Guidance on how to apply for Danish citizenship

How to apply online – and who must use the paper-based application form for Danish citizenship by naturalisation

How to apply online for Danish citizenship by naturalisation

You must fulfil all the relevant conditions and enclose the necessary documentation when you submit your application. If you do not, you must expect your application to be rejected.

With your application, you must enclose documentation verifying that you have an indefinite residence permit and proof that you have passed both the 2021 citizenship test and the Test in Danish 3, Danish 2 or one of the other tests referred to in Annex 3a or 3b.

A fee of DKK 4,000 (2023 and 2024) is payable when you submit your application. This fee must be paid when you have completed your application and submit it.

Payment is accepted by Dankort, Visa, Mastercard, or MobilePay

When you have paid the fee, it is important that you remember to sign your application using MitID as a final step.

Your application will only be considered to have been submitted once you have signed it using MitID.

Once you have submitted your application, you will immediately receive an acknowledgement email. You will also receive confirmation from the Ministry of Immigration and Integration that we have registered your application. This confirmation will also state your case number and how long you can expect the processing of your application to take.

You are welcome to contact the ministry if you do not receive confirmation from the ministry within one month.

Under point 2 of the application form: ‘Have you previously applied for Danish citizenship through naturalisation?’, you must answer ‘Yes’.

You will not need to pay the fee again.

However, you must still submit a new application using the online application form, even if you have completed an application previously. You must complete all parts of the application form and enclose all the enclosures which you believe are relevant to the processing of your case, even if you have previously submitted documentation.

See below if you have any questions regarding the completion of certain points:

Application form, point 2 – CPR NoIt is important that you do not delete the specified zeros before the CPR number. If you accidentally delete them and the system states that changes have been made, you can enclose (upload) a blank sheet of paper.

Application form, point 2 – Personal ID/Alien number You should note that, in order to submit your application, you must state either your alien number or your personal ID number.

You will find this number on the back of your residence permit. If you do not have a residence permit, you will find the number on letters which you have received from the public administration (currently administered by the Danish Agency for International Recruitment and Integration – SIRI) or the Danish Immigration Service. If you do not have your alien number, you can enter 1234 in the field. If you do not have a personal ID number, you can leave the field blank.

Application form, point 5 – Children Under point 5 of the application form: ‘Children’, you must state whether you have any children, regardless of whether you would like the children to apply for citizenship with you. At present, you cannot select the option for there to be 0 of your children applying to become a Danish citizen with you.

You must therefore state the number of children and then, under each child, select No to the child having citizenship with you.

If you are unable to proceed further in the application, you can enclose (upload) an empty PDF file under the field: ‘If you believe that the entries in the CPR registers for your children are incorrect, you can enclose documentation of this here’.

Who must use the paper-based application form

The following children can apply to acquire Danish citizenship by naturalisation as the main person (as the main applicant):

  • Children who cannot become a Danish citizen together with one of their parents
  • Certain adopted children
  • Children born outside marriage to a foreign mother and a Danish father from 11 October 1993 to 30 June 2014 inclusive
  • Children who have not become a Danish citizen due to the cessation of cohabitation
  • Children born stateless in Denmark.

Special rules apply to stateless people born in Denmark, and special lenient rules apply to children under the age of 18.

The following groups must use the paper-based application form for adults:

  • persons who live abroad and do not have a MitID (the application must be submitted to the Danish representation in the applicant’s country of residence)
  • persons who are represented by a representative (for instance a solicitor)
  • if they do not have a MitID, applicants who are resident on the Faroe Islands or in Greenland can submit the paper-based application form to the police on the Faroe Islands or in Greenland.

If you submit a paper-based application and are not covered by one of the above groups, the Ministry of Immigration and Integration may reject your application. This means that the ministry will not process your application and that you will have to apply again online.

If your application is rejected, you will be notified and given guidance by the ministry.

Start Apply for Danish citizenship by naturalisation (paper-based application form)

More information

All mandatory fields in the application form must be completed, and the following documents must be enclosed with the application:

  • copy of passport (only the page with the passport photograph and information on the applicant)
  • copy of indefinite residence permit
  • copy of test or examination certificates as documentation of competence in Danish
  • copy of proof of pass in citizenship test
  • any medical documentation if, for medical reasons, the applicant wishes to be granted dispensation from the requirements concerning competence in Danish, a pass in the citizenship test and/or self-sufficiency. There is no standard medical declaration at present.
  • documentation of custody if a child under 18 years of age is covered by the application as a minor. If the applicant is married to the other parent of the child/children, it is not necessary to enclose documentation of custody if there is joint custody within the marriage.

When you apply for Danish citizenship by naturalisation, you must pay a fee of DKK 4,000 (2023 and 2024). 

This fee must be paid directly to the Ministry of Immigration and Integration when you submit the application.

If you submit your application via the online application solution, you must pay using Dankort, Visa, Mastercard, or MobilePay. It is important that the payment can be linked to the right application. The applicant’s CPR number must therefore always be stated, regardless of the cardholder’s name.

Paper-based application

If you submit a paper-based application, the fee must be paid to the Ministry of Immigration and Integration via the following account with Danske Bank: reg. No 0216, account number 4069073948.

The applicant’s CPR number must be stated in the ‘Message to payee’ field.

An acknowledgement of payment of the fee must be enclosed when a paper-based application is submitted.

In the case of payments from a foreign bank, the following information must be used:

BIC/SWIFT: DABADKKKIBAN: DK76 0216 4069 2050 11

What happens to your fee?

You will not need to pay the fee again if, for example, you submit another application after having had a previous application rejected.

