dk.txt

Persons over 21 years of age

You can apply at the earliest when you have reached the age of 21, and the
application must be with the Ministry of Immigration and Integration Affairs no
later than the day before your 22nd birthday. If you apply too early or too
late, the application will only be considered as an application for proof of
Danish citizenship. If you have previously applied for proof of Danish
citizenship, this is not a guarantee that you have retained your Danish
citizenship by your 22nd birthday.

How do you meet the conditions for preservation?

You can retain your Danish citizenship if you have cohesion with Denmark.
Slightly more simply said, you must have maintained an affiliation or
affiliation with Denmark, and that is the basis for you, of course, to be
allowed to retain your Danish citizenship.

In practice, the assessment of whether you have retained the connection to
Denmark is divided into two:

- if you meet the residency requirement or
- do not meet the residence requirement, but can still document affiliation
  with Denmark.

If you meet the residency requirement

In order to be able to retain your Danish citizenship, you must have resided in
Denmark for a period which shows that you have a sufficient affiliation with
Denmark. There are two options to meet the residency requirement.

- If you have lived in Denmark for a minimum of 3 consecutive months and have
been registered in the population register with residence in Denmark, this is
fulfilled.

- Alternatively, you must be able to document that you have resided in
Denmark for a total of one year in total. You must therefore be able to count
all stays in Denmark - holidays, family parties, summer school, folk high
school stays, etc., to give 52 weeks. If you have not resided in Denmark for a
full year, the requirement will be considered fulfilled if the duration of the
total stays is close to one year and other circumstances surrounding the stays
indicate that the stays are an expression that you - when you filled 22 years -
had a current and personal connection to Denmark.

However, you should be aware that greater emphasis will be placed on staying in
Denmark closer to the 22nd birthday - e.g. a high school stay as a 19-year-old
will be more important than having attended a Danish kindergarten as a
4-year-old. Emphasis will also be placed on whether the stays can be assumed to
be an expression of your own desire to visit Denmark, or whether they are a
result of, for example, parents 'or employers' dispositions.

Finally, residence in another Nordic country for a total of at least 7 years
can be equated with residence in Denmark for 3 months.

If you do not meet the residency requirement

If the residence requirement above is not met, the following will be included
in the assessment of whether the applicant can retain his Danish citizenship:

You can prove that you have maintained a special connection to Denmark

There is no single answer as to what a sufficient affiliation with Denmark will
mean.  The Indigenous Rights Office will always make an overall assessment of
your circumstances and whether you have maintained a special connection to
Denmark.  You can e.g. show that you have an interest in the Danish language,
culture, society and history.

Examples of circumstances that may help to prove that you have maintained a
special connection to Denmark:

You have family and friends in Denmark that you yourself are in direct contact
with e.g. through social media, and who you see when you are in Denmark.  You
are a member of a Danish association or organization, e.g. a Danish football
club, a Danish sailors' church or Danes Worldwide.  You have in other ways
maintained the connection, interest and relationship with Denmark.  Any Danish
skills Again, there are no specific requirements for how your Danish skills
are. When applying, describe your language skills as accurately as possible. At
the same time, two references must also comment on your Danish skills. For
example, it is very normal for Danish children born and raised abroad that they
speak good Danish, while the spelling is a bit lame. But don't worry, this is
not what puts an end to the preservation of your Danish citizenship.

If you have received Danish lessons, it will be a good idea to enclose
documentation in the application.

*) Section 8 of the Citizenship Act Section 8 of the Danish Citizenship Act
lays down the preservation rule:

§ 8 A person who was born abroad and has never lived here in the kingdom and
has not stayed here under conditions that indicate cohesion with Denmark, loses
his Danish citizenship at the age of 22, unless the person in question thereby
becomes stateless. . However, the Minister of Immigration and Integration
Affairs or the person he authorizes to do so may, upon application submitted
before this time, allow the right of citizenship to be retained.

PCS. 2. If a person loses his or her citizenship under this provision, his or
her child may also lose his or her citizenship if the child has acquired the
citizenship through him or her, unless the child thereby becomes stateless.

PCS. For the purposes of paragraph 1 is equated with residence in a Nordic
country for a total of at least 7 years with residence here in the kingdom.

Need more help?  Do you have more questions or need further help? Then write to
[email protected] or call the legal advice on (+45) 3332 0913. You can contact the
advice

Monday: 9 - 16
Tuesday: 10.30 - 18.30
Wednesday: CLOSED
Thursday: 9 - 16
Friday: 9 - 16

If you want case processing and specific help for your
application, go here and fill out one of our contact forms.

See also in our event calendar if we will soon have a webinar on the subject.