When we say that your salary and terms of employment must correspond to Danish standards, we mean that your salary, holiday entitlements, terms of notice etc. must not be inferior to the standards within the professional field in Denmark in which you are going to work.

When you apply, you must submit a copy of your employment contract or a specific job offer which contains all the terms of employment. 

For most schemes it is a condition that you are offered full-time employment (normally 37 hours per week).

Please follow link for specific information on working hours as a researcher and under the Pay Limit Scheme.

The EU Working Time Directive determines that the average weekly working hours within a 4 month period must not be higher than 48 hours.

Please note that the so called "70-year rule" was repealed as of 1 January 2016. This means that it is no longer possible to agree to a contract stating that the employment ends when the employer reaches a certain age.

Furthermore, please note that Danish employment contracts must comply with current regulation on job, competition and customer clauses, cf. the Act on employment clauses of 1 January 2016. Employment contracts not complying with this act are not corresponding to Danish standards.

If SIRI has any doubts whether your salary and terms of employment correspond to Danish standards, we can ask one of the regional labour market councils to assess the terms of employment.

If the council finds that the terms of your contract do not correspond to Danish standards, we will then request your comments before we make a decision in your case.

When applying for most types of Danish residence and work permit after 1 January 2021 only salary in the form of liquid assets can be included in the assessment of whether the offered salary correspond to Danish standards. Payment to labour market pension schemes can be included in the assessment of the wage level.

If an employer offers other salary components such as paid living and housing expenses, such components cannot be included in the assessment of the wage level.

An employer can offer to pay remuneration for overtime or bonus to a bank account in another country, but such salary components then cannot be taken into account in the assessment of the wage level.

Please follow link for specific guidance on the condition that salary must be paid to a Danish bank account.

The conditions that salary must be paid to a Danish bank account does not apply to you if you have been granted a residence permit as an accompanying family member, not even if your employment requires a specific work permit.

For cases not comprised by the condition of payment to a Danish bank account, there has to be a certain proportionality between paid salary and other salary forms such as diet and lodging, per diems, free car, telephone or the like offered by your employer. generally, paid salary has to pose a majority of the total salary.

Uncertain salary such as piecework, commission or bonus can normally not be included in our salary estimation.

Likewise, expenses for travels to or from Denmark paid by your employer cannot normally be included in our salary estimation.