Appeal guidelines
You can appeal the Immigration Service’s rulings to the Ministry for Refugee, Immigration and Integration Affairs. However, appeals about the Immigration Service’s rulings regarding asylum must be submitted to the Danish Refugee Council. Additionally, appeals cannot be submitted regarding the Immigration Service’s rulings pursuant to § 42a, section 7, point 1, regarding accommodation.
Who can appeal to the ministry?
A foreign national who is covered by the Immigration Service’s ruling can appeal to the Ministry.
On behalf of the foreign national who is covered by the Immigration Service’s ruling, party representatives can appeal about the Immigration Service’s ruling to the Ministry. The Ministry considers certain professional parties, e.g. lawyers and legal aid offices, as party representatives, who can appeal to the Ministry about the Immigration Service’s rulings without written power of attorney.
The Ministry also considers the closest relatives living in Denmark as party representatives who, on behalf of the foreign national, can appeal to the Ministry without written power of attorney. For example, parents, siblings, children of legal age and a spouse resident in Denmark can appeal to the Ministry about the Immigration Service’s rulings in residence permit cases, e.g. cases regarding family reunification.
In cases regarding visa, the sponsor in Denmark can represent the applicant without a written power of attorney. In cases regarding humanitarian residency permits, in addition to professional party representatives, the applicant’s spouse alone can represent the applicant without written power of attorney.
Other persons or institutions/societies who wish to appeal about a ruling made by the Immigration Service must have a written power of attorney from the person who is covered by the ruling in order to be able to appeal to the Ministry.
You can obtain a form that can be completed and used as a power of attorney in Danish and English here.
How is an appeal submitted to the Ministry?
You can send a written appeal to the Ministry for Refugee, Immigration and Integration Affairs, Holbergsgade 6, 1057 Copenhagen K.
The appeal can also be submitted to the Immigration Service, which will then forward the appeal to the Ministry.
In cases concerning visas, the appeal is however submitted to the ministry.
You can send an appeal by telefax: 33 11 12 39, or by email: inm@inm.dk.
You can submit your appeal by referring personally to the ministry on weekdays from 9 a.m. to 12 noon.
The appeal should contain information about the immigration number of the case or the IVR number and a copy of the Immigration Service’s ruling.
To shorten the case processing time as much as possible regarding visa cases in the ministry, documents that are submitted in connection with an appeal about rejection of visa should be translated to Danish, English, French or German.
How is the appeal processed in the Ministry?
The ministry receives an appeal about the Immigration Service’s ruling.
The office that processes the case obtains the records of the case and possibly requests a statement or explanation about the case from the Immigration Service. As a basis, the ministry does not request a statement from the Immigration Service regarding visa appeal cases.
The Immigration Service forwards the records of the case and a possible statement about the case.
The ministry conducts any party hearings about the Immigration Service’s statement and in special cases, conducts a supplementary hearing of the Immigration Service.
The ministry can possibly obtain further information or documentation and possibly also conduct party hearings about this information.
The case is then ready for ruling in the ministry. The ministry makes the final ruling in the case. As a basis however, a certain further processing time of the case may be expected, which can vary depending on the type of the case, the character of the actual case and the number of cases in the ministry.
Read the guideline “This is how your personal information is processed” here.