Denmark
Residency route coverage
| Route family | Routes | Coverage |
|---|---|---|
| Investment | No routes recorded | No qualifying route as of 2026-06-29[1][18][29] Denmark has no investor or golden-visa residence route. The Aliens Act's grounds for residence on the basis of employment or self-employed business are enumerated in section 9 a(2), and the list contains no investment ground: the only self-employment ground is number 10, the innovative-business-plan route that became Start-up Denmark. SIRI states the point directly on that route's own page – an applicant who has only economic or financial interests in a business, for example as a shareholder, cannot be granted a permit under the scheme, and neither can a holding company. Real-estate purchase runs the other way round from a residence-by-investment programme: the Department of Civil Affairs requires a person who does not have domicile in Denmark, or who has not previously resided here for at least five years, to obtain the ministry's permission before acquiring real property at all, so property ownership presupposes residence rather than producing it. |
| Remote work | No routes recorded | No qualifying route as of 2026-01-06[21][22][33] Denmark has no digital-nomad or remote-work permit. Every scheme on the Immigration Service's own published list of work schemes requires either a job offer from a Danish employer or a business established in Denmark, and working from Denmark for a foreign employer for more than a short visit needs a work permit that no Danish scheme grants on that basis. |
| Passive income | Routes recorded One record, and its scope needs stating plainly: Denmark has no retirement, private-means or passive-income residence route that a person can apply for from abroad. The only instrument in this family is the permit for a retired employee of an international organisation, EU institution or the like, which requires 12 years' prior uninterrupted residence in Denmark on a permit issued by the Foreign Ministry under Aliens Act section 47(1). It is a continuation-of-residence route for people already here, classified in this family because it turns on retirement, bars paid work and sets no employment or salary condition. | |
| Entrepreneur | Routes recorded Two records. Start-up Denmark (Aliens Act section 9 a(2)(10)) is the single active self-employment route, capped at 75 permits a year and gated on an expert panel appointed by the Danish Business Authority. The pre-2015 self-employment permit is kept as a closed route: SIRI still extends permits first issued under the rules in force before 1 January 2015, but directs every new-business application to Start-up Denmark. | |
| Work |
| Routes recorded as of 2026-01-06[2][22] |
| Study |
| Routes recorded Four records: higher educational programmes, PhD studies, basic and youth study programmes, and folk high schools. Guest and exchange students are not a separate instrument – they use the higher-education permit and document enrolment at an institution at home. The line that runs through all four and that a reader needs is the state-approval distinction: a programme approved by a state authority carries work rights, family rights and a job-search permit, while one carrying only an advisory statement from the Danish Evaluation Institute carries none of the three for anyone who applied on or after 2 May 2025. |
| Family |
| Routes recorded Six records, and they are not variations on one rule – they are three different regimes. The Danish Immigration Service administers reunification with a spouse, with a child and with an 'other family member', the last of which is where a parent applies and which the authority itself says is rarely approved; those carry the 24-year rule, the integration requirement, the housing requirement, the ten-year financial guarantee and post-grant Danish tests, and cost DKK 8,490 with an expected maximum of ten months. SIRI administers accompanying family to an employee and to a student or PhD, which carry none of that, cost DKK 3,080 per person and normally decide in two months. And SIRI issues the EU residence document to the family of an EU citizen exercising free movement, which is free, carries no conditions of either kind, and reaches children up to 21 and in some circumstances parents. Which regime a reader falls under is decided by the sponsor's status, not by the relationship. |
