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BREXIT

‘Absurd’: Briton living in Denmark urges authorities to reverse his deportation order

A British resident of Denmark has slammed Danish authorities for their “irrational“ application of the Brexit Withdrawal Agreement which has left him facing deportation in just a month.

'Absurd': Briton living in Denmark urges authorities to reverse his deportation order
Phil Russell with his Danish partner Frederikke Sørensen. Russell has been asked to leave Denmark after submitting an application to extend his residence rights four days after the deadline. Photo: private

Are you a British national in Denmark facing a situation similar to the one described in this article? If so, you can contact us here — we’d like to hear from you.

Phil Russell, a 47-year-old financial services administrator who lives in the western part of Zealand, received notice he must leave Denmark by early next month after missing the deadline to register for a post-Brexit residence permit.

He says the Danish Agency for International Recruitment and Integration (SIRI) shoulders the blame for the nightmare situation he now finds himself in.

“For the first year of my stay in Denmark, before SIRI’s catastrophic handling of my case, I was very happy indeed and loved the country and the people, who I found to be very friendly and welcoming,” Russell told The Local.

But a demand he leave Denmark after applying four days too late for the residence permit issued to UK nationals after Brexit has left him facing stress and uncertainty.

“It means that you can’t really relax, ever. You can’t take any enjoyment from anything because this is always playing on the back of your mind,” he said.

SIRI sent reminders to UK nationals resident in Denmark to update their residence status under the terms of the Brexit withdrawal agreement prior to a December 31st, 2021 deadline. But Russell did not receive the reminders and eventually discovered he had missed the deadline just four days into January 2022.

He has been told his application has been rejected and that he must leave the country, with his late submission explicitly cited as the reason for the refusal.

After moving to Denmark in October 2020, Russell registered as a resident of Denmark through SIRI under the EU’s right to free movement, which still applied to British citizens at that time.

At the time, he spoke to SIRI staff and was advised that his residency paperwork was correct and he need take no further action.

In accordance with the Withdrawal Agreement between the EU and the UK, British nationals resident in Denmark were required to apply for their residence status to be updated. This was done in several phases during the course of 2021 and SIRI sent three reminders to affected UK nationals in Denmark advising them to submit an application to extend their residency past the deadline of December 31st, 2021.

However, Russell did not receive the reminders from SIRI. He submitted an application immediately after finding out he had missed the deadline.

He received a response from SIRI in May, informing him that his application had been rejected. He appealed this decision with SIRI but the appeal was turned down and he received a letter dated November 7th asking him to leave Denmark by December 6th.

“We have paid importance to the fact that you do not meet the conditions for a residence document in Denmark, as you have not applied for a residence document before 1 January 2022,” SIRI states in the letter, which has been seen by The Local.

“As a consequence of our decision, you also no longer have the right to work in Denmark without a work permit. Therefore we will inform your employer about our decision,” the letter continues.

Deportation for missing a paperwork deadline by four days is against the spirit of the Brexit withdrawal agreement, Russell argues, noting in particular the agreement’s Article 5.

The Article states that the EU and UK must “take all appropriate measures, whether general or particular, to ensure fulfilment of the obligations arising from this Agreement and shall refrain from any measures which could jeopardise the attainment of the objectives of this Agreement.”

“If you look at Article 5 of the withdrawal agreement, it clearly mentions that [authorities] should refrain from taking any kind of actions that would jeopardise the objectives of the agreement, which is to protect the rights of citizens to continue living and working” in their countries of residence after Brexit, he said.

With this in mind, “no rational person could conclude that SIRI are entitled to use their own communications incompetence as a pretext” for deportation, he said.

EU countries were urged not be draconian in their application of the withdrawal agreement.

France, for example, extended its deadline due to high demand and new health restrictions in 2020, and because French authorities were aware many Britons were unlikely to meet the original deadline.

