Denmark

As Denmark is not bound by the EU Temporary Protection Directive due to opt-out on legal issues, a special act was passed with effect from 17 March, mirroring the directive except for a few differences: stateless persons from Ukraine are not included, and a permit will be given for two years at first, with the possibility of extension for a further year.

To apply for residency under the Special Act you must fill in and submit form SL1. This can be done online (using this link), in which case the form will be sent digitally to the Danish Immigration Service (Udlændingestyrelsen). The form can also be printed and filled in manually. It can be downloaded as a word or pdf file.

Whether submitting a paper or digital form, applicants must make an appointment with Denmark’s Borgerservice – Citizens' Service – to submit biometric information. Appointments are made using this link.

If you are submitting your application as a paper form, you must bring it (and the accompanying documentation such as ID) to this appointment. You should also bring any children who are applying with you, as well as their documentation and paper application forms. Both the original and a copy of identity documents such as passports should be brought to the appointment. There are four locations in Denmark where you can attend biometric appointments: Odense, Aalborg, Aarhus, and Næstved. The latter is the closest to Copenhagen.

You will be granted a residence permit with a view to temporary residence in Denmark that is valid until 17 March 2024. You are entitled to work in Denmark when you have been granted a residence permit.

Ukrainians are offered an integration package that equates Ukrainians to ordinary Danes. To do this, you need to register at the labour market and look for work, receiving unemployment benefits - about 800 euros (after taxes). Sometimes there are payments from municipalities, but they vary and are usually small.

After obtaining a Temporary Residence Permit, you may be assigned benefits from the municipalities:

• single parent - 6 783 kroons (911 euros);
• people over 30 years old and young people under 30 living independently - 5,290 kroons (710,5 euros);
• youth up to 30 years old - 2,683 crowns (360 euros, after taxes)

Once you have applied for a residence permit under the Special Act, you have access to several healthcare services while your application is being processed. You must be able to prove that you have applied for a residence permit under the Special Act to receive medical treatment. You can do this by showing the receipt you received when you applied for a residence permit or when you had your biometrics recorded. You have the following rights:

• Right to emergency and continued hospital treatment.Covers hospital treatment in case of accidents, sudden onset of illness and birth or sudden worsening of chronic illness, etc. The regional hospitals can offer assessment and treatment that exceeds the urgent need for treatment, if the hospital assesses that the specific circumstances make it unreasonable to refer the patient for treatment in the home country.
• Right to necessary health services. A health service is necessary if it is pain relieving or urgent. A treatment is considered urgent if it cannot wait until you are granted a residence permit or departure, because the condition can involve significant risks of lifelong injury, development of severe disease progression, or chronicity of the condition.
• Entitlement to all benefits of the Health Act. Ukrainians who have been granted a temporary residence permit under the Special Act are entitled to all benefits of the Health Act if they are registered in the CPR register and have been issued a yellow health card.

Important phone numbers

Urgent need for help: 112
Your doctor's number: Shown on your health insurance card
Extracurricular medical service (in case of illness outside of your doctor's office hours):

• Capital Region of Denmark: 1813
• Region Central Denmark: 70 11 31 31
• Northern Denmark Region: 70 15 03 00
• Region Zeeland: 70 15 07 00
• Region of Southern Denmark: 70 11 07 07

Ukrainians who have applied for residence under the law will be offered a place at an asylum centre while their application is being processed, but they are free to decline the offer. They may also stay in private homes or with friends and family.
The Immigration Service will, however, decide which municipality you will live in if your application is approved. You can request a preferred municipality, for example, if you already have friends or family there.

Most Ukrainian refugees are staying in private homes temporarily, with family or Danes. Some are accommodated by municipalities in empty buildings such as closed schools, sports facilities, and military barracks.

A huge number of Facebook groups have been established, via which civilians and private companies are collecting aid, coordinating transport from Ukraine, and offering private accommodation in Denmark. For example (NOT VERIFIED):

• Ukrainian support
• Supporting UA Friends

Refugees have full access to all education in Denmark on the same terms as Danes, but the permits issued under the new special act only give access to vocational rather than higher education. However, Danish language training is freely accessible, and all children including new arrivals have full access to school.

All children in Denmark are guaranteed a place in a childcare institution. Almost all Danish families use child day care. Options for childcare consist of day nurseries for children 0-3 years old, kindergartens for children 3-6 years old, and pre-school/after-school centres for children 6-10 years old. In addition, there is the option of local childcare, in which children are cared for in private homes. According to a special law, young Ukrainians are entitled to school admission in the district where they live. As newly arrived young refugees, pupils/students are often presumed to need language support (learning Danish as a second language), the municipalities may allocate these young people to a school other than the district school for pedagogical reasons at the time of admission. This is assessed based on a thorough individual evaluation of each student's linguistic needs.

It is also possible for the municipality to enter into an agreement according to which Ukrainian refugees will be taught Danish as a second language in the framework of labour market education (CVET) or the Basic Integration Training Programme (IGU).