Country facts
Identity
| Local name | Danmark |
|---|---|
| ISO code | DNK |
| Region | Europe |
| Currency | DKK as of 2026-08-19[3] The EU country profile records Denmark's currency as the Danish krone and states that Denmark negotiated an opt-out from the euro and is therefore not obliged to introduce it. Every amount in the Aliens Act, in the ministry's annual amount notice and in SIRI's fee schedule is stated in kroner. |
| Official languages | da as of 2026-08-19[3] Danish is Denmark's official EU language. SIRI, the Immigration Service and the Tax Agency all publish parallel English pages, but English is not an official language and the Danish text is the operative one – see the Start-up Denmark self-support figure, where the two language editions of the same page disagree about which year's level the figure is. |
Memberships
| Memberships |
|
|---|
Permanent residence
| Qualifying years | 8 as of 2026-07-07[32] |
|---|---|
| Language requirement | required, level unspecified as of 2026-07-07[32] The basic requirement is a pass in Proeve i Dansk 2 or a Danish examination at an equivalent or higher level; Proeve i Dansk 3 is separately one of the four supplementary requirements. Neither is stated by the Immigration Service in CEFR terms, and no official CEFR mapping was retrieved, so the level is recorded as required_unspecified rather than mapped by inference. |
| Integration requirement | Recorded at the source, but not reducible to a single value[32] |
| Income requirement | Recorded at the source, but not reducible to a single value[30][32] |
Citizenship
| Years to naturalisation | 9 as of 2026-06-11[5] Nine years' continuous residence is the normal rule. Shorter periods apply to named categories: eight years for recognised refugees, persons equated with refugees and stateless persons; two years for Nordic citizens; six to eight years for spouses of Danish citizens of at least three years' standing, depending on the length of the marriage; five years for persons who have received a substantial part of their education in Denmark. Naturalisation itself is by Act of Parliament – the applicant must be named in a naturalisation bill passed by the Folketing. |
|---|---|
| of which on permanent residence | 2 as of 2026-06-11[5] The applicant must have held a permanent residence permit for at least two years when the naturalisation bill is passed, and be resident in Denmark. One year for recognised refugees, persons equated with refugees and stateless persons. The requirement also applies to persons residing in Denmark under EU rules. |
| Dual citizenship | allowed as of 2026-08-19[31] Denmark has accepted dual citizenship since 1 September 2015, per the Ministry of Immigration and Integration's own statement. The ministry notes the obvious limit: Danish rules do not bind other states, so whether a person actually keeps the other nationality depends on that country's law. Single Tier-1 source under the sole-official-publisher convention – the ministry administers Danish nationality. |
| Language requirement | required, level unspecified as of 2026-06-11[5] The general condition is a pass in Danish language test 3 (Dansk 3) or a test listed in Appendix 3a to the Circular on naturalisation. Danish language test 2 (Dansk 2) suffices for an applicant who has not received assistance under the Active Social Policy Act or the Integration Act for more than three months over the last nine years. Denmark states the requirement by test name, not by CEFR level, and no official mapping was retrieved. |
| Citizenship test required | Yes as of 2026-06-11[5] Indfoedsretsproeven af 2021 (the naturalisation test of 2021) demonstrates knowledge of Danish society, culture and history. A pass in the earlier 2015 test between June 2016 and June 2021 also counts. A separate condition, distinct from the language test, is participation in a municipal constitution ceremony including a handshake with the mayor. |
