UK’s policy is to ensure families moving to the UK are not a burden on the taxpayer, the reality is that people arriving on a family visa are not able to claim any benefits from the UK government.

“They should judge the overall financial viability of the family unit, rather than just the earning potential of the sponsoring partner,” Sarah says.

“We could live well with my husband’s salary and he could work remotely. We are stable and financially secure, but because I don’t earn any money, they say we are not able to support ourselves.”

Sarah says that most of the British public are unaware of the minimum income requirement.

“People think if you are married, your husband is allowed to come to the UK, but when I say no, it doesn’t work like that, they are really surprised. A lot of people are not aware of how this could affect them,” she said.

Looking for a job from abroad

Another British women who lives in Sweden with her South African husband and two children and plans to move to the UK told The Local how the minimum income requirement had put them in a “precarious and stressful situation”.

The woman, who preferred to remain anonymous said: “After having the two children, I was very fortunate to find a research position and do my PhD, which is a salaried position in Scandinavia, and now that I finished, we are looking to leave.

“But I need a job in the UK to sponsor my husband, and as a new graduate with limited work experience, it is not easy. It is even more difficult when you are not in the country and I missed out on opportunities because they wanted an immediate start. I really don’t want to move without my whole family,” she said.

She says the UK’s policy is “gendered and geographically discriminatory” because it makes life harder for women and also harder for anyone who is planning to move to a part of the country that isn’t in London, where salaries are higher.

“I feel exiled from my country and separated from my family there,” she said.

Her husband, she argues, has his own company and could continue working remotely from the UK, earning well above the requirement. He would also pay taxes and national insurance while having to pay the healthcare surcharge, a form of double taxation, she argues. But that would not entitle him to a visa.

“Our house is on the market now. We have booked removal companies for the 6th of June. The dog is booked for his transport. I just think this policy is so out of touch with the modern world,” she said.

Reunite Families UK has called on the government to recognise the right for British or settled citizens to bring their close family members to the UK and scrap the minimum income requirement. Alternatively, the group says the rules should take into consideration the earning potential of both partners and consider “the best interests of children”.

A petition on the UK parliament website asks the government to reconsider the minimum income policy. If it reaches 100,000 signatures, it will have to be debated in parliament.

This article has been produced by Europe Street news.

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