Country-wide policy
Six Months Out of the Country Ends Your Permit, and Every Amount in the Act Is a Snapshot
Two things run underneath the Danish residence rules and neither sits in the record of any one route. A residence permit lapses when you give up your home in Denmark and, separately, when you have been outside the country for more than six consecutive months - twelve if the permit allows permanent residence and you have lawfully lived here more than two years, or if you hold permanent residence. That is a continuous-absence rule and not a presence quota: two absences of five months each break neither limb. And almost every amount printed in the Aliens Act is adjusted once a year. The salary thresholds move with the rate-adjustment percentage plus an adjustment percentage tracking wage growth and are rounded to the nearest thousand; the family-reunification security is set at 2024 levels and adjusted every 1 January; the permanent-residence income alternative is set at 2016 levels; the fees are adjusted and rounded to the nearest five kroner. The figure a reader takes from the consolidated text is the figure as it stood when the text was consolidated.
Topics it changes
- Residency through work
- Residency through marriage
- Residency as a student
- Residency through investment
- Becoming a citizen
What it requires
- Keeping a home in Denmark, and not being outside the country for more than the period that applies to your permit
At a glance
- Absence that ends an ordinary permit
- More than 6 consecutive months
Section 17(1) of the Aliens Act, which also ends a permit when you give up your home here.
- Absence that ends a permit once you are settled
- More than 12 consecutive months
Section 17(1), third sentence, where the permit allows permanent residence and you have lawfully lived here more than two years, or where you hold permanent residence.
- Whether that is a presence quota
- No: the Act measures consecutive months outside the country
Section 17(1). Military service and service in its place are not counted into those periods.
- How the salary thresholds move
- Annually, rounded to the nearest 1,000 kroner
Section 9 a(29) of the Aliens Act.
- How the family-reunification security moves
- Every 1 January, from a 2024 base
Section 9(4), final sentence, of the Aliens Act.
- How the permanent-residence income alternative moves
- Every 1 January, from a 2016 base
Section 11(4)(3) of the Aliens Act, which prints 270,000 kroner at 2016 levels.
What the law says
«En opholdstilladelse bortfalder, når udlændingen opgiver sin bopæl i Danmark. Tilladelsen bortfalder endvidere, når udlændingen har opholdt sig uden for landet i mere end 6 på hinanden følgende måneder. Er udlændingen meddelt opholdstilladelse med mulighed for varigt ophold, og har udlændingen lovligt boet mere end 2 år her i landet, eller er udlændingen meddelt tidsubegrænset opholdstilladelse, bortfalder opholdstilladelsen dog først, når udlændingen har opholdt sig uden for landet i mere end 12 på hinanden følgende måneder.»Known to be out of date. Six Acts amending the Aliens Act were published after this consolidation was signed: lov nr. 1344 af 25. november 2025, lov nr. 1648 af 16. december 2025, lov nr. 1750 af 29. december 2025, lov nr. 725 og 726 af 1. september 2026 and lov nr. 765 og 766 af 8. september 2026. None of them was read for this record. The consolidation also prints, in its own opening pages, a list of amendments it does not incorporate because the minister has not set the date they take effect.
About this source
The Danish state's common legal information system, run by Civilstyrelsen under the Ministry of Justice. It serves every Act, consolidated Act, ministerial regulation, circular and guidance document at a stable ELI address of the form https://www.retsinformation.dk/{pubMedia}/{year}/{number}, where pubMedia is lta for Lovtidende A, retsinfo for documents published on the service itself and mt for Ministerialtidende. Each document is offered in three representations off that address: the bare address, which is a JavaScript shell; /pdf, which is the publisher's own typeset PDF with a real text layer; and /dan/xml, which is the LexDania source. A consolidated Act prints on its first page the consolidation it supersedes, every amending Act folded into it, and a paragraph-by-paragraph list of the amendments it does NOT incorporate because the minister has not yet set their commencement date. The XML carries a metadata block with the accession number, the signature date, a Status field reading Valid or Historic, and a Change block naming each amending instrument.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: The address itself serves a 4.8 KB React shell and no text; a reading taken from it is page furniture, not the law. The XML representation of older documents can be metadata only: Danmarks Riges Grundlov, the Constitution that Danish naturalisation rests on, has a record with a title and a status and no text at all, and its /pdf address answers 404. The free-text parameter of the public search API is ignored, so the service can be filtered by document type and ministry but not searched by word from outside the browser. A document marked Historic may still be operative: the 2014 regulation listing the countries whose driving licences exchange without a test is marked Historic because the 2016 regulation repealed it, and the 2016 regulation's own transitional provision keeps its list in force. The StartDate and EndDate fields in the XML are record-keeping dates and are not the validity period of the instrument - they must not be read as a commencement or a repeal. The service publishes what has been enacted and nothing about how an agency applies it: the Positive List, the unemployment level that opens one of the salary routes, the driving-licence exchange list and the annually adjusted amounts are all published elsewhere by the administering body.
We re-read it every 45 days. More about this source
«Det beløb, der er angivet i stk. 2, nr. 3 og 13, reguleres årligt med satsreguleringsprocenten, jf. lov om satsreguleringsprocent, og en tilpasningsprocent, så reguleringen i alt svarer til lønudvikling i samfundet.»Known to be out of date. Six Acts amending the Aliens Act were published after this consolidation was signed: lov nr. 1344 af 25. november 2025, lov nr. 1648 af 16. december 2025, lov nr. 1750 af 29. december 2025, lov nr. 725 og 726 af 1. september 2026 and lov nr. 765 og 766 af 8. september 2026. None of them was read for this record. The consolidation also prints, in its own opening pages, a list of amendments it does not incorporate because the minister has not set the date they take effect.
