Navigating Danish Citizenship - Part 2

Trying to understand the citizenship process in Denmark can be a challenge. In part 1 of our July issue, legal expert Hayel Celik-Graversen introduced the first conditions for Danish citizenship. In this article, Hayel concludes part 2.

Text: Hayel Celik-Graversen

Pictures: iStock

Interruption of residency stay in Denmark

If you travel a lot for work or as a private individual, it may affect whether you meet the residence requirements. Generally, stays abroad lasting more than four consecutive weeks are considered to be interruptions of residence. Therefore, without affecting your fulfilment of the residence requirement, you can have interruptions of residence for a total of 1 year.

Criminal offences

You must state if you have committed any criminal offences. It is a condition that you should not have committed certain types of criminal offences (or that any waiting period in connection with a criminal offence has expired). In your application, you must disclose both criminal offences committed in Denmark and criminal offences committed abroad, if any, as all places count.

Debt to the public sector and self-support

It is a condition that you do not have overdue debts to the public sector and can support yourself. This means that you must not have received help under the Active Social Policy Act or the Integration Act in the past two years. This also means that you must not have received help for a total period of more than four months in the last five years. The benefits which may not have been received during the periods mentioned include cash assistance, training assistance, rehabilitation allowance, resource flow benefit, unemployment benefit and integration benefit.

Employment

You must be in regular full-time employment or engaged in self-employment for at least three years and six months within the last four years. It is also a condition that you are attached to the labour market at the time of the submission of a draft law on the notification of citizenship. An example of what is included in calculating the employment requirement may be ordinary employment with an average weekly working time of at least 30 hours in Denmark. Employment abroad is included during the period under special conditions, just as specific groups of people are exempt from the requirement of employment, including, for example, Danish married applicants who live abroad because of the spouse's posting abroad for Danish interests.

"Danish citizenship is a gift to be earned. That is why we must make an effort when we hand out beetroot-coloured passports. Those we welcome in the Danish family must have embraced Denmark and stay on the right side of the law." - Citizenship spokesman for the Liberal Party, Morten Dahlin.

Danish skills

It is a condition that you document your Danish skills, e.g. passed the Danish Language Education Test in Danish 3 or one of the tests listed in Annex 3.a to the Circular Letter on Naturalization.

Citizenship test 2021 and ceremony

You must have passed the citizenship tests that focus on Danish social conditions, culture, and history. Once passed, you must attend a ceremony, show respect for Danish values and act respectfully towards representatives of the authorities. You also will be asked to sign a document where you comply with the Danish Kingdom's Constitution and respect fundamental Danish values and legal principles, including Danish democracy.

Did you know?

You can have citizenship in two countries, also called "dual citizenship"? For example, it is legal to have dual citizenship in Denmark if the country of your other citizenship allows it. Not all countries do, though.