Danish citizenship

For foreigners to obtain Danish citizenship, Folketinget – the Danish parliament – must vote in favour of granting it. Twice a year, a bill is submitted with a list of names of those who have applied for citizenship and meet the requirements for it or have been granted dispensation. When the bill is passed, the people named on it are granted citizenship.

To get your name on the bill, you must submit an application to Denmark's Ministry of Immigration and Integration. The Ministry will assess if all demands for citizenship have been met. You can apply for an exemption from some of the many requirements, but, generally, very few are granted. See statistics below describing various aspects of the citizenship procedure.

For first-time applicants, there's a fee of DKK 6,000 (2025). For some young people, the fee is lower. The fees are adjusted every year. You cannot get the money back, regardless of the outcome of your application.

Requirements

To be granted Danish citizenship, a refugee must meet the following 10 requirements.

You must:

1) declare fidelity and loyalty to Denmark, the Danish constitution, Danish values, legal principles and democracy,

2) have a permanent residence permit in Denmark, and have had it for at least 1 year,

3) have lived in Denmark without interruption for 8 years,

4) not have committed any crime that have led to a prison sentence, or have been fined with an amount that leads to a quarantine period,

5) not have any overdue debt to public authorities,

6) be self-supporting, meaning you haven't received certain public benefits,

7) have had full-time employment (at least 30 hours per week) for 3.5 years over the past 4 years, and be under employment at the time of the bill's presentation in parliament,

8) have passed a Danish language test at a sufficiently high level,

9) have passed the citizenship test,

10) participate in a constitutional ceremony.

Fidelity and loyalty
When applying, you must sign a declaration promising fidelity and loyalty to Denmark and Danish society. By doing so, you also declare that you promise to comply with Danish law and respect Danish democracy.

Residence
Usually, you must have held a permanent residence permit in Denmark for at least two years to be eligible for Danish citizenship. For refugees and stateless persons, however, only one year is required.

In addition, you must usually have had 9 years of uninterrupted residence in Denmark, or 8 years for refugees and stateless persons.

There are slightly more lenient residence requirements for foreigners who are married to a Danish citizen, but in practice this will not matter to most people, as you must have resided in Denmark for eight years to obtain a permanent residence permit, which is a prerequisite for citizenship.

Most applicants will already have resided in Denmark for 8 years as part of them acquiring permanent residence. However, in order to obtain citizenship, the residence must be uninterrupted. If, during this period, you have left Denmark for more than one year in total, an additional 3 years of uninterrupted residence may be required, starting from your most recent 'entry' into the country. This is a recent tightening of the rules that may affect many refugees.

The calculation of your uninterrupted stay starts over if you leave the country for a longer period of time, usually four weeks or more. Short trips abroad are in principle not a problem, but if you have spent a total of more than six weeks abroad during a year, they'll be added to your tally of 'residence interruption' as mentioned above. Read more about stays abroad here.

Due to these strict residence requirements, many young people without citizenship choose not to travel in their gap years or go on exchange programmes abroad as part of their education for fear of the consequences it may have on their chances of obtaining citizenship in the future. However, exchange programmes can in fact be exempted from residence interruptions. Read more about the requirements for obtaining a permanent residence permit here.

Criminal offenses
You must not have committed a crime that has resulted in a prison sentence, regardless of whether the sentence was suspended or un-suspended, and regardless of whether the crime was committed in Denmark or abroad. Crimes committed abroad will be assessed to determine what punishment a similar offense would have resulted in under Danish law. See the list of convictions that lead to exclusion here.

Fines of more than DKK 3,000 will trigger a temporary exclusion of 4.5 years, meaning you will have to wait 4.5 years after you pay the fine before you can become a citizen. Multiple fines are added up, so, for example, multiple traffic offenses can result in a 9-year exclusion.

Even though a conviction is officially deleted from your official criminal record after a number of years, it will still be considered in relation to your application for citizenship, regardless of how many years have passed. If the authorities discover that you, in your application, have failed to disclose any criminal offense or fines resulting in temporary exclusion, you risk being punished with a fine or up to two years of imprisonment for fraud which can result in your citizenship being revoked and you being barred from reapplying. Two years after you have been granted citizenship, the Ministry of Immigration and Integration will search for any criminal matters that you may have been involved in while your application was being processed.

Debt
You must not have any overdue debts to public authorities, meaning you must not have debts to the state or to local authorities that has not been paid in due time, even if you have entered into an installment plan or an agreement to delay the payment.

This includes fines, taxes, duties and benefits that you have been asked to pay back, e.g. if you have received too much in cash benefits or housing benefits. Debts owed to banks or credit unions are not included. See the list of types of debt allowed here.

