Job seeking residence permit for 1 or 3 years after a completed educational programme

You can be granted a residence permit for up to 1 or 3 years for job seeking in Denmark, if you hold a residence permit as a student in a Danish professional bachelor, bachelor, part-time master, master or PhD educational programme and you have completed your educational programme.

Normal processing time
3 months

If further information is needed, the processing time can be up to
4 months

Processing fee
DKK 3,060,-

Who can apply for a job seeking permit for up to 1 or 3 years?

You can apply for a residence permit for job seeking, if you have a valid residence permit based on study and you have completed a Danish professional bachelor, bachelor, part-time master, master or PhD programme approved by a state authority.

When you are granted a residence permit to take a PhD programme in Denmark, you will generally also be granted a 3-year job-seeking permit together with your residence permit.

If you applied for a residence permit before 1 October 2026, you will generally also have been granted a 3-year job-seeking permit if you studied in a state-approved educational programme. This includes:

a professional bachelor’s degree programme
a bachelor’s degree programme
a part-time master’s degree programme
a master’s degree programme

This also applies if you complete an Erasmus Mundus, Erasmus+ or Nordic Master joint programme with a Danish degree.

If you applied for a residence permit on or after 1 October 2026, you will generally have been granted a 1-year job-seeking permit, unless you are taking a PhD programme in Denmark.

If you are a Turkish citizen covered by the Association Agreement between the EU and Turkey and have applied for or been granted a residence permit as a student in a state-approved higher educational programme leading to a Danish professional bachelor’s, bachelor’s, part-time master’s or master’s degree, you may be entitled to a 3-year job-seeking permit even if you applied for a residence permit on or after 1 October 2026.

As a student in a master’s degree programme for working professionals, you are only eligible for job seeking for up to 6 months. Read more on the application page for a job-seeking permit for 6 months after a completed educational programme

Before you apply, please make sure that your educational programme is approved by a state authority and check whether your current residence permit already includes a job seeking period.

SIRI automatically grants a 3-year job seeking period along with your study permit if the validity of your passport allows it. You should, therefore, only apply for a job seeking permit if:

the validity period of your residence permit as a student was shortened due to the expiry date in your passport,
you were not granted a job seeking permit for as long as you were entitled to, or
you have completed your educational programme in Denmark after the prescribed period of study and, as a result of that, your job seeking period is not as long as it could have been.

You can apply for an extension of your jobseeking permit no earlier than 4 months prior to the date your residence permit expire.

What are the conditions?

You can apply for a job seeking residence permit for up to 1 or 3 years if you have a valid residence permit based on your educational programme and there are 4 months or less left of your residence permit.

It is a requirement that you have completed a Danish higher educational programme at one of the following levels:

Professional bachelor’s degree
Bachelor's degree
Part-time master's
Master's degree
PhD degree.

The educational programme must be approved by a state authority. If your educational programme is not approved by a state authority but instead have an advisory statement by the Danish Evaluation Institute (EVA) or the secretariat to the Accreditation Council, you can apply for a 6-month job seeking permit here.

If you have not completed your educational programme in Denmark yet and your residence permit is about to expire, you can apply for an extension of your residence permit as a student.

What are my rights if I am granted a permit?

What are you allowed to do with a residence permit for job seeking after completion of your educational programme – and what are you not allowed to do?

Residence

A residence permit allows you to reside in Denmark for the period of time your permit is valid.

In addition, a permit allows you to stay in the Schengen area for up to 90 days within a 180-day period. However, the permit does not allow you to work in other Schengen countries.

You must not give up your Danish address or stay abroad for more than 6 consecutive months. A violation will result in the lapse of your permit. This means that you will lose your right to stay in Denmark.

If you are granted a residence permit as a PhD student or a student at an international educational programme under the Erasmus Mundus, Erasmus+ or Nordic Master, your residence permit does not lapse even if you give up your Danish address or stay abroad for more than 6 consecutive months.

If you need to stay abroad for a longer period of time, you can apply for a dispensation to prevent your permit from lapsing

Work

Together with a residence permit for job seeking after a completed educational programme you are granted a limited work permit.

You are allowed to work:

for up to 90 hours per month during the normal period of study from September to May, and
full time in June, July and August.

You will be working illegally if you work more hours than you are allowed to. If you work illegally you can receive a fine or your residence permit can be revoked. You can read more about illegal work here

Residence and work permit based on a job offer

If you are offered a job, in which you must work more hours than allowed by your limited work permit, you have two options:

You can apply for a work permit without limitations or
You can apply for a residence and work permit based on the job offered

You can only be granted a work permit without limitations based on an educational programme approved by a state authority. You cannot be granted a work permit without limitations based on an educational programme that instead of an approval by a state authority has an advisory statement from the Danish Evaluation Institute (EVA) or the secretariat of the Accreditation Council.

If you choose to apply for a residence and work permit based on your new job you may begin to work while SIRI is processing your application.

A Danish residence and work permit does not give you the right to work in other Schengen countries. You can find a list of the Schengen countries here

Public benefits

You must be able to support yourself and your family during your stay. Therefore, you are not allowed to receive public benefits, e.g. benefits under the terms of the Active Social Policy Act, State Educational Grants (SU), housing benefits or unemployment benefits - and there may be other benefits you are also not allowed to receive.

