Denmark's fast-track scheme: what a SIRI-certified employer means for you

What is the fast-track scheme?

It is a route that lets a company certified by SIRI, the Danish Agency for International Recruitment and Integration, hire a foreign employee faster and more flexibly than through the ordinary work schemes. You do not apply on your own: your employer submits the application online, with a power of attorney from you New to Denmark. If you would rather not give a power of attorney, SIRI says you can use application form AR1 instead.

The scheme is meant for people from outside the EU/EEA and Switzerland, and for larger companies with a genuine need to recruit highly qualified people from there quickly. It covers private and public employers, universities included New to Denmark. EU, EEA and Swiss citizens do not need it; see visa and residence permits for how their route works.

Which of the five tracks fits you?

Your job must meet the conditions of one of five tracks New to Denmark. On every track, your salary and terms must match Danish standards for the field, and your job cannot be covered by a legal labour dispute.

• Pay limit track (beløbssporet). For a full-time job paying at least DKK 552,000 a year (2026 level), the same amount as the ordinary Pay Limit Scheme. Only cash salary with guaranteed supplements, pension contributions and paid holiday allowance count; a car, phone, canteen or housing do not. No particular degree is required. This fits most well-paid professionals: engineers, IT specialists, finance and pharma staff.
• Supplementary pay limit track (det supplerende beløbsspor). For a full-time job paying at least DKK 446,000 a year (2026 level). It has extra conditions: the job must have been posted on Jobnet and the EURES portal for at least two weeks before the application, seasonally adjusted gross unemployment must not have exceeded 3.75% on average in the three months before you apply, and you must not have had a fine of DKK 3,000 or more under the Criminal Code, the Aliens Act and certain other acts in the two years before applying. It fits skilled people whose offer is below the main pay limit. Processing takes longer: normally 2 months, up to 4.
• Researcher track (forskersporet). For someone offered a position as a researcher, where the main purpose of the stay is research. Guest researchers and PhD students are not covered, and full-time work is not required. It fits researchers at universities and company R&D departments.
• Educational track (uddannelsessporet). For highly qualified people with significant work experience in a field who come either to receive highly qualified training in the certified company or to train its employees at that level. The employer must describe the educational purpose. Trainees cannot use this track. It fits specialists on a training or knowledge-transfer stay.
• Short-term track (korttidsophold). For stays of up to 90 days within any 365-day period, counted on a rolling basis. You apply separately for each stay, the permit cannot be extended, and the day you arrive and the day you leave both count. It fits people sent in for a short project, installation or assignment.

The Danish certification page describes the short-term track as being for employees who are not covered by the exemption rules for work permits and who are employed for at most 3 months New to Denmark.

How long is the permit on each track?

On the pay limit and educational tracks, a job of 4 years or more normally gives a 4-year permit; a shorter job gives a permit for the length of the employment. On the supplementary pay limit track the permit can be up to 5 years, again depending on the length of the job. A short-term permit is at most 90 days within a year New to Denmark. You can apply for an extension no earlier than 3 months before the permit expires, and if you apply in time you can keep working while SIRI decides.

If you apply from abroad, the permit can start 1 month before your first working day, so you have time to settle in, as long as you declare that you can support yourself and any family during that month. Without that declaration it starts 14 days before your first working day.

Can you start work before the permit is granted?

Yes, through quick job start, but only on these conditions. SIRI’s certification page lists them: you can start working when the processing fee has been paid, the company has submitted a fast-track application using the AR6 online form, and SIRI has granted you a temporary work permit New to Denmark.

How you get that temporary permit depends on whether you can enter Denmark legally New to Denmark:

• You can enter legally because you are a citizen of a visa-free country and have visa-free days left, or because you already hold a valid Schengen visa. Your employer ticks the option for quick job start and visa exemption in the application, and gets a link to book an appointment at SIRI. You go to the appointment with your passport and the receipt for the application, have your biometrics recorded and get a provisional work permit. SIRI says this can be as early as the day after your employer applies (another passage on the same page says the same day), provided you meet every requirement, SIRI’s citizen centre is open and appointments are free to book.
• You cannot enter legally, for example because you need a visa or have used up your visa-free days. Your employer ticks quick job start and visa requirement, and you have your biometrics recorded at the nearest Danish diplomatic mission or visa application centre no later than 14 days after the application is sent. SIRI then normally decides in about 10 days, as long as the application is complete, the fee is paid and your biometrics are recorded. If you qualify, you get the residence and work permit together with an entry visa.

If your employer forgets to ask for quick job start, SIRI says it can write to SIRI with the case order ID and reference number.

What else does the scheme let you do?

The scheme lets you work alternately in Denmark and abroad without losing your permit New to Denmark. In practice, the usual lapse rules do not apply to you: with an ordinary Danish permit you lose it if you give up your Danish address or stay abroad for more than 6 months in a row, but on fast-track you may give up your Danish address while you are abroad for a period. The exemption does not cover a job-seeking period after your contract ends. If you are abroad and not paid the salary in your application, you and your employer must be able to document that you were not living in Denmark, for example with boarding passes, passport stamps or an HR statement of leave New to Denmark.

Two other things to know. Your job content can change within the same company without a new permit, for example after a promotion, as long as salary and terms stay at Danish standards and, on the pay limit track, above the pay limit. And the permit only covers that job at that company: a new employer means a new application, and the permit does not let you work in other Schengen countries.

What does certification not mean?