Russell told The Local he has the right to appeal against the decision with the Immigration Appeals Board (Udlændingenævnet). He has eight weeks from the date of SIRI’s decision in which to submit an appeal and has notified authorities that he intends to appeal.

He said he would prefer to wait until the new government – rather than the current caretaker government – is in place before appealing.

His residence and working rights in Denmark are protected while the appeal is ongoing, he said.

Mads Fuglede, a Liberal (Venstre) MP who was the party’s immigration spokesperson during the previous parliament agrees with Russell that the SIRI ruling is not in the spirit of the withdrawal agreement.

“There’s no minister I can get an answer from,” Fuglede told The Local with reference to the current caretaker government.

“But I believe that a minister would have the powers to say to the authority – that is, SIRI – that they should accept late applications,” he said.

READ ALSO: British citizen faces deportation from Denmark after missing residence card deadline

In an email to The Local, SIRI noted that the deadline for submission of applications for update residence status after Brexit was “set in the Brexit executive order”.

“It is in the first instance the responsibility of the British citizen and their family members to stay oriented about Brexit, which has also had much publicity,” the agency said.

SIRI said it had sent three information letters to about 19,000 resident British citizens in 2021.

“SIRI can naturally not rule out there being Britons who did not receive the information letters which were part of SIRI’s information campaign,” it said.

In its information request to the agency, The Local asked how many people did not receive the information letters. We also asked whether there had been a technical or other problem which had resulted in them not being received. These questions were not answered directly.

The agency stated that, up to September 30th, it had received 290 applications for post-Brexit continued residency status after the December 31st, 2021 deadline. Some 17,811 applications were received before the deadline.

Decisions on some applications made after the deadline are still being processed, SIRI said, meaning it is not clear how many UK nationals have already or could yet lose their residency rights.

Russell said that SIRI’s decision had no tangible benefit for Denmark, noting that the country was likely to lose tax revenue by deporting settled British residents. Similar rulings in other cases could split families, he said.

“I think they [SIRI] have a mindset where they try to cover up all of their incompetence by bland statements about technical problems,” he said.

“It seems crazy because there’s nothing to benefit Denmark, it just increases costs for Denmark and there’s no real justification for it,” he said.

Russell said he and his Danish partner, Frederikke Sørensen, had canvassed MPs, campaigned and spoken to “anyone who would listen” about his case throughout 2022.

“It’s something that we’ve worked on very hard,” he said.

“If I have to move I would lose my job, my fiancé, my home. It would be the absolute destruction of my life. I just can’t imagine that happening,” he said, adding he will “fight until the bitter end” to have the decision overturned.

“The absurdity of SIRI’s actions are beyond parody,” he said.

He said he remains hopeful that his appeal will be successful, allowing him to continue his life in Denmark.

“My desire to stay and to make a life in Denmark remains undiminished and indeed most of the people helping me to seek justice are Danish. I am committed to my Danish fiancé and to Denmark and I will continue to fight SIRI’s unjust and illegal actions,” he said.

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WORK PERMITS

EXPLAINED: How to apply for a work permit in Denmark as an intern

Want to intern at the elite restaurant Noma, at the architecture firm Bjarke Ingels Group, as a vet or as a nurse? Here's what you need to know.

EXPLAINED: How to apply for a work permit in Denmark as an intern

Denmark has a special scheme for foreigners offered work in the country as interns, with different rules for those employed in architecture, healthcare, farming or veterinary jobs, or other sectors such as the natural sciences, technical fields, the pharmaceutical sector, or culture.

As an intern, you can get a permit to work in Denmark and a residency permit without having to earn any salary whatsoever, let alone secure the generous pay levels required to qualify for the Pay Limit Scheme. 

But you do have to meet the conditions put in place, to prevent unscrupulous employers using the internship permit to bring low cost labour to the country. 

You can find an English language guide to internships on the website of the Danish Agency for International Recruitment and Integration (Siri). 

READ ALSO: Danish work permit agency changes practice for hotel and restaurant interns

Who is eligible to get a work permit as an intern? 

