Denmark's Positive List: work permits by shortage occupation

What the Positive List actually is

It is a list of job titles Denmark has a shortage of qualified people for. If an employer offers you a job whose title appears on it, that offer is the basis for a Danish residence and work permit, applied for under the Positive List scheme New to Denmark.

There are two separate lists, and which one you need is decided by the job, not by preference:

• The Positive List for People with a Higher Education — for jobs that need a degree. At least three years at bachelor level is the floor for many titles; others require a master’s degree.
• The Positive List for Skilled Work — for skilled trades and associate-professional jobs, where the qualification is typically a vocational education.

Each title is listed with its DISCO-08 classification code, the code Danmarks Statistik uses for occupations, and the higher-education list also states the education required for that title New to Denmark.

The lists are not static, and the update rhythm is part of the answer to “am I on it?”. SIRI rebuilds them twice a year on 1 January and 1 July from ongoing labour-market monitoring, and the Regional Labour Market Councils and the profession-specific a-kasser add titles on 1 April and 1 October, or at any time when a shortage is acute. A title stays on for at least two years once added New to Denmark.

Two consequences follow, and both are practical rather than pedantic:

• A title added by a Regional Labour Market Council applies only inside that council’s area. The list marks which titles those are, and RAR-BM publishes the areas RAR-BM. A Copenhagen job and an Esbjerg job can be different answers for the same title. Once you have held a residence permit for 4 years, SIRI allows you to have your primary place of work in a different geographical area without applying for a new permit.
• Titles are removed. Each entry on the higher-education list carries the date it can be delisted, and SIRI’s own update for 1 October 2026 added exactly one title — midwife, in the Regional Labour Market Council of Eastern Denmark’s area New to Denmark.

When we counted the two lists as nyidanmark.dk served them on 20 October 2026, the higher-education list carried 165 job titles and the skilled-work list 64. Treat those as a snapshot with a date on it, not a constant: the number changes at every update.

Is your job on the list? Look for the education, not the job title

The job title matching is the easy half, and it is not where applications fail. Two conditions sit behind the title:

• You must hold an education that qualifies you for the job. SIRI checks it against the level stated for that title New to Denmark.
• For some titles, a Danish authorisation or official recognition is required on top of the degree. Regulated professions in Denmark — doctor, dentist, lawyer, authorised psychologist and others — need a Danish authorisation, and SIRI says you should apply for that before applying for the residence permit, because you must attach either the authorisation or proof that you have applied for it New to Denmark.

The worked example on SIRI’s own page is the pattern: an engineering job title on the list means you must document a degree at the stated level, not merely that you have done that job.

So the order that works is: match the job title, then check the education requirement printed beside it, then check whether that profession needs Danish authorisation, and only then let the employer file. Reading the title and stopping is how a technical rejection happens.

The skilled-work list has an employer condition nobody mentions

On the Positive List for Skilled Work there is an extra requirement that has nothing to do with you. Your employer must be covered by Læreplads-AUB and must have met its target for training apprentices:

• it reached the target number of trained apprentices in the latest calculated contribution year — 2025 — with no additional contribution (merbidrag) due; or
• it reached the target in two of the latest three calculated contribution years — 2023, 2024 and 2025 — again with no extra contribution due.

SIRI states plainly that no exemption is possible from this requirement on the skilled-work list, and that an employer who only expects to meet it from 2026, having missed 2023 and 2024, does not qualify New to Denmark. A copy of the employment contract or job offer has to be attached, with all terms of employment stated in it.

This is the single most useful thing a skilled worker can check early, because it is not something you can fix by having a better CV: it does not exist on the higher-education list, and it is the employer’s record that decides. SIRI’s page also lists where the employer can see their own Læreplads-AUB status. The same page carries a quota that only exists on this list. The two Social and Health Care Worker titles are open for a total of 1,000 residence and work permits, and SIRI states that when the quota is reached the position will be deleted from the list. The two Social and Health Care Assistant titles carry a further requirement printed beside them: Danish authorisation.

What your salary has to satisfy

The Positive Lists do not have a national minimum salary, and this is the most common misreading. The rule is that your salary and terms of employment must correspond to Danish standards — your pay, holiday entitlement and notice terms must not be inferior to the standards of the profession you are entering New to Denmark.

