Information for people from Syria and their family members

On 30 June 2025, the Refugee Appeals Board’s Coordination Committee decided to lift the suspension of cases concerning persons from Syria. Pending cases at the Refugee Appeals Board were returned to the Immigration Service for renewed processing at first instance.

Following this, the Immigration Service also lifted the suspension of asylum cases concerning persons from Syria.

As previously announced, the Immigration Service has continuously collected background information about conditions in Syria and began conducting the first asylum interviews in December 2025.

Throughout 2026, we will gradually invite persons from Syria with pending asylum cases at the Immigration Service for interviews. As a general rule, interviews will be scheduled in the order in which applications were received.

As of 1 March 2026, approximately 500 persons from Syria have pending asylum cases with the Immigration Service.

The Immigration Service is currently processing cases concerning persons from Syria who have applied for a change of status.

Cases are generally processed in the order in which applications were submitted. You will hear from us when the processing of your case begins.

If you have a temporary residence permit as a refugee under section 7(1) or section 8(1) of the Aliens Act, based on a specific and individual risk of persecution, your residence permit will generally be extended if the conditions are still met.

 If you have a temporary residence permit under section 7(2) or (3), or section 8(2), the Immigration Service will, due to the changed situation in Syria, assess whether there are grounds to extend your residence permit or to refuse an extension. In this assessment, we will also consider whether refusing an extension would be contrary to Denmark’s international obligations. This includes, among other things, an assessment of your ties to Denmark.

When we send you a letter regarding the start of your extension case, we will ask you to complete an information form with relevant details for the processing of your case. You must return this form to the Immigration Service.

As a general rule, cases are processed in order, starting with the oldest cases.

We are currently processing cases for persons whose residence permits expired: January 2026.

We will update this information continuously as we begin processing cases expiring in new months.

You may continue to live, work, and study in Denmark while waiting for a decision.

If you are family reunited with a person from Syria who holds a residence permit under section 7(2) or (3), or section 8(2), we cannot process your case until a decision has been made in your family member’s case.

You will hear from us when we reach your case. You may continue to live, work, and study in Denmark while waiting for a decision.

If you have applied for family reunification with a person from Syria whose extension case has been on hold, your application will generally also have been on hold. This also applies if your family member had a valid residence permit based on the general conditions in Syria.

We have now resumed processing cases concerning refugees from Syria, including family reunification cases that could not previously be decided due to the suspension.

Processing of your case will await the completion of the extension case of the family member you are applying to be family reunited with.

You will hear from us when we reach your case.

If you have a residence permit as a refugee (asylum), or are family reunited with such a refugee, the Immigration Service will assess whether the basis for your residence permit is still valid, including whether it would be contrary to Denmark’s international obligations to refuse an extension.

You will hear from us when we reach your case.

The processing time for case regarding dispensation to prevent your residence permit from lapsing is generally 10 months.

We will notify you in writing if we are unable to process your case within 10 months.

Once your residence permit as a refugee has been extended, you may apply for a Convention passport or alien’s passport. Until your extension case has been decided, you should be aware of the following options:

• If your child is going on a school trip: Children holding residence permits in Denmark may usually travel to another EU country without a passport if listed on a school travel list. You can read more about school travel lists here
• If you need a laissez-passer (emergency travel document): You can read about the option to apply for a laissez-passer here