Asylum and other forms of protection
There are different kinds of asylum statuses, referring to different international conventions.
Convention status (K-status) is the strongest form of protection, referring directly to The UN Refugee Convention. Subsidiary protection (B-status) can be given if a person risks death penalty, torture, or other forms of inhuman treatment, as described in the European Convention of Human Rights and the UN Convention against Torture. Read about the Danish asylum procedure here.
Earlier on, it was not very important which kind of refugee status you had in Denmark. The two types of asylum were granted for 5 or 7 years the first time, and almost automatically extended. But in 2015 the new art. 7(3) was introduced, which offers a much weaker protection than the other two. It does not give access to family reunification for the first 2 years, and you can lose it as soon as your home country becomes just a little more safe. At the same time, a law change made it possible to revoke a residence permit under art. 7(2) if conditions in the home country would improve slightly – no need for a stable and durable improvement, which is needed to revoke a permit under art. 7(1).
If you have been granted art. 7(2) or 7(3) you can appeal the choice of status to the Refugee Appeals Board.
Art. 7(1): Convention Status
(2 years temporary residence permit, blue convention travel document).
Examples:
A) Political activist from Iran, a member of an illegal student organization, tortured in prison.
B) Homosexual man from Uganda, activist.
C) Young man from Syria, escaped military service.
D) Man from Eritrea, escaped from the national service and left the country illegally.
Art 7(2): Individual Temporary Protection Status
(1 year temporary residence permit, gray foreigners travel document).
Examples:
A) Woman from Pakistan, divorced from her abusive husband after forced marriage, fled because her family plans to kill her.
B) Man from Iran, accused of adultery with a married woman, facing death penalty.
C) Male doctor from Afghanistan, kidnapped by the Taliban, parents have received death threats (after August 2021: art. 7(1).
D) Woman from Eritrea, escaped the country illegally in order to get family reunification here.
Art. 7(3): General Temporary Protection Status
(1 year temporary residence permit, without right to apply for family reunification within the first 2 years. In practice only used for Syrians).
Examples:
A) Mother with a child, fled because of the general civil war conditions in the country.
B) Man from Syria older than 42 years, not individually at risk
C) Unaccompanied minor from Syria.
Art. 8: Quota Refugee/UN Resettlement Refugee
(2 years temporary residence permit)
Read more in the Focus article here about quota refugees or resettlement refugees. In short, a fixed quota is agreed with the UN every year, and the selection is done individually from 2-3 countries. These people are already recognized as refugees and do not have to go through the asylum procedure, but are settled directly in the Danish municipalities.
In 2015, the parliament put a temporary stop to quota refugees, and in 2018 it was decided to completely move away from the fixed agreement with the UN. The number of quota refugees will henceforth be determined each year by the minister, a minimum of 0 and a maximum of 500. In the 7 years from 2015 to 2022, only 235 quota refugees arrived in Denmark in total.
Distribution of different status
Mores about 7(3)-status
In February 2015, the SR government adopted a new, temporary protection status, 7(3), specifically aimed at Syrian refugees who did not have an individual problem, but had fled solely because of the general in particular women and the elderly. In total, over 4,000 people have been granted this status.
It does not provide access to family reunification for the first two years, and until 2020 it also did not provide free access to further education beyond upper secondary school level (see the article "Over 4,000 refugees in Denmark do not have the right to free education"). Furthermore, the right to divorce is not entirely clear, which has resulted in conflicting decisions in courts and in the Family Court. Finally, you can lose it again as soon as things become even a little safer in your home country.
In the spring of 2019, the Danish Immigration Service revoked a handful of residence permits for Syrians for the first time under 7(3). This was based on reports that the general security in parts of Syria had improved. Before your residence permit is finally revoked, however, you will always be called for an interview again, and the case must go through the Refugee Appeals Board with free legal assistance. Almost all Syrians subsequently received a better asylum status in the Board, and no one was sent back. 70% of the initial revokings were overturned in 2022, and the rest were re-opened later.
When the Assad regime fell, all extensions of asylum under §7.3 were put on hold. Read more about it in these two articles from December 2024 and January 2025.
The Special Act for Evacuated Afghans
Read more in our Focus articles from February 2022 and July 2022. The Special Act has now been phased out, and all but a very few have subsequently been granted asylum under article 7(1). However, a large proportion of the evacuees have chosen to leave Denmark for a safer future in the USA and England, where they were granted permanent residence after a short time.
The Special Act for Displaced Persons from Ukraine
While the evacuated Afghans had to wait for 8 months in the asylum centers, even though they had already been selected as a particularly profiled group at high risk, the Special Act for Ukrainians was processed within a few weeks, and the applicants were free to settle in the municipalities with the right to work from day one. The flexibility and friendliness towards Ukrainians has been overwhelming, and should be an example to follow for all refugee groups in the future.
The Special Act has been extended several times, but the period of residence under the Special Act does not count if you want to apply for permanent residence. It will cause major problems when all of the approximately 40,000 permits expire on the same day, March 17, 2026, and a solution must be found. The first asylum cases regarding military service in Ukraine were only decided in 2025, and not surprisingly, they were rejected.