Self-sufficiency
You must not have received certain types of public benefits for two years prior to being granted citizenship. This includes cash benefits, educational assistance and integration benefits. See the different prohibited benefits here.

It is also a requirement that you haven't received any of these benefits for any more than a total of 4 months over the past 5 years.

SU (student grants), early retirement pension and State Pension are not among the prohibited benefits. You are also allowed to receive unemployment benefits, but if you receive them for more than 4 months, the required self-sufficiency period is prolonged.

You can obtain exemption for benefits received during pregnancy or maternity leave.

Employment
There are two requirements for employment. First, you must have worked full-time, at least 120 hours per month, for at least 3.5 years within the last 4 years. If, in a month, you have worked less than 120 hours, the month does not count towards your total.

Education does not count towards the employment requirement, except if you are a student in a youth or vocational education programme where you are employed as an intern with a student salary and where there is a so-called education agreement ('uddannelsesaftale') between the educational institution and your employer. However, this type of paid internship does NOT count toward the requirement that the applicant must be 'currently employed' at the time when the bill is to be presented in parliament.

These rules mean that young people in some cases choose not to pursue education in order to meet the requirement, while those who prioritise education must wait many years for citizenship, even if they have lived in Denmark their entire lives.

The second requirement is that you must be currently employed at the time the bill concerning your citizenship is presented in parliament. This, however, does not have to be full-time employment, as long as it is no less than 15 hours per week.

You do not meet the requirement if you are in a job with wage subsidies, are in a regular internship during education (this includes paid internships), or are in unpaid employment. You are allowed to be in fixed-term employment as long as it is not through a temporary employment agency. However, it may become a problem if your contract expires before the bill is passed.

Recipients of state and early retirement pensions are exempt from the employment requirement, but early retirement pensioners must often wait 4 years from the day they are awarded their pension before being exempt from the self-sufficiency requirement.

Language
You must have passed the Danish Language Test 3 or something equivalent to that, e.g. the 9th grade final exam or certain vocational training programmes. You can also meet the demand by passing secondary school, hhx, htx, hf, or similar. See here which tests, exams or educational programmes can replace the Danish Language Test 3.

If you haven't received public benefits in the past 2 years, and no more than 3 months in total over the past 9 years, it will be sufficient to pass Danish Language Test 2.

Citizenship test
It is another requirement that you pass the citizenship test. The test focuses on Danish society, culture and history. It consists of 45 questions, 35 of which cover 235 pages of learning material that you can read up on before the test. The material is also available as audio recordings. Of the remaining 10 questions, 5 are about current political, cultural and social issues, while the last 5 are about values. To pass the test, you must answer 36 questions correctly, including 4 of the 5 value questions. Find the learning material and see previous exams here.

You can register for the exam at several locations throughout the country. The exam is held twice a year, and the fee to participate is DKK 946 (in 2025). See more about the exam here.

Be aware of the website www.infodsretsprove.dk, which looks like the official site for the citizenship test but requires payment to access tests and questions. It is not necessary to pay for access to previous tests. They are all available for free on the official site www.danskogproever.dk.

Constitutional ceremony
Once Folketinget has granted you citizenship, the final demand is that you participate in a constitutional ceremony in the municipality where you live. Here, you must sign a declaration that you will abide by the constitution and respect Danish values and legal principles, including Danish democracy. After that, you must shake hands with the mayor or councillor without gloves and with the palms touching. Finally, you'll get your citizenship certificate.

Children and stateless people born in Denmark are not required to partake in a constitutional ceremony.

A long process

It takes a long time from you first apply for citizenship until you can call yourself a Danish citizen - if you ever make it that far. First the Ministry of Immigration and Integration will have to process your application to make sure you meet all the demands, questions of possible exemptions will have to be sorted, and finally the parliament will process the bill with your name. Overall, you can expect the process to last for more than three years.

Due to the long processing time, some children will reach adulthood and so can no longer obtain citizenship with their parents. They will instead have to apply for it themselves. Read more about children's path to citizenship below.

Adult immigrants in this country who obtain citizenship have on average had to wait 17 years for it. Those of their children who do not obtain citizenship before turning 18 are on average 25 years old when they become citizens. The latter group are people who were born and raised in Denmark. Still, they have to wait a quarter of a century to officially "become Danish." Today, 82,000 descendants in Denmark do not have Danish citizenship. See graphics at the end of the article.

In 2025, only about one in five of the 750,000 immigrants living in Denmark had obtained Danish citizenship, while fewer than two out of every three descendants born and raised in Denmark had done so.

Over the years, the demands for obtaining Danish citizenship have been tightened many times. Without Danish citizenship, you are excluded from traveling on a Danish passport and voting in parliamentary elections. There are certain jobs you cannot hold, and you cannot represent Denmark at international competitions.