Tax
| Tax-residency day threshold | 183 as of 2024-05-03[4] |
|---|---|
| Other tax-residency triggers | domicile as of 2024-05-03[4] |
| Headline income tax rate | Recorded at the source, but not reducible to a single value[25] |
| Income tax structure | progressive as of 2026-06-24[25] Four state brackets from 2026 plus a municipal tax. Two of the four – top-bracket and additional top-bracket – were introduced on 1 January 2026 and the previous top-bracket tax was halved and renamed middle-bracket tax; see recent_changes. |
| Net-wealth tax | No as of 2003-10-09[28] |
| Inheritance or estate tax | Yes as of 2026-04-10[26] |
| Special tax regimes |
|
Your next step
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Reference figures
| Reference figures | No reference figures recorded |
|---|
Changes
Recent changes
| 2026-01-01 | New personal income tax bracket structure. Two new state taxes were introduced – a top-bracket tax of 7.5 per cent on personal income above DKK 777,900 after labour market contribution and an additional top-bracket tax of 5 per cent above DKK 2,592,700 – and the former top-bracket tax was halved to 7.5 per cent and renamed the middle-bracket tax, applying above DKK 641,200. Bottom-bracket tax is 12.01 per cent.[25] |
|---|---|
| 2026-01-01 | SIRI and Immigration Service case-processing fees revised for 2026. Start-up Denmark and its extension are DKK 3,060; extension of a pre-2015 self-employment permit falls under 'other schemes in the area of work' at DKK 6,810; a permit as a retired employee of an international organisation is DKK 3,650. Affects: Start-up Denmark, Self-employment (residence permit issued under the rules in force before 1 January 2015), Residence permit as a retired employee of an international organisation[9] |
| 2026-01-01 | Aliens Act monetary thresholds regulated for 2026 by ministerial notice VEJ nr 10218 of 7 December 2025: the permanent-residence annual taxable income figure (section 11(4)(3)) is DKK 346,155.57, the overdue-public-debt ceiling for a payment extension (section 11(3)(4)) is DKK 143,100.98, and the financial guarantee under section 9 q(6) is DKK 61,709.34. The notice applies for 1 January to 31 December 2026 and replaces the 2025 notice. Affects: Residence permit as a retired employee of an international organisation[30] |
| 2026-01-01 | The researcher tax scheme's minimum guaranteed monthly salary for highly paid employees is DKK 65,400 for 2026. The Tax Agency describes the 2026 requirement as reduced relative to 2025 and states that the requirement of each income year must be met separately, so an employment can start on a salary meeting the 2025 requirement and move to a lower salary from 2026. The 2025 figure itself was not retrieved this run.[27] |
| 2026-01-01 | Pay limit thresholds regulated for 2026. The Pay Limit Scheme's minimum annual salary is DKK 552,000 and the Supplementary Pay Limit Scheme's is DKK 446,000, both applying to the corresponding Fast-track tracks. Both figures are regulated every 1 January under Aliens Act section 9 a(29); the Act's own base figures are DKK 400,000 and DKK 375,000. Affects: The Pay Limit Scheme, The Supplementary Pay Limit Scheme, Fast-Track Scheme[8][15][20] |
| 2026-07-01 | Both Positive Lists were reissued with effect from 1 July 2026. SIRI's news item states that the new Positive List for People with a Higher Education contains 164 job titles and the new Positive List for Skilled Work 63. The lists are updated on 1 January and 1 July; the Regional Labour Market Councils and the profession-specific unemployment insurance funds may add a title at any time in case of acute shortage. Affects: The Positive List for People with a Higher Education, The Positive List for Skilled Work[13][16][17] |
| 2026-08-01 | New wage statistics for the Positive List for Skilled Work took effect on 1 August 2026. SIRI applies statistics drawn from Danmarks Statistik's wage register as the guideline for whether an offered salary corresponds to Danish standards; the per-occupation figures are published separately from the scheme page. The scheme's employer-side apprentice-training reference years also moved to 2025 and 2023-2025. Affects: The Positive List for Skilled Work[17] |