• Only some components count. For the higher-education list SIRI takes into account salary in the form of liquid assets including guaranteed fixed supplements, payments to labour market pension schemes from both sides, and holiday allowance. It does not count paid housing, per diems, a free car, a paid phone or internet, other benefits in kind, subscriptions or services New to Denmark.
• The holiday allowance nuance cuts both ways. If you are paid monthly you earn a fixed holiday supplement of 1% as part of your monthly salary, and SIRI includes it. If you are paid hourly and earn 12.5% holiday allowance on top of your basic salary, SIRI does not treat that allowance as a supplement to your basic salary in the assessment New to Denmark.
• SIRI can escalate the check. If it doubts that your pay and terms meet Danish standards it can ask the relevant authority — for example a Regional Employment Council — to assess them, and it weighs how much professional experience from your home country should count New to Denmark.
• On the skilled-work list there is published wage statistics. SIRI applies statistics based on Danmarks Statistik’s wage register as a guideline for these applications, and says the statistics focus on the qualification level for vocational educations within the occupation, so that your pay matches that of a skilled employee with your level of relevant experience. It also warns that an application stating the employment follows the collective agreement does not by itself make the terms equivalent to Danish standards, and it publishes the wage statistics as a PDF New to Denmark.
• Working hours count. Your working hours must be usual, which normally means full time, about 37 hours a week; SIRI notes that in some industries shorter positions can be considered usual New to Denmark.

A Danish bank account, and a 180-day clock

Your salary must be paid into a Danish bank account in your own name, at a bank operating legally in Denmark. SIRI states it is not required that the money is transferred from a Danish account, and that you must arrange the account yourself New to Denmark.

The deadline depends on your situation, and SIRI sets it out precisely:

• If the permit is granted while you are abroad and you enter Denmark afterwards, open the account within 180 days from your entry.
• If you are granted the permit and are already here, open it within 180 days of the permit being granted.
• If you already hold a Danish residence permit valid for at least 180 days, your salary must go into the Danish account from your first salary payment.

If you have no CPR number yet and a bank turns you away, SIRI points to the basic payment account route. Our own walkthrough of opening an account before you have a CPR number is in Danish bank account.

Applying: the fee, who does what, and the two clocks

The fee for both Positive Lists is DKK 6,810 (2026), and SIRI’s national fee table puts it at EUR 912.87 alongside the Pay Limit schemes, the fast-track scheme, company certification, researchers and “other schemes in the area of work” New to Denmark. Fees are set annually and can move on 1 January.

The processing times are the part people get wrong, because the two lists are not equally fast:

Both times are the ones SIRI prints at the top of each scheme page higher education, skilled work. If you are choosing between a job on the higher-education list and a comparable one on the skilled-work list, that table is a real difference in weeks.

On the application itself:

1. Create a case order ID and pay the fee — you do this before submitting.
2. Your employer fills in their part first, including the terms of employment. SIRI sends an email to the address the employer wrote in that part.
3. You use the link in that email and sign up with the same email address — SIRI warns explicitly that the address your employer writes must be the one you intend to use, because it is what gives you access to your own part.
4. Biometrics — you must have your facial photo and fingerprints recorded no later than 14 days after submitting, either in Denmark or at a Danish diplomatic mission or application centre abroad, and your residence card is then sent to the address registered for you in the CPR register.

Steps 2 and 3 are from SIRI’s own application guidance on the skilled-work page New to Denmark.

If you use the AR6 form, which is the version where your employer handles the application under a power of attorney, the employer fills in the whole thing. The two routes are described on the same page.

How long the permit lasts, and when it starts

If your employment is for 4 years or more, you are normally granted a permit valid for 4 years. If the employment is shorter than 4 years, the permit normally runs for the length of the employment; you extend it afterwards, and if the contract is extended you must apply for an extension New to Denmark.

Two details that catch people out:

• Your passport can shorten the permit. A Danish residence permit can only be valid until 3 months before your passport expires. If your passport is short-dated, the permit is cut to match, and you can only apply for an extension once you have renewed the passport New to Denmark.
• Applying from abroad can start the permit before the job does. If you apply from outside Denmark, the permit can be valid for 1 month before you start working, to give you time to settle — but you must declare that you can support yourself and any accompanying family during that month. Without the declaration it is valid for 14 days before your first working day. Applying from inside Denmark, the permit starts on the day you start working.

Changing jobs, losing jobs and the 6-month permit

Your permit is tied to the job it was granted for, so the job is the thing that has to keep working.

