Danish nationality law

Updated on Nov 28, 2024

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Danish nationality law is ruled by the Constitutional act of Denmark (of 1953) and the Consolidated Act of Danish Nationality (of 2003, with amendment in 2004). Danish nationality can be acquired in one of the following ways:

Automatically at birth if born in the Kingdom of Denmark and at least one of the parents has Danish citizenship.

Automatically at birth if born outside the Kingdom of Denmark and the mother has Danish citizenship.

Automatically at birth if born outside the Kingdom of Denmark and the father has Danish citizenship and is married to the mother.

Automatically if a person is adopted as a child under 12 years of age

By declaration for nationals of another Nordic country

By naturalisation, that is, by statute

Automatically at birth if either parent is a Danish citizen, regardless of birthplace, if the child was born on or after July 1, 2014.

Danish nationality can be lost in one of the following ways

Automatically if a person acquired Danish nationality by birth, but was not born in the Kingdom of Denmark and has never lived in the Kingdom of Denmark by the age of 22 years (unless this would render the person stateless or the person has lived in another Nordic country for an aggregate period of no less than 7 years)

By court order if a person acquired his or her Danish nationality by fraudulent conduct (E.g：Sham marriage)

By court order if a person is convicted of violation of one or more provisions of Parts 12 and 13 of the Danish Criminal Code (crimes against national security), unless this would render the person stateless

By voluntary application to the Minister for Refugee, Immigration and Integration Affairs (a person who is or who desires to become a national of a foreign country may be released from his or her Danish nationality by such an application)

Naturalisation as a Danish citizen

One must have permanent residence status in the Kingdom of Denmark in order to become a citizen.

9 years of continuous residence, with restricted allowance for interrupted residence of up to 1 year or 2 years in special circumstances (education, family illness). Continuous residence is not clearly defined, but one must state periods of absence from the Kingdom of Denmark longer than 14 days.

8 years of continuous residence for people who are stateless or with refugee status

Each year of marriage to a Danish citizen reduces the requirement by one year, to a maximum reduction of 3 years. For example, as little as 6 years of continuous uninterrupted residence for people who have been married to Danish nationals for 3 years. One year of cohabitation before marriage counts as a year of marriage for this purpose.

There is a special and little mentioned clause which allows for absences from the Kingdom of Denmark of longer than 1 or 2 years if one is married to a Danish citizen. The total period of continuous residence should be at least 3 years and it must exceed the total periods of absence, AND either: the period of marriage being at least 2 years or the total period of residence in the Kingdom of Denmark being 10 years less the period of marriage and 1 year for cohabitation before marriage). One must still have permanent residence.

If one is married to a Dane working 'for Danish interests' in a foreign country, then this period of absence from the Kingdom of Denmark can be regarded as residence in the Kingdom of Denmark.

According to Statistics Denmark, 3,267 foreigners living in Denmark replaced their foreign citizenship with Danish citizenship in 2012. A total of 71.4% of all those who were naturalized in 2012 were from the non-Western world. Half of all new Danish citizenships in 2012 were given to people from Iraq, Afghanistan, Turkey, Somalia and Iran.

Multiple citizenship

In October 2011, the newly elected centre-left coalition government indicated its intention to permit dual citizenship.

On December 18, 2014, Parliament passed a bill to allow Danish citizens to become foreign nationals without losing their Danish citizenship, and to allow foreign nationals to acquire Danish citizenship without renouncing their prior citizenship. A provision in the bill also allows former Danish nationals who lost their citizenship as a result of accepting another to reobtain Danish citizenship. This provision expires in 2020. A separate provision, lasting until 2017, allows current applicants for Danish citizenship who have been approved under the condition they renounce their prior citizenship to retain their prior nationality as they become Danish citizens. The new law came into force on September 1, 2015.

Anyone with Danish citizenship may nonetheless be required to give up foreign citizenship under the laws of some countries. For instance, people who are Danish-Japanese dual citizens by birth and want to keep their Japanese citizenship must, under Japanese nationality law, make a declaration of choice to the Japanese Ministry of Justice before the age of 22 that they want to keep their Japanese citizenship (Article 14, Part 1). This process will not automatically void the Danish citizenship, because the Japanese Government has no power to cancel Danish citizenship. However, anyone who declares to retain Danish, rather than Japanese, citizenship under such circumstances will automatically lose the Japanese citizenship (Article 11, Part 2).

Citizenship of the European Union

Citizenship of the European Union for Danish citizens varies in each part of the Danish Realm.

Danish citizens in Denmark proper are also citizens of the European Union and thus enjoy rights of free movement and have the right to vote in elections for the European Parliament.

Greenland joined the European Economic Community along with Denmark proper in 1973 but left in 1985. Although Greenland is not part of the EU, Danish citizens residing in Greenland are EU citizens.

The Faroe Islands are never part of the EU or its predecessors, and EU treaties do not apply to the islands. Consequently, Danish citizens residing in the Faroe Islands are not EU citizens within the meaning of the treaties. However, they can choose between a non-EU Danish-Faroese passport (which is green and modelled on pre-EU Danish passport) or a regular Danish EU passport. Some EU member states may treat Danish citizens residing in the Faroe Islands the same as other Danish citizens and thus as EU citizens.

Concerning citizenship of the European Union as established in the Maastricht Treaty, Denmark proper obtained an opt-out in the Edinburgh Agreement, in which EU citizenship does not replace national citizenship and each member state is free to determine its nationals according to its own nationality law. The Amsterdam Treaty extends this to all EU member states, which renders the Danish opt-out de facto meaningless.

Travel freedom of Danish citizens

Visa requirements for Danish citizens are administrative entry restrictions by the authorities of other states placed on citizens of the Kingdom of Denmark. In 2015, Danish citizens had visa-free or visa-on-arrival access to 171 countries and territories, ranking the Danish passport 3rd in the world according to the Visa Restrictions Index.

References

Danish nationality law Wikipedia

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