Apply for residence permit on humanitarian grounds

According to the Danish Aliens Act, Section 9b, 1, a residence permit on humanitarian grounds can be granted to a foreign national who is registered by the Immigration Service as an asylum seeker in Denmark.

If the Danish Immigration Service decides to process your asylum application in Denmark, you have the possibility of applying for a humanitarian residence permit. However, this is preconditioned by the immigration authorities having information about your place of residence.

The applicant must be in such a situation that significant humanitarian considerations warrant a residence permit.

The Danish Parliament has decided that humanitarian residence permits should be the exception, not the rule. A humanitarian residence permit is only granted in very special cases. A residence permit can be granted, among other reasons, if you suffer from a very serious treatment-requiring illness, or if you risk deterioration of a serious handicap by returning to your home country.

The Ministry conducts a specific assessment of each individual application for a humanitarian residence permit.

In making this assessment, the Ministry places importance on the applicant’s personal situation, including whether he or she suffers from a serious physical or psychological illness, and whether the application concerns a family with young children who come from a nation at war.

If the applicant suffers from a serious illness which can substantiate a humanitarian residence permit, the Ministry will also assess whether the applicant can receive the necessary treatment for this illness in his or her country of origin.

The Ministry’s ruling regarding a humanitarian residence permit is final. This means that the ruling cannot be appealed to any other administrative authority.

More information is available in a note on practice of 2 September 2008 (in Danish only).

More information regarding the rules after 1 August 2010 is available in a note describing practice of 1 August 2010 (in Danish only).

You may also read more about humanitarian residence permits in the Ministry’s memorandum of 24 March 2015 (in Danish only).

In addition to the Ministry’s memorandum of 24 March 2015, you can find information about the adjustment of practice due to the ruling by the Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Right in Paposhvili v. Belgium on 13 December  2016, send to the Danish Parliament April 9 2018 (in Danish only).

An application for a humanitarian residence permit should be submitted to the Ministry of Immigration and Integration. If you wish to apply for a humanitarian residence permit please use this application form

Your application must be sent to the Ministry of Immigration, Integration and Housing, Slotsholmsgade 10, 1216 Copenhagen K or by email to uim@uim.dk

The Ministry requires information from you

A residence permit on the grounds of health is only granted to those persons suffering from a very serious treatment-requiring illness. You are therefore required to provide up-to-date medical documentation for the illness. It is not enough that you alone state that you are seriously ill.

If you apply for a humanitarian residence permit on the grounds of your health, you must therefore as soon as possible forward medical documentation for this very serious treatment-requiring illness. The medical documentation must be produced by medical professionals.

The documentation may for instance consist of record entries from your preliminary medical examination upon arrival at the asylum centre, continuation reports and other medical information from the medical staff at the asylum centre where you are staying. The documentation may also consist of records from doctors you have consulted and records from any possible hospital stays. You can obtain this information by contacting the medical staff at the centre where you are staying or the doctors you have consulted. You may also – at your own expense – ask a doctor to fill in the "form for procurement of medical information to be used for the processing of the application for a residence permit on the grounds of health by the Danish immigration authorities". The Ministry can always request further medical information concerning your serious treatment-requiring illness. The Ministry does not reimburse any costs incurred in connection with the procurement of medical information.

The Ministry has the right to request the information from your asylum case, and this will almost always happen if you apply for a humanitarian residence permit.

The Ministry will use this information in the processing of your application for a humanitarian residence permit.

An application for a humanitarian residence permit does not prompt any right to stay in the country while the Ministry is processing your case.

Only under very special circumstances will the Ministry grant you the right to stay in the country while your case is being processed.

However, you always have the right to stay in Denmark as long as your asylum case is being processed by the Immigration Service or the Refugee Appeals Board.