Who needs a visa?

If you wish to visit Denmark for a short period of time and you are a citizen of a country with a visa requirement, you must have a visa.

See list of countries with a visa requirement

Special regulations apply to certain groups of people:

  • Denmark has concluded bilateral visa-facilitation agreements with a number of countries: Montenegro, Albania, Ukraine, Ukraine, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Moldova and Armenia. Denmark has also concluded a bilateral visa-facilitation agreement with Russia. However, this agreement is fully suspended from 16 September 2022. Read more about the visa-facilitation agreements
  • Turkish citizens who are to perform a service in Denmark do not need a visa. Read more about visa exemption for certain Turkish citizens
  • People holding certain types of residence permits in another Schengen country do not need a visa. Read more about residence permit issued by another Schengen country
  • People holding certain types of residence permits issued by Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus or Rumania are permitted to travel through Denmark to the country that has issued the residence permit, but may not stop over without reason. The journey through Denmark may last no longer than five days.
  • People holding an EU residence card issued under the EU regulations on free movement issued by a Schengen country do not need a visa. People holding an EU residence card issued by an EU country which is not a Schengen country, can enter Denmark without a visa only if they are accompanied by, or will join, an EU citizen. This applies to both residence cards issued in accordance with Directive 2004/38/EC and residence cards issued before this directive took effect. Residence cards are in the form of a plastic card the size of a credit card or a residence sticker placed in the passport.
  • Family members of an EU/EEA citizen or Swiss citizen who is exercising his/her right to free movement in Denmark, as well as family members of a Danish citizen who is exercising or who has exercised his/her right to free movement to relocate to another EU/EEA country or Switzerland, have the right to have a visa application processed in accordance with EU regulations. Read more about visas issued under EU regulations

 

Who can be granted a visa to business visits?

It is possible to get a visa in connection with a business visit in Denmark.

In order for your visit to be considered a business visit, the following requirements must be met:

  • There must be an actual commercial relationship between your own company/organisation and the company/organisation in Denmark which you wish to visit.
  • The Danish company / organisation must be registered in the Central Business Register (CVR).
  • The relationship with the company/organisation in Denmark must have been established prior to your entering Denmark,
  • The purpose of your visit must be related to your line of business in your country of origin.
  • The company/organisation in Denmark must confirm your visit. If you do not include an invitation form or an invitation ID when submitting the application, the Immigration Service will normally send a questionnaire to the company/organisation in Denmark when processing your application. Read more about invitation to business visits

If you are subject to work permit regulations, you will normally not be granted a business visa. This can be the case if you are a trainee receiving pay while in Denmark. If this applies to you, you should not apply for a business visa but for a work permit. Read more about work

However, during visits of less than 90 days, you may carry out certain work-related activities without holding a work permit. Special rules also apply if you are employed in a company established abroad that is affiliated with a company established in Denmark with a minimum of 50 employees, and you wish to work for the company established in Denmark during your stay in Denmark. Read more about exemption from the requirement of a work permit

You will not be granted a visa if the Immigration authorities assess that there is a high risk that you take permanent or long-term residence in Denmark or another Schengen country. In the past, there have been cases of individuals misusing a business visa. Read more about measures to prevent misuse of business visas issued to Chinese citizens

Special rules apply if you are a citizen of Afghanistan, Eritrea, Iraq, Pakistan, Russia, Somalia or Syria. For citizens of these countries, visas may be granted for business visits in specific justified cases.

Special visa rules currently apply to Gambian nationals. Read more about the temporary visa rules for Gambian nationals

Decisions on visas are taken in accordance with the rules of the EU Visa Code and the rules in the Visa Executive Order and the Visa Guideline.

Read Executive Order on aliens’ access to Denmark on the basis of a visa 

Read also Guideline for processing an application for a Danish visa

 

For companies in Denmark

Hosting large events

If your company or organisation will be hosting a large international event, it is wise to sort out the question of visas for guests who require them in the preliminary stages of planning. The Immigration Service is more than willing to participate in a planning meeting to advise on visa regulations and application procedures for the particular type of event that your company or organisation plans to hold.

