Lapsing permit – Family reunification or asylum (the Immigration Service)

Your residence permit will automatically lapse if you no longer have a residence in Denmark - that is e.g., if you sell your home or terminate the rental contract of your home and leave the country, and you do not intend to return to Denmark. This applies regardless of the type of residence permit you hold.

If you keep a residence in Denmark there are rules for how long you may leave the country without losing your residence permit. These rules depend on the type of residence permit you have:

• Residence permit with a view to temporary residence in Denmark
  If you have a residence permit with a view to temporary residence you may leave Denmark for a maximum of 6 months in a row.

• Residence permit with the possibility of permanent residence in Denmark
  If you have residence permit in Denmark with the possibility of permanent residence and you have resided legally in Denmark for less than 2 years, you may leave Denmark for a maximum of 6 months in a row.
  If you have residence permit in Denmark with the possibility of permanent residence and you have resided legally in Denmark for more than 2 years with a view to permanent residence, you may leave Denmark for a maximum of 12 months in a row.

• Permanent residence permit in Denmark
  If you have a permanent residence permit it will also lapse, if you no longer have a residence in Denmark and leave Denmark or if you leave Denmark for more than 12 months in a row.

If you do not return to Denmark within 6 or 12 months, your residence permit will automatically lapse.

Re-education trips or other stays outside Denmark with a negative impact

If your stay outside Denmark is due to you having been sent on a re-education trip or any other trip abroad with negative implications as a minor, your residence permit will in principle not lapse. 

Read more about re-education trips

Time spent outside Denmark due to military conscription or other involuntary service

Time spent outside of Denmark due to military conscription or other types of involuntary service is not in itself enough to result in a residence permit lapsing.

Time spent in Greenland or on the Faroe Islands

Time spent in Greenland or on the Faroe Islands is seen as time spent outside Denmark.

Special rules apply for persons with a residence permit as a refugee (asylum)

If you have been granted asylum (a residence permit as a refugee), your residence permit can only lapse if you have voluntarily taken up residence outside the EU countries, Norway, Switzerland, Iceland or Liechtenstein, or if you have stayed outside these countries for more than 6 or 12 consecutive months, or if you have been granted protection outside Denmark.

When assessing whether your residence permit should be considered lapsed, the decision will include an assessment of whether, under Denmark’s international obligations, you must retain your residence permit or be granted a new residence permit as a refugee under the Aliens Act section 7.

If you hold a residence permit as a refugee based on a specific and individual risk of persecution or abuse covered by the Refugee Convention (Aliens Act sections 7(1) or 8(1)), you may retain your residence permit if lapsing would be in violation of the Refugee Convention.

If you hold a residence permit as a refugee based on individual circumstances or the general situation in your home country (Aliens Act section 7(2) or (3), or section 8(2)), you may retain your residence permit if lapsing would be contrary to Denmark’s international obligations, including the European Convention on Human Rights.

Special rules apply for persons who have been family reunified with a refugee

Special rules apply if you have been family reunified with a refugee and you return together to your home country or former country of residence to take up permanent residence there. Read more about travelling to a home country

You can be granted a dispensation if you have a well-founded purpose for your travel abroad or if you have been prevented from returning to Denmark.

Dispensation due to a well-founded purpose

You can apply for dispensation from lapsing of your residence permit, if you wish to stay outside Denmark for longer than  6 or 12 months, or if you have given up your residence due to a stay abroad.

It must be your intention to remain outside Denmark temporarily, and you must have a well-founded and well-documented purpose, such as:

• foreign employment/posting for a Danish authority, institution, organisation or company that has a headquarter in Denmark,
• foreign employment/posting for an international institution, organisation or company,
• education, e.g. an education not available in Denmark or exchange,
• an au pair stay, or
• caring for a seriously ill close family member.

You can apply for dispensation due to a well-founded purpose both before and after leaving Denmark. If you apply after leaving Denmark the well-founded purpose must have existed during the entire stay in another country and up until the time when you wish to return to Denmark.

The Immigration Service recommends that you apply for a dispensation before leaving Denmark.

