The 'fitter rule'
Some fitters do not need a residence and work permit. Foreign nationals recruited to work as fitters, consultants, and instructors in Denmark can, for a three-month period from their entry into Denmark, be exempt from the requirement for residence and work permit if they are eligible under the so-called fitter rules.
Conditions
In order to be eligible under the fitter rule, you must be employed to fit, install, maintain, repair, or inform about the use of machines, equipment, computer programmes, or other technical systems. These may include high-tech machines that must be installed by the personnel of a foreign company, who are trained in the proper installation of such machines.
You must be employed in or affiliated with the company supplying the imported product, and you are expected to be a paid associate of the company. If you are employed in another company, the company that is supplying the product must have entered into an agreement with the employing company to supply the fitting.
In order to be exempt from the requirement for residence and work permit, your stay in Denmark must not exceed three months. For stays over three months, you need a residence and work permit before you start work.
The fact that a foreign company issues a guarantee for a given product under the condition that it is the company's own associates who will fit or install the product in Denmark, does not automatically guarantee that the company's personnel will be eligible under the fitter rule.
Who is not eligible?
Ordinary construction and craft work is not comprised under the fitter rule. It follows from this that foreign nationals employed to put up, for example, a house that has fully or partly been manufactured abroad, is required to have a residence and work permit.
Disassembly work, most frequently in connection to the disassembly of used Danish technological equipment or machines, is not eligible under the fitter rule. Work of this type requires the foreign national to have a residence and work permit.
In cases not involving fitting of a technical apparatus and/or when the work in itself can be defined as ordinary building, construction or craft work, the foreign national must also have a residence and work permit.
You can be granted a residence and work permit by the Immigration Service if professional or labour market considerations warrant it. Read more about the rules regarding salaried work here.
Additional information
If you are recruited to carry out fitter work in Denmark and you believe that you do not need a residence or work permit, you can contact the Immigration Service at work@us.dk.