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READER QUESTION: What are the language requirements for permanent residency in Denmark?

What Danish language requirements are needed for permanent residency in Denmark? We take a look at the rules.

Published: 18 January 2023 16:46 CET
Nyhavn, Copenhagen
Nyhavn, Copenhagen. Photo: Ethan Hu, Unsplash

Reader question: What Danish language requirements are needed to get permanent residency in Denmark? I am British and received EU residency prior to Brexit and have been here for two years.

Due to Brexit, British people living in Denmark are either on EU residency permits or non-EU residency permits, depending when they moved to the country.

The Withdrawal Agreement transition period ended on December 31st 2020, so anyone moving from Britain to Denmark after this date came as a non-EU citizen.

In the case in question, the rules relating to EU temporary residency apply. This means it’s possible to apply for permanent residence after five years living in Denmark. Applications can be submitted one month before those five years, so there are just under three years to go for someone who has lived in Denmark for two years.

If you are an EU/EEA/Swiss citizen, there are no language requirements to obtain permanent residency.  This only applies to non-EU citizens, who need to pass the Danish language test 2 (Prøve i Dansk 2), or a Danish exam of an equivalent or higher level.

Below we outline the details.

EU temporary residency

As an EU citizen, your temporary residence permit in Denmark can continue for as long as you meet the requirements (i.e. being employed, self-employed, a student, or through having sufficient funds). If your circumstances change, you have to apply for a new temporary residency.

After five consecutive years, you qualify for permanent residency and this means you can stay in Denmark indefinitely and you don’t need to apply for residency again if your circumstances change. 

However, as an EU temporary resident, it is not mandatory to apply for the right to permanent residence.

Once you have permanent residency, you can leave Denmark for longer stretches of time than with temporary residency but if it is more than two years, you will have to renounce your residency. Only by becoming a citizen can you avoid this.

Non EU temporary residency

The process is more complicated if you’re not in the EU. There are various ways to get a work and residence permit for non-EU nationals, depending on your profession.

Work permits and therefore residency permits are granted for no longer than four years but you can apply for an extension three months before your current permit expires. 

If you are a non-EU citizen you can be granted permanent residence once you have had a temporary residence permit for eight uninterrupted years, or four years in certain circumstances.

EU Permanent residency requirements

You can apply for permanent residency one month before reaching five years residency in Denmark. During those five years, you are allowed temporary residence abroad for a less than six months per year but there are exceptions.

You need to submit your application to the Danish Agency for International Recruitment and Integration (SIRI).

The documents you need include:

  • A copy of your passport or national ID card 
  • The completed application form
  • Proof how you met your temporary residency requirements over the past five years. This is often tax returns from the past five years. 

The process can take up to 90 days and there is no fee. 

Your family members are not covered by your application and must submit their own applications, after five years of residence.

Non EU Permanent residency requirements

If you are a non-EU citizen then you can be granted permanent residence once you have had a temporary residence permit for eight uninterrupted years, or four years in certain circumstances.

However, there are other strict requirements to fulfil.

You must not have been convicted of certain crimes; you may not have any overdue public debts; you may not have received certain forms of social benefits within four years of applying for a permanent residence permit; you need to pass the Danish language test 2 (Prøve i Dansk 2), or a Danish exam of an equivalent or higher level. You also need to have current employment – working at least three years and six months of the previous four years.

The rules for permanent residency are more lenient if you are between 18-19 years old, if you are a person of Danish descent, a former Danish citizen, or have ties to a Danish minority group.  

The application takes 10 months to process and costs 6,745 kroner.

It is important to submit the application before a current residence permit expires.

If you do not meet all the requirements for a permanent residence permit, you can apply for an extension of your current temporary residence permit instead. You can do this three months before your current residence permit expires.

If you need any more information or have questions, you can contact SIRI on their contact page.

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RESIDENCY PERMITS

Bank guarantee: Could Denmark change ‘demeaning’ family reunification rule?

A rule requiring Danes and foreign partners to deposit a large sum of money to qualify for family reunification is again in the spotlight after reports on its administrative costs.