And so, no less than 11.5% of the adult population in Denmark today is excluded from participating in democracy because they don't have citizenship.

Danish citizenship, furthermore, makes you a citizen of the EU, which gives you special rights. Rights that this group is also excluded from.

IMMIGRANTS IN DENMARK WITH AND WITHOUT DANISH CITIZENSHIP

The graph shows the number of immigrants in Denmark with and without citizenship (orange bars, left axis) in the period 1980-2025, as well as the share of immigrants in Denmark who have Danish citizenship (grey line, right axis).

DESCENDANTS IN DENMARK WITH AND WITHOUT DANISH CITIZENSHIP

The graph shows the number of descendants in Denmark with and without citizenship (orange bars, left axis) in the period 1980-2025, as well as the share of descendants in Denmark who have Danish citizenship (grey line, right axis). Descendants are people born in Denmark where none of the parents have Danish citizenship as well as being born in Denmark.

LENGTH OF STAY AND AGE AT THE TIME OF OBTAINING CITIZENSHIP

The graph shows how long immigrants who obtain Danish citizenship in a given year have lived in the country on average when they obtain it, as well as how old descendants (born in Denmark) are when they obtain Danish citizenship, in the period 1992-2023. Both groups are divided by age (over/under 18 years). The figures are based on calculations made by the Institute for Human Rights based on figures from Statistics Denmark.

Children

In general, children of foreigners below the age of 18 can only obtain Danish citizenship with one of their parents. Thus, children are totally dependent on their parents' ability to meet the criteria. The child must live in Denmark on a valid residence permit and cannot be married or have been charged with a criminal offense that would prevent them from applying for citizenship.

In some cases, children can apply for citizenship without their parents, e.g. if they are stateless or if they cannot apply for citizenship with a parent.

If it is not possible for at child to apply together with a parent, the child can apply as a so-called "hovedperson", or main applicant. It is not sufficient for the child to do so that the parents do not want to apply for Danish citizenship. An assessment will be made as to whether the parents would be able to meet the demands for citizenship in the foreseeable future (meaning, withing the next 5 years).

Only if it assessed that the parents will not be able to do so, the child will be allowed to apply as a main applicant. In that case, the child will have to meet the usual demands but will be exempt from the requirement of permanent residence and may be exempt from the requirement of having a registered address in Denmark.

Stateless persons

Stateless persons born in Denmark
A stateless person born in Denmark may be included on a bill for citizenship without having to meet the usual demands. This is due to the fact that Denmark has ratified UN conventions that oblige states to avoid statelessness.

Note that a person is not stateless simply because they were born in Denmark to parents with refugee status. Children usually acquire the citizenship of their parents, even if they are born in another country. Statelessness is a specific definition, with Palestinians and Rohingya being possibly the most well-known examples.

Which requirements stateless persons born in Denmark must meet to acquire Danish citizenship depend on the age of the applicant.

Under the age of 18: Are included on the bill for citizenship without having to meet the usual demands, as long as the child is a resident of Denmark. There's no application fee.

18-21 year-olds: Are included on the bill without having to meet usual demands if they have a registered address in Denmark, have lived in the country for at least 5 years up to the date of their application or 8 years in total, and haven't committed any crime resulting in a prison sentence of 5 years or more.

Above the age of 21: Must live up to the usual requirements, unless they have previously received incorrect processing or guidance in relation to applying for Danish citizenship.

Stateless people born outside of Denmark
Denmark has signed several international  conventions on citizenship and statelessness. The state is therefore obliged to ease demands for stateless people who come to the country as refugees or immigrants.

However, Denmark has only eased access to citizenship for stateless people by lowering the residence requirement for citizenship from nine to eight years, which the UN has criticised. This is also the only relaxation for stateless people who come to Denmark as children. Apart for this minimal relaxation, these people must meet all the same strict demands.

Exemptions

Only the Danish Parliament's Citizenship Committee (Folketingets Indfødsretsudvalg) can decide whether to grant dispensation from one or more of the requirements for citizenship. This requires a majority vote by the committee's 17 members.

If you meet the conditions for exemption set out in the official letter of demands for citizenship, your case will be submitted to the committee by the Ministry of Immigration and Integration.

If you are seeking exemption from, for example, the work or language requirements, you must apply for exemption yourself and enclose documentation showing that you are unable to meet the demands.

A member of the Citizenship Committee may also request a case to be considered by the committee. As an applicant, you can therefore try to contact one or more of the members of the committee and explain why you believe you should be granted dispensation from a requirement. It will be up to the member to decide whether to bring the case before the committee. You can see who sits on the Citizenship Committee on the parliament's website. Here, you can also find their contact details. In 2024, 25 cases were submitted to the committee by request of one of the members.