Contact the Immigration Service for more information or to arrange a planning meeting

Prior approval of company

A company can be given prior approval to host foreign visitors who require a visa. A prior approval makes it easier and more flexible for the company to host foreign nationals who require a visa. Read more about prior approval of company

Affiliated companies

If the company in Denmark is affiliated with the company in which the applicant is employed, the applicant can, under certain circumstances, perform certain types of work that are exempt from the requirement for a work permit during his visa stay in Denmark. You can read more about the exemption provision on the page concerning visa (short term) and work permit. Read more about exemption from the requirement of a work permit

What are the conditions?

You must normally meet the following basic conditions in order to be granted a visa:

  • Your passport or other forms of valid travel document must be valid for three months past the visa expiration date.
  • Your passport or travel document must have been issued within the past 10 years.
  • You must have the necessary means to pay for your stay and return trip. What will be considered as necessary funds will be determined by the Danish diplomatic mission and depends on the length of your stay, and whether you will stay at a hotel or with friends or family. As a general rule, you must have at your disposal approx. DKK 350 per day. A smaller amount may be accepted if you are staying in a private home and your host will cover all costs. If you are staying at a hotel, the amount must be greater, approx. DKK 500 per day.
  • You must hold a travel insurance policy to cover possible expenses in connection with a return for health reasons or death, indispensable medical treatment or acute hospitalisation during your stay. The insurance policy must cover all Schengen countries, and the minimum policy coverage is € 30,000. The insurance policy must be valid for the same period as the visa. The validity of the visa may be shortened if the insurance policy does not cover the entire period.
  • You may not be registered as an undesirable in the Schengen Information System (SIS II).
  • You may not have been deported from Denmark and given an entry ban.
  • You may not be listed on UN or EU sanction lists.
  • You may not be listed on the national sanction list of religious preachers with an entry ban.

These conditions apply at the time your visa is issued, as well as when you enter and stay in the Schengen region. It is therefore important that you at all times can document that you have the necessary funds to pay for your stay and return trip, and that you hold a valid travel insurance policy. If you do not meet these conditions, your visa can be confiscated and revoked, in which case you will be required to leave the Schengen region immediately.

If the Immigration Service suspects that you intend to seek permanent or long-term residency in Denmark, or that you may pose threat to national security or public safety, your visa application will be refused.

How long is a visa valid?

A visa allows you to stay a maximum of 90 days in any 180-day period in Denmark and is normally valid for the entire Schengen region.

Read more about the duration of the visa stay

If you remain in Denmark after your visa expires or if you attempt to use your visa stay to obtain permanent or long-term residency in Denmark, you can be given a penalty period of 3 or 5 years.  In the penalty period you will generally not be able to get a visa to visit Denmark. Read more about misuse of a visa

Multiple-entry and long-term visas

If you need to travel to Denmark and the other Schengen countries on a regular basis you can apply for a long-term visa that is valid for multiple entries. 

Read more about multiple-entry and long-term visas

 

What does a visa entitle you to?

A visa normally grants you the right to stay in the entire Schengen region. The Schengen countries are: Austria, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland.

A visa does not allow you to work

A visa does normally not allow you to work in Denmark unless the Immigration Service has explicitly granted you this right.

However, during visits of less than 90 days you may carry out certain work-related activities without holding a work permit.

There may also be exceptions related to performing unpaid volunteer work as well as exceptions where you, as a visa applicant, are employed in a company that is affiliated with the company in Denmark that you are going to visit.

Read more about exemption from the requirement of a work permit

The information below explains what you and the company / organisation (your host) need to do when you apply for a visa.

Read more about the conditions for a visa in the ’Need to know’ tab.


 

The Immigration Service recommends that the company in Denmark fills in an invitation form provided by us as a paper or online form, but it is not a requirement.

If you submit your application at another country's diplomatic mission with which Denmark has representation agreements, the online invitation form can not be used.