| 2026-06-01 | The indicative salary level for a herdsman rose to DKK 35,705.18 with effect from 1 June 2026. SIRI publishes no period for the figure. The level is determined from Regional Labour Market Council registrations and follows the salary increase stipulated in the collective agreement for skilled agricultural workers, and applies whether or not the employment is covered by a collective agreement. Affects: Herdsmen and farm managers[10] |
| 2025-05-02 | A cut-off dated 2 May 2025 for higher educational programmes that are not approved by a state authority but carry only an advisory statement from the Danish Evaluation Institute (EVA). A student who applied for a residence permit in such a programme on or after that date has no right to work, is not eligible for a job-seeking permit after completing it, and cannot obtain a residence permit for any accompanying family member. Students who applied before that date keep all three. Affects: Higher educational programmes, Job seeking residence permit after a completed educational programme, Accompanying family members to students, PhDs and persons having or applying for a residence permit to obtain a Danish authorisation[6][11][19] |
| 2023-04-01 | The Establishment Card was abolished as a scheme on 1 April 2023, as part of a set of amendments to the Aliens Act taking effect that day. Existing cards can still be extended; there is no first-time application. A card runs two years and can be extended by one, to a maximum of three years in total. Affects: Establishment card[7][12] |
| 2026-03-01 | The 2026 Working Holiday quota period for Chile and Argentina opened on 1 March 2026, with VFS Santiago and VFS Buenos Aires taking appointment bookings from 2 March 2026 at 9 a.m. local time. 150 permits a year are available for each country, up to 75 of them in the first period; once a country's 75 are granted, remaining applications in that period are refused and SIRI's own fee is refunded, though the fee paid to the local representation is not. Affects: Working Holiday[14][23][24] |
Verification
| Sources cited | 33 |
|---|---|
| of which official (tier 1) | 33 |
| Oldest as-of date | 2003-10-09 |
| Newest as-of date | 2026-08-19 |
| Reviewed on | 2026-08-22 |
| Schema version | 1.1 |
Sources
- [1] Acquisition of Real property
Civilstyrelsen (Department of Civil Affairs, Ministry of Justice) · official portal · Tier 1 · Accessed 2026-08-19 - [2] EU Blue Card: Attracting Highly Qualified Talent to the EU
European Commission, Directorate-General for Migration and Home Affairs · official portal · Tier 1 · Published 2025-05-01 · Accessed 2026-08-20 - [3] Denmark – EU country
European Union (Directorate-General for Communication) · official portal · Tier 1 · Accessed 2026-08-19 - [4] Bekendtgoerelse af kildeskatteloven (Withholding Tax Act, consolidated), LBK nr 460 af 03/05/2024
Skatteministeriet / Retsinformation · statute · Tier 1 · Published 2024-05-03 · Accessed 2026-08-19 - [5] Conditions for foreign citizens' acquisition of Danish citizenship
Ministry of Immigration and Integration (via lifeindenmark.dk / borger.dk) · official portal · Tier 1 · Published 2026-06-11 · Accessed 2026-08-19 - [6] Accompanying family members to students, PhDs and persons having or applying for a residence permit to obtain a Danish authorisation
Danish Agency for International Recruitment and Integration (SIRI) · official portal · Tier 1 · Published 2026-06-29 · Accessed 2026-08-20 - [7] Establishment card – extension
Danish Agency for International Recruitment and Integration (SIRI) · official portal · Tier 1 · Published 2026-06-26 · Accessed 2026-08-20 - [8] Fast-Track Scheme
Danish Agency for International Recruitment and Integration (SIRI) · official portal · Tier 1 · Published 2026-07-21 · Accessed 2026-08-20 · Archived copy - [9] Fee – overview of fee rates
The Danish Immigration Service and SIRI · fee schedule · Tier 1 · Published 2026-01-01 · Accessed 2026-08-19 - [10] Herdsmen and farm managers
Danish Agency for International Recruitment and Integration (SIRI) · official portal · Tier 1 · Published 2026-06-29 · Accessed 2026-08-20 - [11] Job seeking residence permit for 6 months after a completed educational programme
