Special individual qualifications

You can be granted a residence and work permit if there are specific artistic reasons that you must be the person performing a certain role in connection with an artistic production. 

This could for example be if you have won a seat in an orchestra as part of a competition or you have been specifically chosen to dance ballet in a large show. 

If you have been offered employment as a performer in a circus or an amusement park, you can be granted a residence and work permit if you have an exceptional artistic talent within your field.

Your salary and terms of employment must correspond to Danish standards. Your salary, holiday entitlements, terms of notice etc. must not be inferior to the standards within the professional field in which you are going to work.

When you apply, you must attach a copy of your employment contract or job offer. All terms of employment must be stated in the contract or the job offer.

You can see which information the employment contract must, at least, include here

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

Your salary must be paid into a Danish bank account in your own name, and the bank has to be operating legally in Denmark.

It is not a requirement that the salary which is paid into your Danish bank account is transferred from a Danish bank account.

You must contact a bank yourself, in order to create a Danish bank account. There are no immediate restrictions concerning the type of bank account.

If you have not yet received a Danish address or CPR number and you are experiencing diffuclties creating a Danish bank account, in order to find out what options you have in terms of creating a basic payment account, you can read more on www.basalbetalingskonto.dk (opens in a new window)

Your Danish bank account must be opened within 180 days of your residence and work permit being granted. If you enter Denmark after you have been granted a residence and work permit, you must open a Danish bank account within 180 days from your entry into Denmark. If you already hold a Danish residence permit that is valid for at least 180 days, your salary must be paid into your Danish bank account from your first salary payment.

Read more about having your salary paid into a Danish bank account

Your salary can only consist of:
•Salary in the form of liquid assets
•Payments to labour market pension schemes
•Paid holiday allowance

Only paid holiday allowance from the employer whom you are currently allowed to work for can be counted as part of your salary. 

If you earn holiday allowance paid to you in the following holiday year, the holiday allowance cannot be counted as a part the annual salary of the year in which you earned the holiday allowance. 

Salary components like the following cannot be taken into account when assessing the wage level:
•Paid living and housing expenses
•Per diems
•Free use of car
•Paid phone
•Paid internet
•Benefits-in-kind
•Subscriptions
•Other services offered to you by your employer.

The list is not complete.

One of the conditions for a residence permit under this scheme is that an accompanying family member (spouse, cohabiting partner, children or in certain circumstances other family members) has not had its residence permit revoked more than once due to lack of a required work permit.

There must be specific athletic reasons that the job must be carried out by you. 

Your salary and terms of employment must correspond to Danish standards. Your salary, holiday entitlements, terms of notice etc. must not be inferior to the standards within the professional field in which you are going to work.

When you apply, you must attach a copy of your employment contract or job offer. All terms of employment must be stated in the contract or the job offer.

You can see which information the employment contract must, at least, include here

If SIRI has any doubts whether your salary and terms of employment correspond to Danish standards, we can ask the relevant governing body of your sport to assess your terms of employment.

The employment as a professional athlete or coach must be your principal occupation and not sideline employment. This means that you generally must have been offered full-time employment of 37 hours per week.

If it is usual within your sport, it is possible to be granted a permit for part-time employment – not for employment, however, with less than 20 hours of work per week. 

You must have been offered a job with a minimum of 20 hours work per week at the same workplace. Several sports clubs therefore cannot “get together” to employ you and share the salary expenditure. 

The governing body must in relation to your application, state if there are specific athletic reasons that the job as athlete or coach in that particular sports club must be carried out by you.

In addition, the governing body must state whether your salary and terms of employment correspond to Danish standards.

Your employer (the sports club) can obtain a statement from the relevant governing body in advance by asking the governing body to complete this form.

The form must be submitted along with your application and your contract.

In this way your employer can contribute to a faster processing of your application.

