Family reunification – Waived requirements due to minor children
If you, the spouse/partner in Denmark, have children under the age of 18 living at home, the Immigration Service may waive one or more requirements for family reunification.
The children may both be the children of you and your spouse/partner, or your children from a previous marriage/relationship.
When the Immigration Service receives an application for family reunification in which you have stated that you have children living at home, we will assess whether the children have formed an individual attachment to Denmark.
The assessment will include the children's familial, linguistic and cultural attachment to Denmark and to other countries, including how long the children have lived in Denmark, whether the children speak Danish, whether the children have gone to a Danish institution/school etc.
According to normal procedure, the children will have formed an individual attachment to Denmark after six to seven years of living in Denmark and going to Danish institution/school.
If you have children under the age of 18 from a previous marriage/relationship, the Immigration Service may suspend one or more requirements for family reunification.
In the application you must state whether you have joint custody of the children, and to which extent you have contact with the children.
In the application you must consent to allow the Immigration Service to contact the other parent of your children, such as your former spouse/partner, during the processing of the case.
The Immigration Service will then assess whether you are sufficiently involved in your children's life to suspend one or more requirements.
If the Immigration Service decides that the children have not formed an individual attachment to Denmark, and that the other parent of your children are not sufficiently involved in the children's life, the requirements for family reunification will not be suspended. This means that all requirements must be met.
In the application form, you can indicate that the Immigration Service should not consider the fact that you have children from a previous marriage/relationship in Denmark. This will normally result in the Immigration Service not suspending any requirements, and consequently, that all requirements must be met.