Residing privately with a spouse
As an asylum seeker, you can apply to the Danish Immigration Service for permission to live at your spouse's private residence in Denmark until you are granted a residence permit, leave Denmark or are deported.
Because it is the responsibility of the Immigration Service to ensure that asylum seekers’ living conditions are acceptable, you and your spouse as well as your marriage need to meet certain requirements in order to be approved.
Requirements for residing privately with your spouse
Your spouse, who you would like to live with, needs to meet the following requirements:
- Your spouse needs to be a legal Danish resident
- Your spouse needs to support you. This means that you will not receive cash allowances. Nor will your healthcare costs be covered by the Immigration Service, should you require treatment
As an asylum seeker, you need to meet the following requirements:
- You need to be over 18 years old.
- You need to enter into a contract with the Immigration Service specifying the conditions under which you may live in the residence. These conditions include co-operating with the immigration authorities seeking to process your application for asylum and/or assisting with the deportation process if you have received a final refusal of your application for asylum, or if you have withdrawn your application
- The Immigration Service may not be processing your request for asylum according to the manifestly unfounded procedure or the expedited version of the manifestly unfounded procedure. Read more about processing applications for asylum
- Neither you nor a member of your household may, at any time, have been expelled (administrative expulsion) because you were considered a danger to national security or a serious threat to public order, safety or health
- Neither you nor a member of your household may, at any time, have been sentenced to expulsion by a court
- Neither you nor a member of your household may, at any time, have been sentenced to prison (served or suspended) for criminal offences committed in Denmark or another form of sanction that involves or allow detention for an offense committed in Denmark, which would have resulted in a sentence of this character
- Neither you nor a member of your household may be covered by the grounds for exclusion in the UN Refugee Convention (for example, if there is reasonable suspicion that you have committed a crime against peace or humanity, a war crime or a serious crime of a non-political nature)
- Neither you nor a member of your household may have had a residence permit that has lapsed in pursuant of the Aliens Act section 21 b (that means where there is reason to believe that the person during a stay abroad, has participated in activities that threaten, or have the potential to threaten, national security, the public order or the security of other states).
Your marriage needs to be valid according to Danish law.
If the Immigration Service cannot recognize your marriage as legal according to Danish law (for example, if only one of you was present during the wedding), the Immigration Service will instead process your application as an application to live in a private residence with friends or family. Read more about living in a private residence with friends or family
Apply to live in a private residence with your spouse
Use application form IN2 when applying for permission to move into a private residence with your spouse. The application form includes detailed instructions for how to fill it in, and which types of documentation you need to enclose.
You can fill in the application form in Word format on your computer before printing it out. The application form is also available as a PDF file that can be printed out and filled in by hand.
Download form IN2 for print
If your application is approved
The Immigration Service’s approval to live in a privately owned home applies until you are granted a residence permit, depart Denmark or are deported.
The Immigration Service can revoke its approval to live in a private residence (meaning that you and any family members living with you would need to resume living at an asylum centre) if you no longer qualify, or the other requirements specified in the contract are no longer met. Situations that would result in your approval being revoked include failing to co-operate with the Immigration Service seeking to process your application for asylum or no longer assisting with the deportation process if you have received a final refusal of your application, or if you are expelled or incarcerated.
If your application is refused
If the Immigration Service refuses your request to live in a private residence with your spouse, you can appeal the decision to the Immigration Appeals Board within 8 weeks of receiving the decision.