If you have been granted a residence and work permit as a professional athlete or coach based on your special individual qualifications, the residence and work permit also allows you to:

• Take up sideline employment, if your sideline employment is naturally related to your job as a professional athlete or coach (e.g. you will be teaching your sport in a school or similar).
• Take up sideline employment with a sponsor of your main employer, regardless of the nature of the work. Please note that this only applies to sideline employment with a sponsor of your main employer, and does not apply to sideline employment with a business partner of your main employer.
• As an athlete you can also be loaned out to another sports club, part time or fulltime.

Therefore, you do not need to apply for a work permit if you have been offered employment as described above. 

Please note, that you are also covered by the right to take up sideline employment, even though this does not appear from your residence and work permit as an athlete or coach based on your special individual qualifications.

Furthermore, if you have a residence and work permit as an athlete based on your special individual qualifications, you also have the right to be loaned out to another sports club, even though this does not appear from your residence and work permit.

If your weekly working hours, including sideline employment, exceeds 48 hours, you must contact SIRI, so we can assess whether or not your working hours are in accordance with European Union’s Working Time Directive.

Your salary must be paid into a Danish bank account in your own name, and the bank has to be operating legally in Denmark.

It is not a requirement that the salary which is paid into your Danish bank account is transferred from a Danish bank account.

You must contact a bank yourself, in order to create a Danish bank account. There are no immediate restrictions concerning the type of bank account.

If you have not yet received a Danish address or CPR number and you are experiencing diffuclties creating a Danish bank account, in order to find out what options you have in terms of creating a basic payment account, you can read more on www.basalbetalingskonto.dk (opens in a new window)

Your Danish bank account must be opened within 180 days of your residence and work permit being granted. If you enter Denmark after you have been granted a residence and work permit, you must open a Danish bank account within 180 days from your entry into Denmark. If you already hold a Danish residence permit that is valid for at least 180 days, your salary must be paid into your Danish bank account from your first salary payment.

Read more about having your salary paid into a Danish bank account

Your salary can only consist of:

• Salary in the form of liquid assets

• Payments to labour market pension schemes

• Paid holiday allowance

Only paid holiday allowance from the employer whom you are currently allowed to work for can be counted as part of your salary. 

If you earn holiday allowance paid to you in the following holiday year, the holiday allowance cannot be counted as a part the annual salary of the year in which you earned the holiday allowance.

Your salary must correspond to Danish standards. In addition, it must as an absolute minimum be on level with the rates for self-sufficiency and return benefits.

Self-sufficiency and return benefit  rates

• Single sponsor: DKK 13,577 (2025 level) per month before taxes. 

• Sponsor, who is not a single sponsor: DKK 9,500 (2025 level) per month before taxes. 

• Persons older than 30 years of age and persons under 30 years of age, who do not live at home: DKK 6,789 (2025 level) per month before taxes. 

• Persons under 30 years of age who live together with their parents: DKK 2,925 (2025 level) per month before taxes. 

Salary components like the following cannot be taken into account when assessing the wage level:

• Paid living and housing expenses

• Per diems

• Free use of car

• Paid phone

• Paid internet

• Benefits-in-kind

• Subscriptions

• Other services offered to you by your employer.

The list is not complete.

If you are a specialised chef, you can be granted a residence and work permit in Denmark.

You must have special individual qualifications necessary to carry out the job that you have been offered. In addition, you and the offered job must be related in such a close way that others cannot readily carry out the job.

It is a requirement that you have achieved documented international recognition of your qualifications. This will be the case if you, for example, have won international chef competitions or if you have previously, to a certain extent, worked at restaurants that have achieved international recognition by the Michelin guide or similar.

It is also required that you have the necessary professional qualifications to carry out the job.

This means that, as a rule, you must have been educated or trained as a chef and have extensive experience with the type of cuisine that you will be working in.

Finally it is a requirement that the restaurant that has offered you employment is innovative and on such a high level that makes it necessary to employ a chef with special individual qualifications.

Your salary and terms of employment must correspond to Danish standards. Your salary, holiday entitlements, terms of notice etc. must not be inferior to the standards within the professional field in which you are going to work.

When you apply, you must attach a copy of your employment contract or job offer. All terms of employment must be stated in the contract or the job offer.

