Procedural stay when applying for residence permit for the first time

Procedural stay means that you can stay in Denmark while we process your application for a residence permit.

You can get a procedural stay if you were in Denmark when you submitted your application. It is a requirement that you submitted your application while being on a legal stay in Denmark legally. This requirement however does not apply if you apply for asylum.

If you have submitted your application abroad and you travel to Denmark afterwards, you do not automatically have the right to get a procedural stay while we process your application.

Therefor you have to leave Denmark again after for example an ended short term visa stay, if we by then have not finished the processing and granted you a residence permit.

Your rights on a procedural stay

When you are on a procedural stay, you are generally not allowed to work, and your right to medical care is limited. If you work for an employer in your home country, in certain cases you can however continue your work during a procedural stay. It is a requirement that you do not directly or indirectly work for a Danish company. It is also part of the assessment whether it is without consequences for the work you do for the employer in your home country, where it is done.

Please notice the special rules applying if you are covered by the rules on job change

If you leave Denmark

If you have a procedural stay and you leave Denmark, your procedural stay will lapse. Your application will however not lapse and therefor it will still be processed. Therefor it is important that you inform about where you stay or where you ruling must be send to.

You continue your procedural stay in Denmark if you are granted a short term visa or is visa free, and you leave Denmark and enter again, before your short term visa stay expires.

If your short term visa or visa free stay expires and you need to leave Denmark and enter again before a ruling is made in your case, you can apply for a re-entry permit.

Read more about applications for re-entry permits