Changing jobs. You must submit a new application for a residence and work permit based on the new job. Under the job change rule, you may start the new job as soon as you have submitted it — but you must submit it no later than the same day you start. Submit after you have started and the rule does not cover you: you have to stop working until SIRI has decided. The rule applies to the Positive Lists, the Pay Limit schemes, the fast-track scheme, researchers, PhDs, Start-Up Denmark and others New to Denmark.

Losing the job. You must tell SIRI, and the permit is revoked, because it is based on that exact employment. A new position inside the same company is also a change that needs a new application on the skilled-work list, where SIRI states that you may not work in positions other than the one on your permit, including a new role with the same employer New to Denmark.

The job-seeking permit. SIRI’s higher-education page states that where employment is shorter than 4 years you are automatically granted a 6-month job-seeking permit, that you may not work during it, and that you must apply for a new permit based on the new job. On the skilled-work page, SIRI states that the permit is revoked if you lose the job, but the text we could read does not repeat that automatic 6-month job-seeking permit. We are not going to smooth over that gap: if you hold a skilled-work permit and lose your job, confirm the job-seeking route with SIRI directly rather than relying on this page. The related a-kasse and union picture is in unions and a-kasse.

Bringing family

A permit based on a job in Denmark lets your family come. A permit can be granted to your spouse, registered or cohabiting partner and children under 18 living at home, and they apply separately as accompanying family members to an employee, at DKK 3,080 each New to Denmark.

One condition in the scheme’s own text is about them, not you: an accompanying family member must not have had a residence permit revoked more than once for lacking a required work permit New to Denmark. Our walkthrough of the family application, fees and documents is in bringing family to Denmark.

What the permit does not give you

• You may not work in other Schengen countries. You may stay in the Schengen area for up to 90 days in any 180, but the permit does not carry a right to work elsewhere New to Denmark.
• You must support yourself. Receiving benefits under the Active Social Policy Act is not allowed, other benefits may also be barred, and if you or your family receive them the permit can be revoked. Municipalities report disbursements to foreign nationals to SIRI.
• You must not give up your Danish address or stay abroad for more than 6 successive months, or the permit lapses. If your employer posts you abroad, a dispensation can be applied for.
• Danish lessons come with a deposit. A residence permit entitles you to Danish lessons once you are 18 and registered at a Danish address, but on a work permit you pay a deposit before you can start, and you can lose it if you do not pass the modules within the timeframe. If your municipality has not offered you lessons within a month of registering your address, SIRI says to contact it. See Danish language courses.

How this differs from the neighbouring schemes

The three routes people mix up are the Positive Lists, the Pay Limit Scheme and the fast-track scheme, and the difference is what qualifies you:

• Pay Limit Scheme: a national minimum salary, DKK 552,000 (2026), regulated every 1 January. No particular degree or field is required; only liquid salary, pension contributions and holiday allowance count, and it runs on the same 1-month/3-month clock as the higher-education list New to Denmark. The address on your own contract decides it: no list, no apprentice requirement.
• Positive Lists: the job title is on the shortage list, and you hold the matching education. No national minimum, but Danish-standards pay and — on the skilled-work list — the employer’s apprentice-training record.
• Fast-track scheme: your employer is certified by SIRI and can use a faster, more flexible procedure, with the possible bonus of starting work on a provisional permit. It is a property of the company, not of your occupation, and it can be combined with a pay-limit track or an educational track. The full comparison is in the fast-track scheme.

If you are weighing this against the tax side of moving, note that a Positive List permit is an immigration route and says nothing about tax: the separate question is whether you qualify for the 27% expat tax scheme, which needs either approved researcher status or a guaranteed salary of DKK 65,400 a month in 2026.

Common mistakes

• Reading the job title and not the education requirement. The list prints the level per title, and education requirements differ within the same list.
• Missing the Danish authorisation. For regulated professions it must be attached, or proof of having applied for it — SIRI advises applying for the authorisation first.
• Assuming a national minimum salary. There is none on the Positive Lists; there is one on the Pay Limit Scheme. SIRI also ignores a car, housing, phone and other benefits when judging pay.
• Not checking the employer on the skilled-work list. The Læreplads-AUB requirement is not waivable, and it is the employer’s record that decides.
• Starting a new job before submitting the application. The job change rule covers you only if the application goes in no later than your first day in the new job.
• Trusting a cached copy of the list. It is rebuilt in January, April, July and October, and titles can be delisted two years after being added. Check the page dated closest to your application.