It is not a job offer, a sponsorship promise or a hiring plan. Certification describes the company, not a vacancy: it means the company may use the fast-track scheme when it does hire someone from outside the EU/EEA. To apply at all, you need an employment agreement with a company registered in Denmark and certified by SIRI New to Denmark. Nothing in SIRI’s rules turns the list into a commitment to recruit abroad, and a certified company chooses whom to hire like any other employer.

Being off the list does not shut you out either. A company that is not certified can still hire you through the ordinary schemes, such as the Pay Limit Scheme or the Positive Lists New to Denmark. It loses the quick job start and the speed, not the right to hire you.

Certification itself has conditions. The company must have at least 10 full-time, permanently employed staff in Denmark, pay and employ on Danish terms, attend a guidance meeting with SIRI, and have a clean record under the Aliens Act. A certification lasts 4 years and can be renewed. If SIRI revokes it, the company is removed from the list and banned from certification for a year; employees already on fast-track permits keep them, but cannot extend them on the scheme and must apply under another work scheme New to Denmark.

What does it cost and how long does it take?

Permit figures are from the fast-track page New to Denmark, certification figures from the certification page New to Denmark, both checked on 17 October 2026. Your employer can create the case order ID and pay your fee. The certification fee is the company’s cost, not yours.

Certification belongs to one company, identified by its CVR number. A group with several companies under the same umbrella needs a separate certification for each company that wants to use the scheme New to Denmark. SIRI also notes that fast-track certification does not give access to the new collective-agreement-based pay limit scheme starting on 1 January 2027, which needs its own certification.

What about tax? The 27% expat scheme

The fast-track scheme is the immigration route in. The tax side is separate, and it is the part people find out about far too late: Denmark has a special tax scheme for researchers and highly paid employees (forskerskatteordningen), taxed under section 48 E-F of the Danish Withholding Tax Act.

• What you pay: your gross earned income is taxed at 32.84% — the 8% labour market contribution plus a flat 27% — instead of the normal progressive rates skat.dk.
• For how long: up to 7 years, with the conditions met throughout.
• Who qualifies: researchers (at least PhD level) and key employees on a guaranteed monthly salary of at least DKK 65,400 (2026 level).
• What it does not cover: other income, which is taxed normally — so you still need an ordinary tax card for anything outside the scheme.
• The two traps: you are disqualified if you have worked in Denmark in the past ten years without being covered by the scheme, and the scheme can only be used once in your life.
• Your employer applies, through skat.dk, and both of you must meet the conditions from your first day — so raise it before you sign, not after your first payslip.

The fast-track and the expat scheme are not the same thing, and being hired on the fast track does not make you eligible automatically: the salary threshold and the researcher requirement are what decide it. They are, however, frequently used together, and asking about it costs nothing. The full walkthrough is in tax card and Danish tax.

Can your family come with you?

Yes. A permit based on a job in Denmark lets your spouse, registered or cohabiting partner and children under 18 living at home join you New to Denmark. They apply as accompanying family members to an employee: each person applies separately, the fee is DKK 3,080 each, and the normal processing time is 2 months, up to 3. Because your permit is based on salaried work, they do not have to document financial support. They must live at the same address as you, and they generally get the right to work in Denmark, except at your company or a company closely related to it, which needs a separate work permit New to Denmark. Your family is also exempt from the lapse rules, so they can spend long periods abroad with you without losing their permits.

How should you use the list of certified companies?

SIRI publishes the register of every company certified to hire foreign labour under the fast-track scheme, with each company’s name and CVR number, and dates each update New to Denmark. We publish the same register, searchable by name or CVR number, at certified companies.

Use it to check one thing: whether the specific employer that has offered you a job, or is interviewing you, can use the scheme. Search by the CVR number on your contract rather than the brand name. Large groups appear as several separate entries; Alfa Laval, for example, is listed as five different companies, each with its own CVR number, and a sister company that is not listed cannot use its siblings’ certification. If your employer is on the list, ask HR whether they plan to use quick job start, because they file the application, not you.

Do not use it as a list of targets. It mixes global firms with restaurants, sports clubs, a symphony orchestra and universities; being listed says nothing about whether a company has a vacancy, recruits in English or hires from abroad often. Look for real openings first, as described in finding a job without Danish, and use the register to check the employer once you have one.

Common mistakes

• Treating the list as a list of employers who sponsor visas. It is a list of companies allowed to use a faster procedure.
• Assuming the brand name is enough. Certification follows the CVR number of the company that employs you.
• Booking a flight on a visa you do not have. Quick job start in Denmark needs a legal entry: visa-free days left, a valid Schengen visa, or SIRI’s decision with an entry visa.
• Starting work before the provisional permit is in your hand. Paying the fee and submitting the application are not enough on their own.
• Taking a second job. Outside the researcher track, sideline work needs its own permit New to Denmark.

If something goes wrong

If you lose your job, tell SIRI: the permit is tied to that job and will be revoked. If you become unemployed through no fault of your own on the pay limit, researcher or educational track, you can apply for a 6-month job-seeking permit no later than 2 days after your employment ends, and you may not work during that period New to Denmark. The short-term and supplementary pay limit tracks do not give a job-seeking permit New to Denmark. If you find a new job, submit a new application; you can start the new job on the day you submit it.

If your employer loses its certification while you work there, your permit is not affected straight away, but you will need another work scheme when it is time to extend New to Denmark.