If you are a refugee from Ukraine since the 24th of February and you wish to continue studying your higher education programme in Denmark or begin a new higher education course in Denmark, you can:

1. apply for a transfer from your Ukrainian higher education programme to a Danish higher education programme or
2. apply for admission to a new full-time higher education programme in Denmark.

More information here.

Ukrainians can access most Danish public transportation free of charge by showing a Ukrainian passport. This includes Metro, DSB trains, Movia busses, as well as Scandlines ferries between Rostock and Puttgarden in Germany to Gedser and Rødby in Denmark. Ukrainian license plates can also use Øresundsbroen (the bridge between Denmark and Sweden) free of charge.

From 22 April 2022 you have the right to work in Denmark when you have applied for a residence permit under the Special Act and you have had your fingerprints and facial image (biometric features) recorded at the Immigration Citizen Service.
If you are offered a job while your application is being processed you should inform the Immigration Service, because this may affect the municipality in which you are given residence.

There are several web portals, databases, and CV banks, which can be useful in the process of seeking work in Denmark.
The website www.workindenmark.dk is the official Danish website for international recruiting and job-seeking. Workindenmark connects Danish companies and international job seekers. Established by the Danish Government, it offers a range of free, public services for jobseekers from abroad. The website provides a job and CV bank along with extensive information on working and living in Denmark.

LGBT rights in Denmark are some of the most extensive in the world. In Denmark, same-sex sexual activity was legalised in 1933, and since 1977, the age of consent has been equally set to 15, regardless of sexual orientation or gender. Denmark was the first country in the world to grant legal recognition to same-sex unions in the form of registered partnerships in 1989. On 7 June 2012, the law was replaced by a new same-sex marriage law, which came into effect on 15 June 2012. Greenland and the Faroe Islands legalised same-sex marriage in April 2016, and in July 2017 respectively.

In addition, Denmark possesses hate crime legislation, following amendments to the Penal Code in 2004, which provides additional penalties for crimes committed against people because of their sexual orientation. Getting married in Denmark is absolutely possible for two foreign partners. You don't need to be residing in Denmark to get married here.

You will normally have to stay in the municipality for about 2 weeks before the marriage. In order to get married, you need to appear at a Citizen Service Centre. Here you will be asked to fill in a marriage form and present it along with the following documents:

• Valid passports;
• Residence permits (If one or both partners live in a different country than where you are a citizen);
• Schengen visa if required, or proof of entry and arrival to Denmark or the Schengen area;
• Certificate of marital status: from the place you were born as well as from your present place of residence (if different). NB! A certificate of marital status can also be required from other places if necessary. The certificate must be no older than 4 months and must be translated if not issued in Danish, English or German. The certificate must include the following: name, date of birth, place of birth, current address, citizenship, and marital status;
• Guardian's consent to the marriage if one of the parties is under guardianship;
• If one or both of the parties involved have previously been married, you must also present the following documents: Divorce decree (complete original divorce decree, legally signed) or Death certificate of the previous spouse.

Under Danish law, same-sex couples are entitled to fertility treatments and may adopt children together. Surrogacy is not allowed or recognised. Female partners (registered partners) of birth mothers are considered co-mothers upon birth and registered as such in the national registry, provided that the pregnancy is the result of IVF treatments for which the partner has consented.

In 2014, Denmark simplified its legal gender change rules when it no longer required gender reassignment surgery to change a person’s legal gender, and enabled the issuance of passports with "X" for gender to persons who "provide a written declaration that their wish to use the X designation is based on an experience of belonging to another gender".

LGBT+ organisations:

LGBT Asylum is a group of LGBT+ people who support LGBT+ individuals who have fled to Denmark. If you are an LGBT+ person fleeing the war in Ukraine and arriving in Denmark, please contact us.
Phone: +45 7152 3397
Email: info@lgbtasylum.dk
Facebook/Messenger: www.facebook.com/lgbtasylumdk
www.lgbtasylum.dk

They provide:

• Psycho-social support
• Legal counselling
• A strong LGBT+ network

Other organisations helping Ukrainians:

Aid Ukraine Denmark - Email: help@aidukraine.dk

• Helping Ukrainians understand the formalities and facts of the Danish labour market through informative events and job fairs
• Consolidating the job offerings from varying sources relevant to Ukrainian job seekers
• Guiding individual job seekers through either the entire job search process or specific parts of it
• Job mentoring
• English coaching

If Ukrainians travel to Denmark with their pet, the animal does not need to meet the usual requirements.
However, if it does not meet the requirements, it will need to isolate in Denmark. The requirements are:

• Microchip;
• Rabies vaccinated with a vaccine that meets the requirements of Annex III of Regulation 2013/576 when the animal was at least 12 weeks old;
• At least 30 days after the complete rabies vaccination and at least 3 months before leaving Ukraine, the pet has undergone an antibody titration test which has been analysed in an EU approved laboratory and showed a result of at least 0.5 IU / ml.

If you bring your pet with you, please fill in this form and send it to The Danish Food Administration at email@fvst.dk.
VetGruppen (Danish vet clinic) offers health checks, microchipping and rabies vaccinations free of charge to Ukrainian pets. Phone: +45 70 87 96 10.