Researcher - extension

You want to extend your residence permit as a researcher. You continue to be employed in the same position and by the same employer.

Normal processing time
3 months

Processing fee
DKK 6,810,-

Can I extend my permit?

You can apply for an extension of your residence permit as a researcher, if you are still doing research at the same research institution.

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

You can apply for an extension of your permit no earlier than 3 months before it expires.

If you do not apply for an extension before your permit expires, you no longer have the right to stay in Denmark – and an application submitted in Denmark will usually be rejected.

If you submit your application for an extension in time, you can stay in Denmark while SIRI is assessing you application for an extension – even if your permit expires.

If your permit is based on the Fast-track Scheme, different rules apply to an extension and you must use the Fast-track application for an extension page.

If you are a guest researcher, you should read further here.

If you are a PhD student, you should read further here.

What are the conditions for extending a permit?

It is a condition for extending your permit that you have met the conditions of your residence permit during the entire period of your stay and that your salary and work conditions correspond to Danish standards when you apply for an extension.

You must be in compliance with your employment contract

You can apply for an extension of your residence and work permit if you are still employed by the same employer. You must also have both worked and received your salary in accordance with your contract for the entire validity period of your latest permit.

If you have not received full pay and/or worked in accordance with your contract during certain periods, your application must provide information and documentation explaining why you have not done so. In some cases, SIRI may accept that there have been minor deviations in your working hours during the period of validity of your permit. However, in connection with an application for a permanent residence permit, the Danish Immigration Service may assess your working hours differently than SIRI in relation to their calculation of periods of regular employment.

Below, you can read about some of the cases where SIRI may assess that you can get an extension of your residence and work permit, even if you have had periods where you have not received full pay and/or worked in accordance with your contract.

Note that the EU working time directive stipulates that over a period of 4 months you must have an average weekly working time of no more than 48 hours. If your employment is covered by a valid collective agreement, this rule may be waived.

As a rule, you are allowed to take an unpaid leave of absence or vacation without pay, within reasonable limits. In order for SIRI to assess whether your leave of absence or vacation is within reasonable limits, we need information and documentation regarding:

the length of your unpaid leave of absence or vacation
how often you have taken an unpaid leave of absence or vacation
the reason why you have taken an unpaid leave of absence or vacation.

If you have been on maternity or paternity leave, you are allowed to have received maternity/paternity benefits.

You are allowed to be either on full-time or part-time sick leave or have other absences due to serious illness affecting you or your immediate family for a period of time. During such a period, you may receive, for example, sickness benefits, care allowance or compensation for loss of earnings. However, the benefit must not be granted under the Active Social Policy Act (LAS). Please also note that this can only be a temporary situation in which you are unable to work your contractual hours or receive your contractual salary. In order for us to accept your absence, you must intend to return to work full-time.

Example: You are on part-time sick leave due to stress and your doctor recommends that you reduce your working hours from 37 hours per week to 20 hours per week for a period of 3 months. We will accept that your working hours and salary are reduced in such a temporary situation.

Your salary and terms of employment must correspond to the Danish standards

In order for us to extend your permit, your salary and terms of employment must correspond to the Danish standards. If we are not sure whether they correspond to the Danish standards, we can ask the Regional Labour Market Councils (RBR) to assess them.

Read SIRI’s page on Danish standards for salary and terms of employment.

If your salary or terms of employment have gotten worse, you must inform SIRI of this.

Please note that by having a permit obtained via the pay limit scheme, the fast-track scheme or the researcher scheme, the nature of your employment is allowed to change within the same company or university, without you having to apply for a new work permit. This applies to changes such as a promotion, a change of workplace or a change of research project.

You must not have been receiving public benefits

You must not have received any public benefits under the terms of the Active Social Policy Act, e.g. social security benefits.

If you have received benefits under the Active Social Policy Act, you cannot expect to have your residence permit extended.

You are allowed to receive benefits granted under other legislation, e.g. sickness benefits, maternity benefits, compensation for loss of earnings, child and youth benefits, etc.

See a list of the benefits you are not allowed to receive

Staying and receiving salary outside of Denmark?

When holding a residence permit as a researcher, you can, within the period your work permit is valid for, alternate between working in Denmark and abroad without this causing your permit to lapse.

Have you periodically been working abroad?

Normally, with a Danish residence permit, you must not give up your Danish address or stay abroad for more than 6 successive months. A violation will result in the lapse of your permit.