Published: 9 March 2023 08:10 CET
Bank guarantee: Could Denmark change 'demeaning' family reunification rule?

In its policy paper from December 2022, the coalition government stated it wants to halve the “bank guarantee” (bankgaranti), a requirement which demands couples deposit a large sum of money with municipalities for the foreign (non-EU national) partner to be granted a residence permit under family reunification rules.

According to figures from the Danish Immigration Service (Udlændingestyrelsen), the bank guarantee, which must be paid in order for the foreign partner to be granted residence, is set at an eye-watering 110,293 kroner (€14,800) in 2023.

It is currently unclear when a bill will be tabled in parliament to implement the government’s planned reduction of the bank guarantee under Danish law. Minister for Immigration and Integration Kaare Dybvad Bek told newspaper Ekstra Bladet in January that a proposal could be ready for hearing “this spring”.

But it has become a renewed topic of discussion after broadcaster DR this week reported that Copenhagen Municipality has not once used any bank guarantee deposits within the last three years, but has spent 2.2 million kroner annually on administration of the rule.

The purpose of the bank guarantee is ostensibly to ensure that municipalities can draw from the fund to pay for costs such as unemployment benefits, if the family reunified person needs them.

But the requirement may have little practical effect because foreign nationals resident under family reunification rules are likely to lose their residence status anyway if unemployed, negating the need for social welfare benefits.

Copenhagen currently has around 4,000 active bank guarantees and the cost of administration of these deposits – around 2.2 million kroner per year – was spent without any of them being used, DR reports based on an access to public records request.

In Aarhus, the municipality uses resources approximate to one full-time employee per year on administration of the scheme, according to DR. Like in Copenhagen, there were no withdrawals in 2022. There were “few” cases where the money was used in Aarhus in preceding years according to the report.

“I’m a supporter of strict immigration rules but it should not be crazy,” the head of Copenhagen Municipality’s integration and employment committee Jens-Kristian Lütken, an elected official with the Liberal (Venstre) party, told DR.

“It looks that way from my chair when we are spending so much money on something where no one is being sanctioned,” he said.

Social Democratic councillor for social issues and employment in Aarhus, Anders Winnerskjold, told DR that “this is an example of something where we say ‘are we actually getting the benefit we think we are’, and we’re actually not because we’re spending more time on it than is needed in reality”.

“I basically agree that we should be careful about creating a flow of people that must be provided for by Danish taxpayers, and as such the intention behind the bank guarantee is good,” he said.

“But you have to say that we’re not really hitting the target here, so there must be other ways to solve this problem,” he said.

After 10 years – the usual point at which permanent residency can be granted – the bank guarantee is no longer required, but it must remain in place until this time.

An affected Danish national who spoke to The Local in 2021 described how the bank guarantee posed a hefty financial burden that made it harder for international couples to live up to the many other integration demands placed on third-country partners.

The bank guarantee has been criticised in the past for being unfit for purpose and an administrative burden for local authorities.

Organisation Marriage Without Borders (Ægteskab uden Grænser) says it wants the bank guarantee to be abolished and replaced with the same criteria used for family reunification under EU law.

“On a human level, there are many Danes who feel alienated and find the criteria demeaning because it means in practice that you must demonstrate that your partner is not a threat to Danish society,” the organisation wrote in a social media post.

“Even if the security guarantee is halved (as the government plans), there will still be Danes who ‘can’t afford love’, such as young students,” it also stated.

In a written comment to DR, Bek said that “foreigners who come to Denmark should be self-sufficient and not a burden to the state. The bank guarantee, which was introduced over 20 years ago, helps ensure that”.

“In addition to the preventative effect that the bank guarantee has, it also enables municipalities to recover potential future costs in the event that a family reunified person receives benefits,” he stated.

“It is obviously not a criteria for success that municipalities withdraw money from the bank guarantee. The criteria for success is the opposite: that family reunified persons continue to provide for themselves,” he added.

The minister has previously confirmed that the government wants to reduce the bank guarantee to enable people with lower disposable sums to apply for family reunification.

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