If the company has been given prior approval, online invitation form VF2 must be used. In order to benefit from the prior approval arrangement, you must inform the diplomatic mission when submitting your application, that you have been invited by a prior approved company. Otherwise, you risk that the application be processed according to the ordinary procedure.

If the company in Denmark is affiliated with the company in which you are employed, and during your visa visit you are to carry out work that is covered by the special exemption provision that applies to employees of affiliated companies, then the printable invitation form VU5 must be used.

Read more about invitation to a visa visit
 

It is a good idea to gather the documentation before you start.

You may need:

If you are more than one applicant, who will visit the same company, documentation for each applicant’s role during the visit will be of importance to the case.

The diplomatic mission may request further documentation, multiple passport photos or copies of the application. Therefore, you should check the mission’s website, to find out which documentation is required when submitting a visa application.

The Immigration Service recommends that you do not buy a plane ticket before receiving your visa. However, local agreements between Schengen countries representations may imply that you must have bought a plane ticket.

You can submit your application in your country of residence. However, You can submit it in another country if you are there legally and there is a valid reason for not submitting the application in your country of residence.

See the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ list of Danish diplomatic missions or outsourcing offices where you can hand in your application

If there is no Danish mission or outsourcing offices in the country where you live, the list refers to missions Denmark shares a representation agreement with, e.g. Norway or Sweden. If there is no representation agreement, the list refers to the nearest Danish mission or outsourcing office in the region. 

The Immigration Service refers to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ webpage for more information about how a visa application should be submitted and about payment of the visa application.

Apply for a short term visa at um.dk

When you submit an application your personal data will be processed. Read more about how we process your data and about your rights

Applications submitted at another country's diplomatic mission

When you submit your application to a foreign diplomatic mission processing visas for Denmark, the mission will determine whether a visa can be granted in accordance with the country’s own visa regulations.

Foreign diplomatic missions with which Denmark has representation agreements, can refuse the application without prior consulting with The Danish Immigration Service. These applications are processed in accordance with the respective country regulations. Should you wish to appeal such a decision, the appeal should be filed with these countries’ authorities duly authorized to process the appeal. Thus, The Danish Immigration Service, The Immigration Appeals Board, and The Danish Ministry of Immigration and Integration are not involved in the outcome of these appeals.

Should you wish to have your visa application processed and decided by a Danish authority, the application must be submitted to a Danish diplomatic mission or outsourcing office processing visa applications. It is a prerequisite that the applicant is staying legally on a permanent or temporary basis in the country in which the application is submitted.

If the visa application is to be submitted to a foreign diplomatic mission, the online invitation forms can only be used to a limited extent. Though it may be possible for the host to use the online form, the foreign diplomatic missions cannot see the invitation in their case processing system as they do not have access to the Danish authorities' systems. Consequently, the host will have to download a pdf-version of the completed invitation on MyPage, print it, sign it by hand and finally send it to the applicant who can then hand it in to the diplomatic mission.

Stays in multiple Schengen countries

If you wish to visit multiple Schengen countries, you must submit your application at the diplomatic mission of the country in which you will be staying for most days, or in which the main purpose of your visit is.

This means that if the main purpose of your visit is in Denmark, or if you will be spending the most days of your stay in Denmark, then your visa application must be submitted at the nearest Danish diplomatic mission.

If, on the other hand, the main purpose of your visit is in another Schengen country, or if you will be spending the most days of your stay in another Schengen country, then your visa application must be submitted at that country's diplomatic mission.

If you wish to make several separate visits within a period of two months, you must also submit the application to the country's representation where you will be staying for most days or where the main purpose of your visit is.

If you plan to spend an equal number of days in several Schengen countries, then your visa application must be submitted at the diplomatic mission of the first country you plan to enter.

Normally you have to pay a fee in order to submit an application. The visa fee is normally 80 euro and for children from the age of six years and below the age of 12 years 40 euro. Furthermore you have to pay a service fee to the outsourcing company (VAC).

When you submit your application, you will normally need to have your fingerprints recorded.

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