In exemption cases, committee members must read through piles of statements from doctors, teachers, social workers and employers before voting behind closed doors. Even if an applicant has been granted early retirement due to PTSD, for example, and thus has been assessed by professionals to be unfit to work, their possible exemption will still be up to the whims of the politicians on the committee. The committee is not required to justify their refusal of exemptions which makes the process even more opaque and lacking in rule of law.

It also makes it so much more concerning that several committee members have stated that they consistently vote against all applicants from "Muslim countries" and that the current chairman of the committee, Mikkel Bjørn of the Danish People's Party, takes the view that far too many citizenships are already being granted.

In 2024, the Citizenship Committee processed 477 cases of exemption. Dispensation was granted in less than half. 150 of them were granted to young people who did not meet the employment requirement.

Over the years, it has become more difficult to obtain exemptions from language and citizenship test requirements based on medical conditions. In 2024, 131 such cases were processed by the committee. Dispensation was granted in only 15. See graphics at the end of the article.

In 2024, top 5 nationalities to be granted Danish citizenship were: Germany, Great Britain, Iran, Ukraine, India.

EXEMPTION CASES

The graph shows the number of exemption cases that were processed in 2024, divided by dispensations granted and refused, and broken down by which requirement(s) the exemption was sought for, as well as the proportion of the total number of cases for each requirement where dispensation was granted.

Attitude interviews

In December 2024, for the first time ever, the Citizenship Committee summoned three people, whose names were already on the citizenships bill to be passed later that month, to an interview to assess their "democratic attitude" despite the fact that the three applicants met all formal requirements for citizenship. The reason was that a man from the public had found (legal) posts on the applicants' profiles on social media that some committee members found offensive.

The interviews were met with harsh criticism, and questions were raised about the legality of the proceedings.

During the interviews, the applicants were asked, among other things, whether they would ban the infamous Muhammad drawings if they could design the law as they pleased, and how they would react to seeing two men kissing each other in the street.

The three applicants who were called for the interviews all obtained citizenship in the end. However, during the proceedings of the next citizenship bill, one person was removed from the list after complaints from at private individual.

Since then, the government has appointed an expert committee to investigate the possibility of "screening for anti-democratic attitudes" among citizenship applicants, including on their social media accounts. Several experts declined to chair the committee because they found the idea problematic. In the end, a civil servant from the Immigration Service was picked to head the committee. The Liberal Alliance party recently announced that it will vote against all applicants until the procedure of screening for "democratic disposition" is in place.

All of this has made potential applicants hesitant to participate in the public debate and express their opinions and viewpoints on social media, because they do not know whether this could be used against them at some point.

Revocation of citizenship

You may risk having your Danish citizenship revoked if, during the application process, you have provided false or misleading information or failed to disclose any criminal offences you have committed. Providing false information may result in a prison sentence which would permanently exclude you from regaining citizenship. 
Citizenship may also be revoked if you are convicted of gang- or terrorism-related crimes.

For a period of time, the authorities administratively revoked Danish citizenships if it turned out that it had been granted by mistake. However, in September 2025, the Danish Supreme Court overturned this practice in a ruling according to which citizens cannot simply be stripped of their citizenship if they have, in good faith and over a long period of time, organised their lives as though they were Danish citizens.

You are not alone

At Refugees Welcome, we work to ensure that the demands for citizenship are fair and possible for everyone to meet. In our report 'They don't know how much stress we have' we described how the employment and language requirements are disproportionately more difficult for women to meet. 

Fortunately, we are not alone in this fight. The groups Os Udenfor ('we on the outside') and Unge for Statsborgerskab ('young people for citizenship') bring together young people with immigrant backgrounds to meet others in the same situation, and they are working to have the rules relaxed. With 'Tidselsruten' (the Thistle Route), ActionAid Denmark is bringing attention to how difficult it is for young people with immigrant backgrounds who have grown up in Denmark to become Danish citizens.

The Institute for Human Rights has published the report 'Fremmed i eget land?' ('stranger in your own country?') about the unreasonably difficult path to citizenship for children and young people who are born and raised in Denmark.

Refugees Welcome and DRC Danish Refugee Council's local volunteer groups will answer your questions and help with you application, free of charge. And young people under the age of 25 can seek help and guidance from the Fisken Association. Several lawyers also offer help with applications, but you risk paying a lot of money without getting the right council. We recommend consultant Miriam Thompson, who has reasonable prices and extensive knowledge from many years in the field.

Read more

When the parliament grants citizenship to a foreigner by law it is called naturalization. The requirements for naturalization are officially set out in the circular letter on naturalization. The circular letter also specifies the conditions under which exemptions from one or more of the requirements may be granted.

Read the full circular letter on naturalization here.

Read more on the website of the Ministry of Immigration and Integration here, where you can also apply for citizenship. However, not all details are available on the Ministry's website.