The fee will not be refunded if your application is processed and rejected. The fee will also not normally be refunded if you withdraw your application. However, your fee will be refunded if the ministry refuses to process your application.

Via a Danish representation

If you submit your application via a Danish representation in your country of residence, the fee must be paid to the representation concerned.

Faroe Islands or Greenland?

If you have a residence on the Faroe Islands or in Greenland, the fee must be paid to the police.

When submitting their application to the police, applicants resident in Greenland must pay a fee of DKK 1,200 (2023 and 2024).

When submitting their application to the police, applicants resident on the Faroe Islands must pay a fee of DKK 1,200 (2023 and 2024).

The difference between these fees and that payable by applicants resident in Denmark is due to the fact that different legislation concerning fees applies to applications for citizenship for applicants resident on the Faroe Islands and in Greenland.

Fees for children who apply as main person

Note that the rules concerning fees are different for children who apply as the main person and stateless persons who were born in Denmark.

If you fulfil the conditions for being granted citizenship, you will be included in a bill of naturalisation, which must then be approved by the Danish Parliament.

Applications for citizenship are processed by the Ministry of Immigration and Integration. Applications are normally processed in the order in which they are received. However, the ministry strives to ensure that applications from applicants who belong to particularly vulnerable groups of people, such as children and stateless persons covered by the 1961 UN Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness (the Statelessness Convention) and the 1989 UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC), are processed more quickly.

Bills of naturalisation – in April and October

When the Ministry of Immigration and Integration receives your application for Danish citizenship or your request for reconsideration, the ministry will investigate whether you fulfil the conditions and can therefore be included in a bill of naturalisation.

Bills of naturalisation are submitted by the Ministry of Immigration and Integration twice a year – in April and October.

In connection with the preparation of each bill, the ministry will close the bill for any further inclusions approximately 2 to 3 months before the bill is submitted.

It is normally a requirement that you must fulfil the conditions for Danish citizenship up until the date on which the bill is adopted.

You must notify the Ministry of Immigration and Integration immediately if your circumstances change from the time you submitted the application through to adoption of the law, in a way which means that you no longer fulfil the conditions for being granted Danish citizenship. If you fail to do so, you risk having your citizenship annulled.

Case processing time

The average processing time for applications for Danish citizenship concluded in 2021 was approximately 14 months.

The processing time was determined as of 31 December 2021.

Decisions regarding acquisition of Danish citizenship cannot be appealed. 

It follows from Section 44 of the Danish Constitution that aliens can only acquire citizenship through an act of parliament. The competence to grant Danish citizenship is therefore accorded to the Danish parliament.

With reference to the fact that, under Section 44 of the Danish Constitution, it is the The Parliament who decides whether or not a person should be granted Danish citizenship, there is no right to administratively appeal against the Ministry of Immigration and Integration’s processing of applications for Danish citizenship through naturalisation.

However, aliens who have had their application for Danish citizenship rejected can re-apply at any time.

Inclusion in a bill of naturalisation

If you fulfil the conditions for being granted Danish citizenship, you will be included in a bill of naturalisation.

You will receive a letter from the Ministry of Immigration and Integration informing you that you are expected to be included in the next bill on naturalisation provided you continue to fulfil the conditions for being granted Danish citizenship until the bill is adopted.

If you do not fulfil one or more of the conditions for being granted Danish citizenship, the Ministry of Immigration and Integration will investigate whether your application can be submitted to the Parliamentary committee on naturalisation, so that they can decide whether you should be granted dispensation from one or more of the conditions. The fact that the application is submitted to the Committee does not mean that you will actually be granted dispensation.

If the committee decides that dispensation should be granted, you will receive a letter from the Ministry of Immigration and Integration informing you that you will be included in the next bill of naturalisation, provided that you still fulfil the conditions for being granted Danish citizenship at the time.

Bills of naturalisation are considered by the Danish Parliament twice a year. The Danish Parliament normally takes about 2-3 months to consider the bill.

Consideration of the bill by the Parliament is public. Your name, municipality of residence, year of birth, country of birth and any previous citizenship will be stated in the bill, which is published on the Parliament’s website and elsewhere. Names, etc. of any minors (children of the applicants) will not be published in the bill.

The Ministry of Immigration and Integration will forward information on the applicants to the Parliamentary committee on Naturalisation. This includes information which the applicants have themselves provided to the ministry and information of which the ministry has otherwise become aware during the processing of the case.

Until the bill is adopted, the Ministry of Immigration and Integration will investigate whether the persons who are included in the bill still fulfil the conditions for being granted Danish citizenship.

When the bill of naturalisation is adopted by the Parliament and the law enters into force, you will be sent a declaration from the Ministry of Immigration and Integration informing you that you have been included in the bill concerned, subject to the condition that you attend a constitutional ceremony. This declaration must be taken to the ceremony and signed by the municipality.

The municipalities will then send the declarations to the Ministry of Immigration and Integration, which will then register that you have attended a ceremony and signed to confirm that you will comply with the Constitution, etc. – and that you have thereby become a Danish citizen.

The Ministry of Immigration and Integration will then issue a citizenship certificate, which you will be sent. On the basis of this certificate, you can for example ask your municipality to arrange for you to be issued with a Danish passport.

If you are one of the applicants who do not need to attend a constitutional ceremony, you will be sent the citizenship certificate by the Ministry of Immigration and Integration immediately after the entry into force of the law.

Persons resident in Greenland who are included in an act of naturalisation are subject to a requirement that they relinquish their previous citizenship before they can become a Danish citizenship. The ministry will inform you of this and the applicable rules when you are informed that you have been included in a bill of Danish naturalisation.

Last updated: 17 April 2024