You can see which information the employment contract must, at least, include here

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

Your salary must be paid into a Danish bank account in your own name, and the bank has to be operating legally in Denmark.

It is not a requirement that the salary which is paid into your Danish bank account is transferred from a Danish bank account.

You must contact a bank yourself, in order to create a Danish bank account. There are no immediate restrictions concerning the type of bank account.

If you have not yet received a Danish address or CPR number and you are experiencing diffuclties creating a Danish bank account, in order to find out what options you have in terms of creating a basic payment account, you can read more on www.basalbetalingskonto.dk (opens in a new window)

Your Danish bank account must be opened within 180 days of your residence and work permit being granted. If you enter Denmark after you have been granted a residence and work permit, you must open a Danish bank account within 180 days from your entry into Denmark. If you already hold a Danish residence permit that is valid for at least 180 days, your salary must be paid into your Danish bank account from your first salary payment.

Read more about having your salary paid into a Danish bank account

Your salary can only consist of:
•Salary in the form of liquid assets
•Payments to labour market pension schemes
•Paid holiday allowance

Only paid holiday allowance from the employer whom you are currently allowed to work for can be counted as part of your salary. 

If you earn holiday allowance paid to you in the following holiday year, the holiday allowance cannot be counted as a part the annual salary of the year in which you earned the holiday allowance. 

Salary components like the following cannot be taken into account when assessing the wage level:
•Paid living and housing expenses
•Per diems
•Free use of car
•Paid phone
•Paid internet
•Benefits-in-kind
•Subscriptions
•Other services offered to you by your employer.

The list is not complete.

You are only allowed to work in the job and in the company that you have been granted a permit to work in.

Furthermore you are allowed to carry out unpaid voluntary work.

If you are offered a new job, you must apply for a new permit. This also applies if you are offered a new position in the same company. 

If you wish to take a sideline job, you have to obtain a separate permit. You can read more about sideline employment here

If you are a practising or performing artist you are exempt for work permit for sideline employment, provided it has substantiel coherence to the main employment. This means that the residence permit also allows you to take up sideline employment with other employers without applying for a specific work permit.

If you have a residence and work permit as an athlete or coach, separate rules regarding sideline employment applies. You can read more here under the section Sideline employment and loan.

A Danish residence and work permit does not allow you to work in other Schengen countries.

You can read more about working conditions in Denmark and 'The Danish labour market model' here.

A residence and work permit allows you to stay 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 the latest 180 days period. The permit, however, does not allow you to work in other Schengen countries.

You must not give up your Danish address or stay abroad for longer than 6 successive 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 need to stay abroad for a longer period of time, i.e. if you are stationed abroad for a period of time by your employer, you can apply for a dispensation to prevent your permit from lapsing.

You can read more about permit lapse and dispensation options here.

You must be able to support yourself and your family during your stay. For example, you are not allowed to receive benefits under the terms of the Active Social Policy Act – and there might be other benefits that you cannot receive. 

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

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.

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.

If you apply from abroad, you can be granted a residence permit valid 1 month before you start working. It will give you the time to settle in Denmark. When you apply, you must declare that you can support yourself and any accompanying family members during the period.  If you do not declare this, your residence permit will be valid 14 days before you start working.

If you apply in Denmark, your residence permit will be valid from the day you start working.

You can be granted a residence and work permit valid for 1 year at a time during the first 2 years of your stay – however, the validity cannot exceed the length of your job contract. Hereafter, you can be granted a permit valid for a maximum of 2 years, and after 4 years, valid for a maximum of 3 years at a time. 

If you find a new job, you must submit a new application based on the new job – it can once again be based on your special individual qualifications or it can be based on another of our work schemes. When you have submitted your application based on the new job, you do not have to wait for your permit before you start working. You can start your new job on the day you submit the new application.

If your employment contract is extended, you must apply for an extension of your residence and work permit.

It is very important that you apply for an extension before your permit expires.

If you submit your application for an extension in time, you can stay in Denmark and continue to work even though your permit is expiring.