Change to EU residence as a family member to an EU citizen

The sponsor has grounds for residence in Denmark under EU regulations as a worker, a self-employed person, a person with sufficient funds, a posted service provider or as a student. The sponsor’s grounds for residence may not be as a family member.

Your right to residence as a family member does not constitute independent grounds for residence, but is instead a right which is derived to you from your sponsor's grounds for residence. This means that any change in your sponsor’s grounds for residence may affect your grounds for residence.

The sponsor’s independent grounds for residence under EU regulations can be as a worker, self-employed person, person with sufficient funds, posted service provider or student. The sponsor's grounds for residence cannot be as a family member.

If you submit your application for an EU residence document at the same time as the sponsor submits his or her application, we must first decide whether the sponsor meets the conditions for independent grounds for residence before we can assess whether you can be registered as a family member.

If the sponsor is already registered in Denmark as an EU citizen with independent grounds for residence, you must provide documentation that the sponsor still meets the conditions for his or her grounds for residence. If the sponsor has grounds for residence as a worker, the documentation can, for example, be a new employer’s declaration along with the last three months’ pay slips.

If the sponsor has the right to permanent residence in Denmark under EU regulations, no documentation of the current grounds for residence need to be attached to the application.

Read more about the various types of (independent) grounds for residence

SIRI can, in some cases, request documentation of genuine and effective residence.

Your relationship must be genuine and not established solely for the purpose of obtaining grounds for residence.

SIRI can call you in for an interview to assess whether your relationship is genuine.

You must be able to document that you are a family member to the sponsor.

If you are the spouse of the sponsor, you must submit your marriage certificate. If you are a child of the sponsor or of the sponsor’s spouse, you must submit either a birth certificate or a name certificate bearing the names of your parents.

If you are related to the sponsor in some other way, this must be documented with the relevant certificate(s).

The certificates must always be from the country where e.g. the marriage or the birth took place (for example, if a child is born in the US, an American birth certificate must be provided).

Certificates in other languages than English or one of the Nordic languages, cannot be accepted, unless you provide a translation to English or to one of the Nordic languages. However, marriage and birth certificates in other languages that are drafted in such a schematic way that they can be understood without previous knowledge of that language, can often be accepted without a translation. Translated documents must always be translated by a professional translator and submitted along with a copy of the original certificate.

In some cases, it may also be necessary for SIRI to authenticate a foreign certificate.

Cohabiting partners

Cohabiting partners are deemed to have the same rights as spouses under EU regulations when they can document that their cohabitation has a certain stability and has had it for a longer period of time. There is no minimum time limit for the cohabitation’s length. It will always be based on an individual assessement whether a relationship has had the necessary stability and length to give grounds for residence. In our assessment we will consider how long the couple have known each other and lived together abroad and, if this is the case, in Denmark. As a general rule, if you can document that you have lived together at a joint residence in a stable cohabitation for at least 18 to 24 months, this will be sufficient to prove that yours is a longstanding relationship and your cohabitation can be regarded as stable.

As a general rule, you must have lived together without gaps. However, when assessing the stability of the cohabitation, the reasons and the length of the gaps, if any, will also be taken into account. A gap in your cohabitation can re-set the time and, therefore, make the period of your cohabitation count from the time you have resumed the cohabitation.

On the “How to apply” tab on the right you can find examples of documents that can be used to document stable cohabitation at a joint residence.

The sponsor must support the family member financially. You can find the “Declaration of financial support in case of cohabitation” that the sponsor has to complete on the “How to apply” tab to the right.

As an EU citizen, you may freely enter Denmark and you may begin to work upon arrival. You do not need a permit to work in Denmark.

There is no limit on the number of hours you may work while living in Denmark. This also applies if you are studying in Denmark.

You do not need an EU residence document in order to begin work. This is the case even if you have – or have applied for – a residence document as a worker, as a self-supporting individual or for some other reason.

During your stay in Denmark as a family member to an EU citizen who will be sponsoring you, the EU citizen must normally be able to support him- or herself and the family financially, including you.

Depending on the sponsor’s grounds for residence, your right of residence, or the right of residence of your sponsor, could be affected if one of you – or you both – receives benefits regulated by the Act on Active Social Policy, such as cash benefits. 

If that happens, your right of residence can be terminated and you can lose your right to be in Denmark.

Benefit payments from the municipality or any other public authority to a foreign national are reported to SIRI. SIRI will then assess whether this affects your grounds for residence. 

If the sponsor is a worker under EU law – or has retained a worker status despite no longer working – receiving the above-mentioned benefits will normally not in itself lead to termination of the right of residence for the sponsor nor for you as a family member - as long as the sponsor has worker status.

Read more about what you are allowed to receive and what you are not allowed to receive in public benefits when you have been granted an EU residence document by SIRI