How to Become a Danish Citizen: Residency, Tests, and Application

To become a Danish citizen through the standard route, you naturalize: live legally in Denmark for at least nine years, hold a permanent residence permit, pass a Danish language exam and a citizenship knowledge test, meet strict financial and employment rules, keep a clean criminal record, submit a digital application with a DKK 6,000 fee, wait for Parliament to pass a naturalization bill that includes your name, and attend an in-person constitution ceremony at your municipality. Two other paths exist but are narrow: children acquire citizenship automatically at birth if a parent is Danish, and citizens of Finland, Iceland, Norway, or Sweden who got their nationality automatically (not by naturalization) can use a simpler declaration process after seven years of residence.¹ Everyone else naturalizes.

How Long You Need to Live in Denmark

The baseline is nine years of continuous legal residence.² Some groups qualify sooner:

Nordic citizens: two years.
Refugees and stateless persons: eight years.
Spouses of Danish citizens: six to eight years, depending on how long the marriage has lasted, provided the Danish spouse has held citizenship for at least three years.²

Residency alone is not enough. You also need a permanent residence permit, and you must have held it for at least two years by the time Parliament passes your bill. Living in Denmark under EU residence rules does not exempt you from this. Refugees and stateless persons need only one year with a permanent permit. You must be at least 18.²

The Language and Citizenship Tests

You need to pass Prøve i Dansk 3, which tests reading, writing, and listening comprehension at an intermediate level.² Several Danish qualifications count as equivalent and exempt you: completing a Danish upper-secondary education (STX, HF, HHX, HTX, or EUX), passing the General Preparatory Examination, earning an International Baccalaureate with Danish at A or B level, or completing a higher education program taught in Danish.³ Applicants with documented long-term illness or disability can be exempted, and children under 12 are not required to sit it.

Then there is the Indfødsretsprøven, a multiple-choice test on Danish society, culture, history, and values. It has 45 questions; you need at least 36 correct answers to pass. Five questions specifically address Danish values, and you must get at least four of those five right. Scoring well overall but failing the values threshold still counts as a fail. Study materials come from the Ministry of Immigration and Integration.

Money and Work

Denmark imposes two separate financial conditions, and you need to satisfy both.

The self-sufficiency rule looks at public assistance. You cannot have received any assistance under the Law on Active Social Policy or the Law on Integration during the last two years, and over the past five years you cannot have received that type of assistance for more than four months in total.²

The employment rule is separate. You must have worked in ordinary full-time employment or been self-employed for at least three years and six months within the last four years.² Part-time or subsidized work generally will not count. Losing your job in the run-up to filing can undo an otherwise strong application.

Criminal Record

A criminal history can delay your application or block it permanently.

A fine of DKK 3,000 or more triggers a waiting period of four years and six months from the date of the offense. Multiple qualifying offenses stack rather than run concurrently. Traffic fines in the DKK 3,000 to DKK 3,500 range can start the clock.²

Some convictions disqualify you permanently: any unconditional or suspended prison sentence, terrorism or offenses against national security, gang-related crimes, violence against children, and sexual offenses. A sentence of permanent expulsion from Denmark ends the possibility entirely. Even a pending charge blocks your application for as long as it is maintained.²

Dual Citizenship and Children

Since September 1, 2015, Denmark has allowed dual and multiple citizenship. You do not have to renounce your existing nationality to be included in a naturalization bill, and Danish citizens who acquire a foreign nationality no longer lose their Danish one.⁴ Some countries do not allow their own citizens to hold a second nationality, so check your home country’s rules as well.

Minor children can be included on the same naturalization bill as a parent rather than filing separately. A child must be unmarried, under 18, living in Denmark with a valid residence permit, and free of criminal charges or convictions that would trigger a waiting period. The naturalizing parent must have joint custody, and the other custodial parent must consent. Children aged 12 or older must consent themselves. Adopted children need an adoption valid under Danish law. There is no separate fee for children added to a parent’s application.⁵

How to Apply

Documents

Have the following ready before you open the digital form:

A copy of your current valid passport.
Your permanent residence permit documentation.
Your Prøve i Dansk 3 certificate or an equivalent qualification.
Your Indfødsretsprøven certificate.
Employment and income records covering the self-sufficiency and employment rules.
Any family documents you need: marriage certificate, children’s birth certificates, custody papers.

Documents not originally in Danish may need certified translation. You will also need MitID, Denmark’s digital ID, to sign the declarations and submit.² Set up MitID well ahead of your planned filing date if you do not already have it.

Fees

As of June 18, 2025, the first-time application fee is DKK 6,000 (roughly €800). Applicants born in Denmark or who arrived before age 8 pay a reduced fee of DKK 4,000. If your first application was rejected, your first reapplication is free; from the second reapplication onward, the fee is DKK 3,000. The fee is due at submission.⁶

Filing

Applications are submitted through the digital form using MitID.⁷ As part of the form, you digitally sign a declaration of allegiance and loyalty to Denmark, affirming that you will comply with Danish law, uphold the constitution, and respect fundamental Danish values and democratic principles.²

What Happens After You Submit

You get an immediate acknowledgment email. A separate confirmation from the Ministry of Immigration and Integration follows with your case number and an estimated timeline. If nothing arrives within one month, contact the ministry.⁶ The most recently published average processing time was about 14 months. Many applicants report waits longer than a year, and complex cases take longer still.

Approval by the ministry is not the finish line. Approved applicants are gathered into a naturalization bill that the Danish Parliament (Folketinget) votes on. The Parliament’s Naturalization Committee processes two bills per year. Until your name appears on a passed bill, you are not yet Danish.

Once the bill passes, you must attend a mandatory constitution ceremony (grundlovsceremoni) at your local municipality. You sign a declaration of compliance with the Danish Constitution and shake hands with a municipal official. The handshake has to be palm-to-palm without gloves. Refusing the handshake means citizenship is denied. Your certificate of naturalization is issued after the ceremony, and that is the moment you officially become a Danish citizen.⁶

If You Are Denied

Your decision letter explains why the application was rejected and how to appeal. Appeals to the Immigration Appeals Board must be filed within eight weeks of receiving the decision. Appeals directed to the Ministry of Immigration and Integration have no fixed deadline, though filing promptly is sensible. Include your case number, personal ID, a copy of the decision, and proof of any fee paid.⁸

Reapplication is the alternative. Your first reapplication is free; from the second onward, the fee is DKK 3,000.⁶ Fix whatever caused the rejection before you file again. Resubmitting the same file with the same gap wastes time and eventually money.

1
Nordic cooperation. Danish Citizenship
2
Life in Denmark. Conditions for Foreign Citizens’ Acquisition of Danish Citizenship
3
New to Denmark. Tests Equivalent to or Higher Than the Danish Language Test 3
4
Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Danish Citizenship
5
lifeindenmark.dk. The Acquisition of Danish Citizenship by Children
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Borger.dk. Guidance on How to Apply for Danish Citizenship
7
Udlændinge- og Integrationsministeriet. Statsborgerskab – In English
8
New to Denmark. Appeals