Dispensation due to obstacles in returning to Denmark

You can apply for dispensation if you have stayed outside Denmark for a longer period than allowed, but have not been able to return to Denmark within the allowed period of 6 or 12 months. The Immigration Service can decide that your residence permit has not lapsed if:

• you intended to return to Denmark within the allowed period (6 or 12 months), and
• you could not return to Denmark due to unforeseen events. Such events can be illness, imprisonment, war, natural disasters and problems leaving the country you stayed in.

If a child’s residence permit has lapsed due to a stay abroad there are special rules in the assessment regarding a new residence permit for the child. Read more about the child’s stay abroad

You must apply for a new residence permit as soon as possible.

Family members

If you apply for dispensation from lapsing of your residence permit, you can state in the application form, that the application also includes your spouse or cohabiting partner as well as any children under the age of 18 who are living with you.

If your spouse or cohabiting partner remains in Denmark and he/she or you have a temporary residence permit on the grounds of family reunification, he/she or you risk having the residence permit revoked if the joint residency requirement no longer is met during the stay abroad. This will typically be the case if the stay abroad is longer than 6 months.

Fill in application

You must use the BF1/US online application if you want to apply for your residence permit to remain valid, even though you intend to leave Denmark for an extended period.

Start BF1/US online application

You need MitID when filling in the application form. Read more about MitID

You are required to use the online self-service form BF1/US when applying for dispensation, before your residence permit lapses, unless you are exempt from this requirement. Read more about mandatory online self-service 

Attach documentation

You must attach:

• Copy of your passport (all pages)
• Documentation of the reason for your stay abroad, such as an employment contract, statement from your employer, statement from an educational institution, foreign posting contract or documentation for illnes and the need for nursing.

Fill in application

You can use the BF2-3/US application form if you want to apply for your residence permit to remain valid, even though you:

• have stayed outside Denmark for an extended period
• no longer maintain an address in Denmark or
• are otherwise not included in the Civil Registration System (CPR)

If you are outside Denmark and wish to apply for your residence permit not to be considered as lapsed, you must submit your application before returning to Denmark.

The application form includes detailed instructions for how to fill it in and which types of documentation you need to enclose.

If you want to resume filling in an application form online select ‘Start online application’. Once you are logged in, select ‘Continue a previously saved application’.

If you would like to make changes to an application after you have submitted it, you need to contact the Immigration Service. You do not need to submit a new application. Contact the Immigration Service

Start BF2-3/US online application

We encourage you to use the digital application form. It adapts according to your answers and is automatically sent to the Immigration Service, when you have submitted it

You can also print out and submit the application form. You can fill in the application form in Word format on your computer before printing it out. The application form is also available as a PDF file that can be printed out and filled in by hand.

If you are over the age of 18 or a child applying together with a child you can use the application form BF2.

Download a printable version of BF2 in Word format

Download a printable version of BF2 in pdf format

If you are a minor child not applying together with an adult, you can use the application form BF3.

Download a printable version of BF3 in Word format

Download a printable version of BF3 in pdf format

Attach documentation

You must attach:

• Copy of your passport (all pages)
• Documentation that your stay abroad has had a well-founded purpose. This can for example be an employment contract, confirmation from an employer or education place, posting contract or documentation for illness and the need for nursing.
• Documentation of the unforeseen event that prevented you from returning to Denmark, such as a doctor’s statement (if applicable).

Submit application - only paper-based forms

You can submit your application to the Immigration Service by sending it. You can send it via our contact form or by regular mail. See our contact information

If you are outside of Denmark, you can submit your application at a Danish mission (embassy or consulate), or an outsourcing office in the country where you live.

See the list of Danish missions or outsourcing offices where you can hand in your application

If there is no Danish mission or outsourcing offices in the country where you live, the list refers to missions Denmark shares a representation agreement with, e.g. Norway or Sweden. If there is no representation agreement, the list refers to the nearest Danish mission or outsourcing office in the region.

The Immigration Service recommends that you visit the website of the Danish mission before you submit your application. Individual offices might have additional requirements, such as extra passport photos or copies of your application