The job change rule
If your company wants to employ a foreign national who has worked at another Danish company until now, or if a foreign national wants to stay in their employment at your company but wants to change their residence scheme.
The job change rule applies in two different situations.
A: A foreign national who has a residence permit based on salaried work at a company (residence card type J or R) and is offered a job at your company, is allowed to begin working at the new job at your company on the same day as the foreign national has submitted his/her new application for a residence and work permit.
This also applies to foreign nationals with PhD student permits (residence card type Z), establishment cards (residence card type C) or authorisation stays (residence card type R) who have been offered a job at your company and have submitted an application for a residence and work permit according to a work permit scheme, for instance the Pay Limit Scheme.
B: A foreign national holding a residence and work permit based on employment at your company (a residence card J or R), who only wishes to change their grounds for residence, e.g. from the Pay Limit scheme to the Fast-Track Scheme, can continue working after the application for a new residence and work permit has been submitted.
The Job Change Rule does not apply to interns or volunteers, even though they have been issued a residence card type J. Interns and volunteers are therefore not allowed to begin a new job before a permit has been issued.
Example of the job change rule
A: A foreign national holds a residence permit under the Pay Limit Scheme (residence card type J or R) as an IT consultant at another company. The permit expires date A. Then, the foreign national gets a new job as a fulltime IT consultant at your company starting before date A. The foreign national can begin work at the new job as soon as a new application for residence and work permit has been submitted. If the start date is later than date A, the foreign national can begin working on the start date – provided that the application was submitted before date A.
B: A foreign national holds a residence and work permit based on the Positive List for People with a Higher Education (residence card J or R) as an environmental engineer at your company. Your company is subsequently certified under the Fast-Track Scheme. When the foreign national's residence permit based on the Positive List expires, they want to apply for a residence permit based on the fast-track scheme instead. The foreign national can continue working with you during their change of grounds of residence if the new application for a residence and work permit is submitted before the expiry of their current permit.