Efforts to ease integration of foreign employees
Denmark has launched a growing number of schemes aimed at helping Danish companies recruit and retain foreign talent.
Copenhagen Municipality has set up International House Copenhagen, a one-stop shop for foreign workers and Danish companies looking to recruit them. There’s also Copenhagen Capacity, which helps companies in Greater Copenhagen find skilled international candidates, among other things through its Greater Copenhagen Career Portal.
Aarhus Municipality has launched a special site for new international arrivals, and is launching a new “internationalisation strategy”, which it says aims to ensure “the best possible reception, attract international talent, and, most importantly, create an environment where internationals can feel at home in Denmark”.
Aalborg has set up International House North Denmark, a one-point entry for international workers coming to the city and its surrounding region, which offers, among other things a “Spouse Space” to help the spouses of international workers find employment.
There is also Project Onboard Denmark, launched by a professor at Copenhagen University, which gives companies access to an onboarding process and a lot of research to help them and their new international employees “turn cultural differences into collaborative strengths”.
Supplementary Pay Limit Scheme threshold reduced
The salary threshold for the Supplementary Pay Limit Scheme was slashed in April 2023 from 448,000 kroner per year to 375,000 kroner per year, a move that made it much easier for many companies to recruit foreign labour using this pay-based route. The lower threshold was then adjusted upwards, along with inflation, to 393,000 kroner in January 2024, and will be adjusted upwards again next January. Read about the changes here.
Bank account rule scrapped
On July 1st, the government scrapped the so-called ‘bank account rule’ for foreign workers given a work permit under the “researcher” scheme and four so-called “fast track” schemes. This rule, which obliged foreign workers to receive their wages in a Danish bank account had meant that foreign hires sometimes had to wait for up to six months before they could get paid, causing major inconvenience and deterring them from coming to Sweden. The Confederation of Danish Employers in 2023 led a campaign to end the bank account rule. Read about the changes here.
Workers from Danish companies’ foreign subsidiaries excused permits
In November 2023, a new rule came into force allowing foreigners working for subsidiaries of Danish companies to work in Denmark for two 15-day periods every six months without a permit, with a minimum 14-day gap between the two periods. To be eligible, foreign workers must be employed by a foreign branch or subsidiary of a company registered in Denmark, which has at least 50 employees. Read about the change here.
Fast-track work permit certification scheme extended to smaller companies
As part of the same package of changes which came into force in April 2023, the government also extended the fast-track work permit certification scheme to countries with as few a ten people. The Fast-track Scheme allows certified companies to employ foreign nationals with special qualifications more quickly and easily than through the standard pathway.
In short, this means that employers, by registering the scheme, can enable their foreign hires to be granted a temporary work permit so they can start their job immediately after arriving in Denmark, or – if the employee is not exempted from Danish visa rules – get them a permit including an entry visa within 10 days.
The new rules allow companies with as few as 10 employees to register for the scheme, a reduction from the minimum of 20 under the old rules.
Partnership agreements with non-EU countries
In January 2024, the government said it had started talks with India and the Philippines over bilateral partnership deals which will make it easier to bring health workers, particularly nurses, to work in Danish hospitals. In August, the Berlingske newspaper reported that no concrete deal had yet been struck, but negotiations continue and partnership deals struck for medical staff could be followed by deals making it easier for, say, Indian computer programmers.
Denmark’s foreign minister, Lars Løkke Rasmussen, said at the end of September that he was interested in following the example of Germany, which has struck partnership deals with India, Morocco and Georgia which make it easier for these countries’ nationals to receive work permits, but which also make the countries responsibible for ensuring their nationals return home when their permit expires of it they are rejected.
Foreign health professionals given temporary exemption from residence requirements
In June 2024, the Danish parliament passed a bill which loosened work permit rules for foreign healthcare professionals, excusing them from the requirement to get a residence permit while they go through the procedure to get their foreign qualifications authorised by the Danish authorities. Denmark at the same time extended the “Positive List” for skilled workers to include social and healthcare workers, with a quota of up to 1,000 people.
Returning Danes able to bring family under work permit rules
From July 1st 2024, the foreign spouses of Danes who have been working overseas for eight years (or less in some circumstances) will be able to come to Denmark under the same rules as the spouses of people awarded a work permit, so long as the Danish Agency for International Recruitment and Integration judges that the job the Dane has been offered would have been the basis for a residency permit for their spouse under the positive list for persons with higher education, the positive list for skilled workers, the pay-limit scheme, the research scheme, the fast track scheme, or the Startup Denmark scheme.
Three-year job search period for foreign grads of Danish universities
The government also in April 2023 extended the validity of the ‘establishment card’ for international students who have been awarded a Danish Professional Bachelor’s (vocational), Bachelor’s, Master’s degree or PhD degree from two years to three years.
So long as graduates keep their Danish address and do not leave the country for longer than six months they have a three-year “job seeking period” in which they retain the right to live and work in Denmark.
Start-up Denmark scheme for entrepreneurs extended
The Start-up Denmark scheme allows two-year work permits to be granted to foreign entrepreneurs and a team of up to three people who want to start a business together in Denmark through a joined business plan. In April 2023, the scheme was extended to cover foreign business owners who wants to open a Danish branch of an existing foreign independent business, and then in July 2024 it was extended so that Danish citizens based abroad can also use it to get permits for their accompanying family members.
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