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WORK PERMITS

EXPLAINED: How to apply for an after studies residence permit in Denmark

On April 1st, new rules relating to job-seeking permits came into effect for international students who have completed their studies in Denmark. Here's how the scheme works.

Published: 17 April 2023 16:17 CEST
Updated: 23 April 2023 09:06 CEST
EXPLAINED: How to apply for an after studies residence permit in Denmark
Photo: Søren Bidstrup/Ritzau Scanpix

What is the job-seeking permit?

The permit is the next step after a student residence permit and acts as a raft for those seeking employment after graduating. Under the new work permit rules, the job-seeking permit is now valid for three years. The previous rules only allowed six months.

Are you eligible for a job-seeking permit?

This is for students from non-EU countries. EU/EEA/Swiss citizens can stay in Denmark under EU free movement rules.

Non-EU students can be granted a three-year permit, if they hold a residence permit as a student in a Danish professional bachelor, bachelor, master or PhD educational programme and have completed their studies.

Students whose study programmes do not fall into one of those four categories may still be able to get a shorter, six-month job seeking permit. This includes educational programmes not approved by a Danish state authority but instead have an advisory statement by the Danish Evaluation Institute (EVA).

Do I need to apply for the job-seeking permit?

The Danish Agency for International Recruitment and Integration (SIRI) automatically grants the three-year job seeking period when the study permit is granted, as long as the student’s passport has sufficient validity.

You only need to apply if you were previously granted a six-month permit, or you have completed your studies in Denmark and don’t have the automatic permit, or your student residence permit has a shorter validity due to the expiry date of your passport. A residence permit can only be valid until three months before the expiry date of your passport.

The application portal can be found on SIRI’s website.

If you have not completed your studies and your residence permit is about to expire, you can apply for an extension of your residence permit as a student.

What about the old scheme?

The older scheme, called the Establishment Card was abolished as a scheme under the new rules. However existing holders can still apply to have their cards extended under the old rules, or apply for the new job-seeking permit.

What can you do with the permit?

  • The permit allows you to stay in the Schengen area for up to 90 days within a 180-day period.
  • You can have free Danish lessons, as long as you are 18 years old and your address is registered.
  • You have the same right to work that you had during your stay as a student: 20 hours a week and full time in June, July and August.

What can’t you do with the permit?

  • You can’t work in other Schengen countries.
  • You can’t give up your Danish address or stay abroad for more than six consecutive months, otherwise you will lose your right to stay in Denmark. Exceptions to this rule are PhD students or students at an international educational programme under the Erasmus Mundus, Erasmus+ or Nordic Master.
  • You can’t receive public benefits. You must be able to support yourself and your family during your stay.

Can my family be included on the permit?

Accompanying family members can have their residence permit extended to the job-seeking permit. There is a fee for this.

What happens when I find a job?

If you are offered a job, in which you must work more hours than the 20 allowed by your job-seeking permit, you can apply for a work permit without limitations. Those who have completed educational programmes with advisory statement by the Danish Evaluation Institute (EVA) are exempt from this.

A work permit without limitations means you can work full-time hours for any employer for the length of your three-year job-seeking permit. You can change jobs without needing to apply for a new permit.

If you want a longer permit, you can apply for a residence and work permit based on the job offered.

There are various work permits, depending on your type of employment. These work permits cannot be granted for longer than four years but can be extended. You can begin to work while SIRI is processing your application.

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For members

WORKING IN DENMARK

How will Denmark’s new rules on recording working hours affect you?

From July this year, all people working in Denmark will have to document any deviations from their agreed working hours. Here's how it's going to work.

Published: 13 May 2024 13:13 CEST
Updated: 13 May 2024 15:14 CEST
How will Denmark's new rules on recording working hours affect you?

On January 23rd, Denmark’s parliament voted through a law that, among other things, requires all Danish employers to introduce a working hours registration system that makes it possible to measure the daily working hours of each individual employee. 

The requirement, which comes into force on July 1st, implements a 2019 judgement of the EU Court, which stated that all member states needed to bring in laws requiring employers to record how many hours per week each employee is working.

The bill is built on an agreement reached on June 30th last year between the Confederation of Danish Employers, the Danish Trade Union Confederation, and Denmark’s white collar union, the Danish Confederation of Professional Associations. 

Will everyone working in Denmark now need to keep a detailed record of the hours they put in each day? 

No. Workers will only need to register any deviations from the working hours they have already agreed or been scheduled. So long as they stick to their scheduled hours, they never need to open the app, website, or other time registration system their organisation has set up. 

If they have to come in early for an interview, however, or do a bit of preparation for a meeting the next day in the evening, they will be expected to log those extra hours. 

Similarly, if they pop out for a dentist’s appointment, or to get a haircut, those reductions in working hours should all be noted down. 

What do employers need to do? 

All employers need to set up and maintain a detailed record of the actual hours worked by their employees, but the law gives them a lot of flexibility over how to do this, insisting only that the record be “objective, reliable and accessible”. 

They could do it in the old-fashioned way using a shared Excel spreadsheet, or, as most probably will, use an app such as Timetastic from the UK, ConnectTeam from the US, or Denmark’s zTime or Timelog.

To make it easier for their employees, employers can fill their scheduled hours into the time registration system in advance, so that workers only need to make a log of any deviations.  

Under the law, employers are required to keep these records for five years.

Employees empowered to set their own schedule — so called self-organisers — are exempt from the law, but as the law states that such people should be able to reorganise their own working time “in its entirety” and that this power should be enshrined in their contracts, this is only expected to apply to the most senior tier of executives. 

Who will be able to see my working hours? 

Each employee should only have access to their own data, which is covered by the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), and should not be able to see a detailed record of hours worked by their colleagues. 

Managers, however, will have access to the working hours records made by their subordinates. 

Will the legislation put limits on how many hours I can work? 

Yes, but in theory those hours already are limited for almost all employees by collective bargaining agreements. 

The new rule is intended to make sure that employees do not work more than 48 hours per week on average over a period of four months, the minimum standard under EU law, known as the 48-hour rule.

People in certain professions can, however, work longer than the 48-hours if they are covered by a so-called “opt-out”. 

Won’t it just be an additional hassle? 

The Danish Business Authority, the government agency which is supposed to support businesses in Denmark, estimates that keeping the time registration system up to date will only take between one to three minutes of employees’ time. 

In addition, it estimates that as much as 80 percent of employees in the country already keep a record of their time. 

Henrik Baagøe Fredelykke, a union official at Lego, said in an article on the website of the HK union, that he believed that the records could serve as an “eye-opener” about unrecorded overtime. 

What was crucial, he said, was that the system was used primarily to ensure that there was no systemic deviation from working hours and not to police employees. 

“It must not be used for monitoring by the management, who can come and say ‘whoa, why didn’t you work 7.4 hours yesterday?’,” Fredelykke said.

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