With a permit as a researcher, you are exempt from these rules that can cause your permit to lapse. Hence, you are allowed to give up your Danish address if you stay abroad for a period of time.

If you periodically reside abroad and do not receive the salary stated when you were granted a residence and work permit, you and your employer must be able to provide documentation that you have not been residing in Denmark during the periods in question.

This can be documented by providing the following documentation:

Deregistration from the CPR registry if you are residing outside of Denmark for more than 90 days
Boarding pass
Stamps in your passport
Information or data from your company’s HR department – e.g. a statement of leave
Documentation of received salary abroad

Your employer can be requested to provide this documentation if you apply for extension of your permit or as a part of our verification and spot-check procedures.

What are my rights, if I am granted a permit?

What are you allowed to do with a Danish residence and work permit as a researcher? – and what are you not allowed to do?

Work

With a permit as a researcher, you can change your job position within the same university or company without having to apply for a new work permit. This applies, for instance, if you are promoted or if you change your research project. Your salary and terms of employment must continue to correspond to Danish standards.

You must inform SIRI if your salary and terms of employment conditions are affected negatively.

If you change your place of work, you must apply for a new permit.

As a researcher you are exempt for work permit for sideline 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.

Furthermore you are allowed to carry out unpaid voluntary work.

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

If you get a new job

You must inform SIRI if your salary and terms of employment conditions are affected negatively.

Furthermore you are allowed to carry out unpaid voluntary work.

If you change employer you must apply for a new permit based on one of our work schemes.

When you have submitted your new application, you can start working even though you have not been granted a permit yet.

If you get a sideline job

Working as an external examiner

To work as an external examiner or do other kinds of examination work can be so closely related to your position as a researcher at a Danish university that it is natural to apply for a license to be an external examiner.

As a researcher, you can therefore let yourself be allocated to do external or other kinds of examination work at other universities than the one where you are employed.

This applies to oral as well as written examinations.

SIRI suggests that you send us a copy of your license from the corps of external examiners so there is no doubt that you are licensed to do external or other kinds of examination work.

Residence

A residence and work permit allows you to stay in Denmark.

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

Public benefits

You must be able to support yourself and your family during your stay. You are not allowed to receive benefits under the terms of the Active Social Policy Act.

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 the 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

When living 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.

You might already have done what is necessary, but if you still have any questions, 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 matters
Holiday entitlements
School and daycare
Housing
Danish lessons
Car registration and driver’s license

What are my rights while I wait for a decision?

While you are waiting for a decision to your application for an extension, you are allowed to stay in Denmark with the same rights as granted by your original permit.

If you have any questions while you wait for an answer, you can find more information here

How long can I stay in Denmark?

Duration of permit

You can be granted a residence and work permit valid for up to 4 years at a time, and after 8 years, up to 5 years at a time – however, the validity cannot exceed the duration of your job contract.

If your employment contract is for a shorter period than 4 years, your residence and work permit will normally be valid for the period of your employment. If you wish to continue working in Denmark after this time, you must apply for an extension of your residence and work permit.

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

If you find a new job

If you find a new job, you must submit a new application based on the new job – it can either be as a researcher 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.

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 3 months before your permit expires at the earliest.

Can my family’s residence permits be extended?

An extension of your residence and work permit based on a job in Denmark allows any accompanying family members to extend their residence permits as well.

If you hold a job seeking permit, your family’s permits may be valid for your job seeking period as well. If this is the case, your family will apply for extension later than you.

If you do not already have your family with you in Denmark, we can inform you that a permit can be granted to your spouse, registered or cohabiting partner as well as children under the age of 18 living at home.

What more do I need to know before I apply for an extension?

An application for extension of a residence permit on the basis of work is processed by the Danish Agency for International Recruitment and Integration (SIRI).

Before submitting your application, you must create a case order ID for your application and pay a fee to cover SIRI’s case processing expenses. You can do this on the “How to apply” tab to right. Here you also find the relevant application, AR3.

Your employer must complete the first of the two parts of the application. We will let you know by email when your employer has completed their part and you can begin your part.

Your employer must write your email address in their part. You must use the link in the email to sign up as a user with the same email address to access your part.

Make sure that the email address your employer writes is the same email address that you intend to sign up with

If you have given your employer a power of attorney to handle the application on your behalf, the employer must use the AR7 application. This application is only filled in by the employer.

You can find our approved templates for power of attorney here

SIRI will contact you or your employer if we need further information to process your case.