Danish Agency for International Recruitment and Integration (SIRI) · official portal · Tier 1 · Published 2026-06-26 · Accessed 2026-08-20 - [12] New possibilities in the areas of work and study from 1 April 2023
Danish Agency for International Recruitment and Integration (SIRI) · official portal · Tier 1 · Published 2023-04-01 · Accessed 2026-08-20 - [13] The Positive Lists are updated as of 1 July 2026
Danish Agency for International Recruitment and Integration (SIRI) · official portal · Tier 1 · Published 2026-07-01 · Accessed 2026-08-20 - [14] Working Holiday – Chile and Argentina
Danish Agency for International Recruitment and Integration (SIRI) · official portal · Tier 1 · Published 2026-02-27 · Accessed 2026-08-20 - [15] The Pay Limit Scheme
Danish Agency for International Recruitment and Integration (SIRI) · official portal · Tier 1 · Published 2026-06-26 · Accessed 2026-08-20 · Archived copy - [16] The Positive List for People with a Higher Education
Danish Agency for International Recruitment and Integration (SIRI) · official portal · Tier 1 · Published 2026-08-17 · Accessed 2026-08-20 - [17] The Positive List for Skilled Work
Danish Agency for International Recruitment and Integration (SIRI) · official portal · Tier 1 · Published 2026-08-03 · Accessed 2026-08-20 · Archived copy - [18] Start-up Denmark (English page)
Danish Agency for International Recruitment and Integration (SIRI) · official portal · Tier 1 · Published 2026-06-29 · Accessed 2026-08-19 - [19] Higher educational programmes
Danish Agency for International Recruitment and Integration (SIRI) · official portal · Tier 1 · Published 2026-06-30 · Accessed 2026-08-20 · Archived copy - [20] The Supplementary Pay Limit Scheme
Danish Agency for International Recruitment and Integration (SIRI) · official portal · Tier 1 · Published 2026-06-26 · Accessed 2026-08-20 · Archived copy - [21] Exemption from the requirement of a work permit
Danish Agency for International Recruitment and Integration (SIRI) · official guidance · Tier 1 · Published 2025-12-18 · Accessed 2026-08-20 - [22] Work schemes in SIRI – an overview
Danish Agency for International Recruitment and Integration (SIRI) · official guidance · Tier 1 · Published 2026-01-06 · Accessed 2026-08-20 - [23] Working Holiday – Argentina
Danish Agency for International Recruitment and Integration (SIRI) · official portal · Tier 1 · Published 2026-06-26 · Accessed 2026-08-20 - [24] Working Holiday – Chile
Danish Agency for International Recruitment and Integration (SIRI) · official portal · Tier 1 · Published 2026-06-26 · Accessed 2026-08-20 - [25] Bottom, middle, top and top-bracket tax
Skattestyrelsen (Danish Tax Agency) · official guidance · Tier 1 · Published 2026-06-24 · Accessed 2026-08-19 - [26] Skatter og afgifter ved doedsfald
Skattestyrelsen (Danish Tax Agency) · official guidance · Tier 1 · Published 2026-04-10 · Accessed 2026-08-20 - [27] Tax scheme for researchers
Skattestyrelsen (Danish Tax Agency) · official guidance · Tier 1 · Published 2026-08-17 · Accessed 2026-08-19 - [28] Kapitalforklaringen afskaffes
Skatteministeriet (Danish Ministry of Taxation) · official portal · Tier 1 · Published 2003-10-09 · Accessed 2026-08-20 - [29] Bekendtgoerelse af udlaendingeloven (Aliens Act, consolidated), LBK nr 1183 af 25/09/2025
Udlaendinge- og Integrationsministeriet / Retsinformation · statute · Tier 1 · Published 2025-09-25 · Accessed 2026-08-22 - [30] Vejledning om regulering pr. 1. januar 2026 af beloebssatser efter udlaendingeloven m.v., VEJ nr 10218 af 07/12/2025
Udlaendinge- og Integrationsministeriet · official guidance · Tier 1 · Published 2025-12-07 · Accessed 2026-08-19 - [31] Dobbelt statsborgerskab
Udlaendinge- og Integrationsministeriet · official portal · Tier 1 · Accessed 2026-08-19 - [32] Apply for a permanent residence permit
The Danish Immigration Service · official portal · Tier 1 · Published 2026-07-07 · Accessed 2026-08-19 - [33] Visa (short term) or work permit?
The Danish Immigration Service · official guidance · Tier 1 · Published 2025-02-06 · Accessed 2026-08-20