You need to be between the ages of 18 and 35 (or 18 and 30 for some sectors), and you normally need to be studying a relevant subject in your home country or current country of residence .

In some cases you can already have recently graduated and in some cases you can be studying a subject not related to the internship, but if this is the case you need to show that you have passed a semester’s worth of courses in a relevant subject. 

If your internship is unpaid, you normally need to show that you have at least 6,820 kroner a month to support yourself over the period.

If your internship is paid, your salary must be at least 6,820 kroner per month, which has to be stated in the standard contract, and paid into a Danish bank account in a bank operating legally in Denmark.

Be aware that opening a Danish bank account can be difficult, with applicants normally needing to have a Danish address and CPR personal number. If you are having trouble you can apply for a basic payments account.

What qualifications do I need to show or paperwork do I need to provide? 

The rules are different depending on which sector you intend to carry out your internship in. 

Agricultural, horticulture, forestry or veterinary 

If you plan to intern in the agricultural, horticulture, forestry or veterinary sectors, you need to show that you have passed a language test in English, Danish, Swedish, Norwegian or German at the A2 level or higher, in Common European Framework of Reference for Languages scale.

This is a very basic level, described in the CEFR as enough to communicate “very basic personal and family information, shopping, local geography, employment”. 

For English language tests offered by IELTS, the Danish Agency for International Recruitment and Integration (SIRI) accepts test scores from 3.0, and for English tests from TOEFL, scores at Studieprøven level (C1 CEFR level). You will need to send the results certificate along with your application. 

To qualify for an internship in these sectors you also need to be studying a relevant subject in your home country, or the country where you have residency, and the internship also needs to be timed to coincide with where you are in the course, for instance as a practical element following more theoretical ones. 

“We compare the content of your educational programme with the job tasks which you will be carrying out during the internship,” Siri writes in its guide to internships. 

You cannot be more than 30 years old for an internship in these sectors. 

Interns in these sectors do not need to provide proof that they can support themselves. 

Healthcare 

There are no language requirements for an internship in the healthcare sector, and for medical interns there is no upper age limit (although an age limit of 35 applies for other healthcare interns). 

The internship must be related to the educational programme you are studying in your home or another country, and you need to submit an authorised translation of the list of courses you have studied, along with your application. 

You can receive an internship in healthcare even if your studies have recently been completed, but you must show that the internship is a continuation of your studies and relevant to the future role you intend to take on. 

If you have completed your studies, you should include documentation of any work experience you have had since completing your studies. 

If your internship is unpaid, you need to show that you have at least 6,820 kroner a month to support yourself over the period, which you can document with a bank statement or a copy of a scholarship certificate. It is not enough for someone else, such as a parent, to say they will support you. 

Architecture 

To be eligible for a work permit in the architecture sector, you cannot have completed your education and cannot be more than 35 years old. 

The internship must be related to the educational programme you are studying in your home or another country, and you need to submit an authorised translation of the list of courses you have studied, along with your application. 

If your internship is unpaid, you also need to show that you have at least 6,820 kroner a month to support yourself, which you can document with a bank statement or a copy of a scholarship certificate. It is not enough for someone else, such as a parent, to say they will support you. 

Which employers are eligible to take interns?

Employers need to be approved to take interns, either through a prior praktikpladsgodkendelse, or “place of internship approval”, or through sending detailed documentation to Siri on what the internship will consist of, including details of who will be supervising the intern, and prior experience the firm has with taking on interns or trainees. 

All public hospitals in Denmark are approved as places of internship.

If you are planning on interning at a Danish architecture firm, the firm must use the standard “Internship Agreement and Guidelines” issued by DANSKE ARK, the Danish association of Architectural Firms, and the Danish Union of Architects and Designers.

Architecture firms do not need to receive a separate praktikpladsgodkendelse but when filling in the standard contract, need to state the number of fully-trained architects and number of interns working at the firm. 

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