If you receive such benefits during your stay, your permit can be revoked – and you will lose the right to stay in Denmark.

Please also note that your accompanying family member cannot receive cash benefits, self-sufficiency and return benefit as well as transition benefit or any other benefits under the terms of the Active Social Policy Act either.

If an authority, e.g. a municipality, disburses benefits to foreign nationals, SIRI will be notified.

You can see a list of benefits that you are not allowed to receive here

Danish lessons

With a residence permit in Denmark, you are entitled to free Danish lessons. However, you must have turned 18 years and have your Danish address registered in the Danish National Register.

If you have a residence permit in Denmark based on work, study, etc. you have to pay a deposit before you can start receiving lessons. Be aware that you can lose your deposit if you do not pass the different modules within a specific timeframe.

Your municipality of residence is obliged to offer you Danish lessons and refer you to a language centre. If you have not been offered Danish lessons within a month after registering your address in Denmark, you can contact your municipality.

You will (typically) be taught together with other foreign nationals who have arrived in Denmark recently.

Additional information

While staying and working in Denmark, there are a number of things to acquaint yourself with. Depending on your personal situation, you might need other important information and options.

The portal lifeindenmark.dk provides you with information, links and in many cases also options concerning the most important subjects such as:

MitID
The CPR register
Health card
Tax
Holiday
School and child care
Housing
Danish lessons
Car registration and driver’s license

How long can I stay in Denmark?

Length of stay

If you have been granted a residence permit to take a state-approved educational programme leading to a Danish professional bachelor’s, bachelor’s, part-time master’s or master’s degree, and you applied for a residence permit on or after 1 October 2026, you will generally have been granted a 1-year job-seeking permit together with your residence permit.

If you applied for a residence permit before 1 October 2026, you will generally have been granted a 3-year job-seeking permit together with your residence permit.

If you obtain a Danish PhD degree, you will generally have been granted a 3-year job-seeking permit together with your residence permit.

The residence permit for job seeking gives you the same right to work that you had during your stay as a student: 90 hours per month and full time in June, July and August.

If you want to work more or are offered a job that requires that you work more than the 90 hours per month, you must apply for a work permit without limitations or a residence and work permit based on the job offered

Shorter validity because your passport expires

A residence permit can only be valid until 3 months before the expiry date of your passport.

If your passport has a shorter validity than the otherwise possible period of stay, your residence permit will be shortened. This means that the validity of your residence permit will be shorter than it could be. When you have renewed your passport, you can apply for an extension of your residence permit – however, this can only be done, at the earliest, 4 months before your permit expires.

Can my family be granted a residence permit?

A residence permit for job seeking on the basis of a Danish PhD programme allows your family to live with you in Denmark. A residence permit can only be granted to your spouse, registered partner or cohabiting partner, as well as children under the age of 18 who live at home.

If you applied for a residence permit before 1 October 2026 as a student in a state-approved higher educational programme leading to a Danish academy profession degree, professional bachelor’s, bachelor’s, part-time master’s or master’s degree, and your spouse, cohabiting partner or registered partner also applied for a residence permit before 1 October 2026, they can be granted a residence permit as your accompanying family member.

If your spouse, cohabiting partner or registered partner submits their application on or after 1 October 2026, they cannot be granted a residence permit as your accompanying family member.

If you submitted your application for a residence permit on or after 1 October 2026 on the basis of a state-approved higher educational programme leading to a Danish academy profession degree, professional bachelor’s, bachelor’s, part-time master’s or master’s degree, your children under the age of 18 cannot be granted a residence permit as your accompanying family members.

Your children under the age of 18 can still apply for a residence permit as your accompanying family members if you submitted your application for a residence permit as a student in a state-approved higher educational programme before 1 October 2026.

If you are a Turkish citizen covered by the Association Agreement between the EU and Turkey and have applied for or been granted a residence permit as a student in a state-approved higher educational programme leading to a Danish academy profession degree, professional bachelor’s, bachelor’s, part-time master’s or master’s degree, your spouse, cohabiting partner, registered partner or children under the age of 18 may still be granted a residence permit as your accompanying family members.

What more do I need to know before I apply?

An application for a residence permit on the basis of job seeking after a completed educational programme must be submitted to the Danish Agency for International Recruitment and Integration (SIRI).

If you are in Denmark when submitting the application, you must be residing here legally.

15 minutes

completing the application

1 person

You complete the application form yourself

The application form contain careful instructions on how to complete the form and what kind of documents you must submit along with the form.

The printable application form in Word format can be completed on screen before you print. The application form in pdf format must be printed first and then completed by hand.

Download the printable form ST6 (Word format)

Download the printable form ST6 (Pdf format)

Submit application

You can submit the application by appearing in person in one of SIRI's branch offices in Copenhagen, Odense, Aarhus, Aalborg, Esbjerg, Sønderborg or on Bornholm.

If you wish to submit the application in one of SIRI's branch offices, you must remember to book an appointment here

You can also send the application to SIRI through our contact form.

Send the application to SIRI

Biometrics

When you apply for an extension of your residence permit, you must have your biometric features recorded. The facial photo and your fingerprints will be stored on a microchip embedded in the residence card, which will be issued to you if you are granted a permit.

You must have your biometric features recorded no later than 14 days after you have submitted your application.

If you do not agree to have your biometric features recorded, your application will be rejected. This means that your application will not be processed.