Bringing your family to Denmark: family reunification and accompanying family

Which of the three routes is yours?

There are three completely different sets of rules, and mixing them up wastes months.

1. You are an EU, EEA or Swiss citizen. Your family comes under EU free movement. No Danish reunification conditions, no 24-year rule, no financial guarantee.
2. You hold a Danish work or study permit and you are not an EU citizen. Your spouse, registered partner, cohabiting partner or child under 18 applies as an accompanying family member New to Denmark.
3. Your spouse or family member is settled in Denmark as a Danish citizen, permanent resident or refugee. This is family reunification, and it is the hardest route New to Denmark. If the person in Denmark is a refugee with temporary protected status, a waiting period normally applies: they cannot sponsor family reunification until their residence permit has been extended after two years of residence New to Denmark.

Route 1: family of an EU citizen

If the person in Denmark is a non-Danish EU citizen with their own right of residence, their family members apply for an EU residence document. It is free, the normal processing time is about three months and up to four if more information is needed New to Denmark. Family can be an EU citizen or a citizen of a country outside the EU.

There is also a route for the family of a Danish citizen who has lived with them in another EU country, under EU rules rather than national ones New to Denmark. It is worth knowing because it sidesteps the strict national conditions, and it is used mainly by Danish citizens returning home.

Route 2: accompanying family on a work or study permit

You can be granted a permit as an accompanying family member if you are the spouse, registered partner, cohabiting partner, or a child under 18 of a foreign national who is working or studying in Denmark. In extraordinary cases, other family members can qualify New to Denmark.

The conditions are mostly about your relationship and your documents:

• The marriage must be recognised under Danish law: valid in the country it took place, both of you present, both at least 18, not a marriage of convenience.
• Cohabiting partners need to have lived together in a committed relationship for at least 1.5 to 2 years before applying New to Denmark. This is the accompanying-family test, which is longer than the 18 months of shared address the reunification route requires.
• Everyone, including children, needs a valid passport. Your permit is only valid until three months before your passport expires.
• Financial support documentation is normally only required if your sponsor is a guest researcher, on the start-up or special qualifications scheme, or holds an establishment card. If your sponsor has a normal salaried job, you do not have to document support.

If your sponsor is a student or a PhD student, the conditions differ. You may have to document that your sponsor can support you: the amount is DKK 7,426 per month, or DKK 89,112 for a year (2026 level), unless the sponsor is a PhD student employed and paid by a university or company New to Denmark.

The most important line for most couples: holding a permit as an accompanying family member to an employee in general gives you the right to work in Denmark, with no separate work permit needed, and you may run your own business New to Denmark. The exception is working for the same company as your sponsor, which needs a work permit.

Apply at the same time as your sponsor where possible. The fee is DKK 3,080 per person: each family member applies individually and pays their own fee, and the fee is not refunded if the application is refused New to Denmark. Normal processing: two months, up to three.

Route 3: family reunification with a person in Denmark

This is the route with the famous conditions. Both of you have to meet them.

• Valid marriage or cohabitation. Marriage must be legal where it happened, with both of you present and over 18. If you are not married, the Immigration Service assesses permanent cohabitation, which it defines as living together at the same address for at least 18 months.
• The 24-year rule. You both normally have to be at least 24. You can submit when the younger spouse is 23 years and 6 months New to Denmark.
• Self-support. The spouse in Denmark must not have received certain social benefits at any time in the past three years.
• Housing requirement. The spouse in Denmark needs an independent, reasonably sized home: either no more than twice as many people as rooms, or at least 20 square metres per person. The address must not be in an area on the housing requirement list.
• Integration requirement. Together you must meet four of six integration conditions, three of which apply to the applicant and three to the spouse in Denmark, and at least one of the spouse’s conditions must always be met. One of the applicant’s conditions is passing Prøve i Dansk 1 or an English test at B1 level.
• Permanent residence. If the spouse in Denmark is not a Danish or Nordic citizen or a refugee, they must have held a permanent residence permit for at least the past three years and still meet the transferred permanent-residence conditions. Among those conditions is having no overdue public debt above DKK 140,432.76 (2026 level) unless a payment reprieve has been granted, for spouses whose permanent residence was granted on an application submitted before 11 April 2024 New to Denmark.
• Criminal convictions. The spouse in Denmark must not have been convicted by a Danish court of assault or domestic violence against a former spouse or partner within the past 10 years. The crimes covered include rape, manslaughter, assault, criminal coercion and human trafficking New to Denmark.
• Financial guarantee. The spouse in Denmark normally has to set aside DKK 61,709.34 at the 2026 level, as a demand guarantee (anfordringsgaranti) or in an escrow account (deponeringskonto). The guarantee is reduced by DKK 12,341.87 (2026 level) once you pass Danish at A1 level, by a further DKK 6,170.93 at A2 level, and by another DKK 6,170.93 when you pass a final Danish language test at an equivalent or higher level. It can be released when you are granted permanent residence or residence on other grounds, or once it has been posted for a total of 10 years New to Denmark.
• Danish tests after the permit is granted. Once the permit is granted, you normally have to pass a test in Danish at A1 level within 6 months and one at A2 level within 9 months. If you do not pass them in time, your residence permit can be revoked New to Denmark.

Fee: DKK 8,490. Expected maximum processing time: 10 months New to Denmark. Children have their own application and conditions New to Denmark.

What documents are actually requested?

• The applicant’s passport and a completed application with biometrics: fingerprints and a photo, used to issue the residence card New to Denmark.
• Marriage certificate or registered-partnership certificate, with legalisation or an apostille from the issuing country Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
• Birth certificates for accompanying children.
• Documentation of the housing: tenancy agreement or deed, and the number of rooms and square metres.
• Documentation of income and employment for the spouse in Denmark, plus the guarantee document if relevant.
• Documentation of divorce or death of a previous spouse, where applicable.

Get the legalisation done at home. Doing it from Denmark is slower and more expensive.

What happens after arrival?

Register your address at the citizen service centre, or at an International Citizen Service centre in Copenhagen, and get your CPR number, MitID, tax card and NemKonto in place. CPR registration should happen within five days of moving into your Danish address, and non-EU citizens should also register within six months of the permit being issued International Citizen Service. Then start Danish classes and job hunting in your own right.

The honest version

Family reunification is the hardest immigration route into Denmark, and it is designed to be. Ten months is normal, the conditions are cumulative, and a short period on cash benefits three years ago can sink an application. What people actually do is this: apply early, get the documents legalised before they start, use the exemptions rather than betting on them, and where the family includes a non-Danish EU citizen, look seriously at whether EU rules or a return to Denmark after real residence in another EU country gives a better path New to Denmark. Appeals are possible, and they are time-limited.

What it costs and how long it takes

Common mistakes

• Applying for the wrong route: national reunification rules instead of EU rules, or the other way round New to Denmark.
• Leaving legalisation until after arrival.
• Ignoring the passport validity rule, then getting a permit that expires too early.
• Forgetting that three years of social benefit history is checked in reunification cases.
• Assuming a cohabiting relationship counts without the 18 months of documented shared address.
• Not applying for the accompanying spouse and children at the same time as the main permit.

If something goes wrong

If you are refused, the letter states the reason and how to appeal, with a deadline. Read it properly, and get help from the organisation named rather than filing a new application straight away New to Denmark.

If your partner’s permit expires while your application is pending, tell the authorities and check whether a dispensation applies so the permit does not lapse New to Denmark.

If your permit was granted on the basis of living together and you stop living together, the permit can be revoked, so deal with it openly rather than waiting for a renewal New to Denmark.