Published 21-12-2020 - Last updated: 26-01-2021

New regulations for a number of schemes in the area of work and study

The Danish parliament has passed a bill which introduces a number of changes to the Danish Aliens Act. These changes affect several of the schemes administrated by the Danish Agency for International Recruitment and Integration (SIRI). Additional changes have been made to the Executive order on Interns and the Executive order on Aliens' Access to Denmark. All these changes take effect on 1 January 2021.

Below you will find an overview and description of the changes.

Salary must be paid to a Danish bank account

One new requirement is that the salary paid to a foreign national on one of the work schemes must now be paid to a Danish bank account. Only salary in the form of liquid assets will be included in the assessment of the salary, when determining whether a person’s salary and work conditions correspond to Danish standards.

The Danish bank account must be created no later than 90 days after the date of being granted a Danish residence and work permit, or 90 days after the employee enters Denmark, whichever happens last. A foreign national who already holds a residence permit valid for no less than 30 days at the point of application is not included in the 90-day deadline.

This requirement applies to all first-time applications submitted after 1 January 2021 for a residence and work permit under the following schemes:

  • The Fast Track Scheme
  • The Pay Limit Scheme
  • The Positive List for the Highly Educated
  • The Positive List for Skilled Work
  • Researchers
  • Special individual qualifications
  • Herdsmen and farm managers
  • Labour market attachment
  • Change of job within the same industry which formed the grounds for the original residence permit due to labour market attachment
  • Interns

Please note that the new requirement is a tightening of the rules compared to the rules so far concerning the Pay Limit Scheme and the Fast Track Scheme, where the requirement for actual payments only concerned the salary up to and including the Pay Limit Scheme’s minimum amount.

Special information about stays of less than 180 days under the Positive List for the Highly Educated, as a researcher, or under the researcher track of the Fast Track Scheme:

The requirement that salary be paid to a Danish bank account does not apply to a foreign national who is granted a residence permit under the Positive List for the Highly Educated, as a researcher, or under the researcher track of the Fast Track Scheme, if the stay in Denmark does not exceed one stay within a period of 12 months, and does not exceed 180 days from the day of entry.

Requirement regarding a special work permit for accompanying family members in certain situations

A special requirement has now been introduced which means that accompanying family members who wish to work at the same company which the main applicant is limited to, or to a company closely related to it, must hold a specific work permit.

This requirement applies to all applications submitted after 1 January 2021 (both first-time applications and applications for an extension) for a residence permit  as an accompanying family member of a person with a residence and work permit under the following schemes:

  • The pay limit track, the educational track and the short-term track of the Fast Track Scheme
  • The Pay Limit Scheme
  • The Positive List for the Highly Educated
  • The Positive List for Skilled Work
  • Trainees
  • Special individual qualifications
  • Employees on drilling vessels or the like
  • Herdsmen and farm managers
  • Labour market attachment
  • Change of job within the same industry which formed the grounds for the original residence permit due to labour market attachment

Applications for a specific work permit for accompanying members must be submitted to SIRI with the employment contract attached. In order to be granted a work permit, the accompanying family member must be employed no less than 30 hours per week, and the salary and employment conditions correspond to Danish standards. There is no fee to be paid for this application, and no biometric data will need to be recorded.

Other changes

In addition to the above mentioned changes, a number of initiatives have been made in the area of control, including one which enables SIRI to carry out outgoing control actions.

All relevant pages on newtodenmark.dk will be updated on 1 January 2021 or immediately thereafter with the new regulations.

 

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