About this source
The Danish state's common legal information system, run by Civilstyrelsen under the Ministry of Justice. It serves every Act, consolidated Act, ministerial regulation, circular and guidance document at a stable ELI address of the form https://www.retsinformation.dk/{pubMedia}/{year}/{number}, where pubMedia is lta for Lovtidende A, retsinfo for documents published on the service itself and mt for Ministerialtidende. Each document is offered in three representations off that address: the bare address, which is a JavaScript shell; /pdf, which is the publisher's own typeset PDF with a real text layer; and /dan/xml, which is the LexDania source. A consolidated Act prints on its first page the consolidation it supersedes, every amending Act folded into it, and a paragraph-by-paragraph list of the amendments it does NOT incorporate because the minister has not yet set their commencement date. The XML carries a metadata block with the accession number, the signature date, a Status field reading Valid or Historic, and a Change block naming each amending instrument.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: The address itself serves a 4.8 KB React shell and no text; a reading taken from it is page furniture, not the law. The XML representation of older documents can be metadata only: Danmarks Riges Grundlov, the Constitution that Danish naturalisation rests on, has a record with a title and a status and no text at all, and its /pdf address answers 404. The free-text parameter of the public search API is ignored, so the service can be filtered by document type and ministry but not searched by word from outside the browser. A document marked Historic may still be operative: the 2014 regulation listing the countries whose driving licences exchange without a test is marked Historic because the 2016 regulation repealed it, and the 2016 regulation's own transitional provision keeps its list in force. The StartDate and EndDate fields in the XML are record-keeping dates and are not the validity period of the instrument - they must not be read as a commencement or a repeal. The service publishes what has been enacted and nothing about how an agency applies it: the Positive List, the unemployment level that opens one of the salary routes, the driving-licence exchange list and the annually adjusted amounts are all published elsewhere by the administering body.
We re-read it every 45 days. More about this source
«Det angivne beløb i 1. pkt. er fastsat i 2024-niveau og reguleres fra og med 2025 én gang årligt den 1. januar efter satsreguleringsprocenten, jf. lov om en satsreguleringsprocent.»Known to be out of date. Six Acts amending the Aliens Act were published after this consolidation was signed: lov nr. 1344 af 25. november 2025, lov nr. 1648 af 16. december 2025, lov nr. 1750 af 29. december 2025, lov nr. 725 og 726 af 1. september 2026 and lov nr. 765 og 766 af 8. september 2026. None of them was read for this record. The consolidation also prints, in its own opening pages, a list of amendments it does not incorporate because the minister has not set the date they take effect.
About this source
The Danish state's common legal information system, run by Civilstyrelsen under the Ministry of Justice. It serves every Act, consolidated Act, ministerial regulation, circular and guidance document at a stable ELI address of the form https://www.retsinformation.dk/{pubMedia}/{year}/{number}, where pubMedia is lta for Lovtidende A, retsinfo for documents published on the service itself and mt for Ministerialtidende. Each document is offered in three representations off that address: the bare address, which is a JavaScript shell; /pdf, which is the publisher's own typeset PDF with a real text layer; and /dan/xml, which is the LexDania source. A consolidated Act prints on its first page the consolidation it supersedes, every amending Act folded into it, and a paragraph-by-paragraph list of the amendments it does NOT incorporate because the minister has not yet set their commencement date. The XML carries a metadata block with the accession number, the signature date, a Status field reading Valid or Historic, and a Change block naming each amending instrument.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: The address itself serves a 4.8 KB React shell and no text; a reading taken from it is page furniture, not the law. The XML representation of older documents can be metadata only: Danmarks Riges Grundlov, the Constitution that Danish naturalisation rests on, has a record with a title and a status and no text at all, and its /pdf address answers 404. The free-text parameter of the public search API is ignored, so the service can be filtered by document type and ministry but not searched by word from outside the browser. A document marked Historic may still be operative: the 2014 regulation listing the countries whose driving licences exchange without a test is marked Historic because the 2016 regulation repealed it, and the 2016 regulation's own transitional provision keeps its list in force. The StartDate and EndDate fields in the XML are record-keeping dates and are not the validity period of the instrument - they must not be read as a commencement or a repeal. The service publishes what has been enacted and nothing about how an agency applies it: the Positive List, the unemployment level that opens one of the salary routes, the driving-licence exchange list and the annually adjusted amounts are all published elsewhere by the administering body.
We re-read it every 45 days. More about this source
«Udlændingen har haft en årlig skattepligtig indkomst på gennemsnitligt 270.000 kr. de sidste 2 år forud for det tidspunkt, hvor tidsubegrænset opholdstilladelse vil kunne meddeles.»Known to be out of date. Six Acts amending the Aliens Act were published after this consolidation was signed: lov nr. 1344 af 25. november 2025, lov nr. 1648 af 16. december 2025, lov nr. 1750 af 29. december 2025, lov nr. 725 og 726 af 1. september 2026 and lov nr. 765 og 766 af 8. september 2026. None of them was read for this record. The consolidation also prints, in its own opening pages, a list of amendments it does not incorporate because the minister has not set the date they take effect.
About this source
The Danish state's common legal information system, run by Civilstyrelsen under the Ministry of Justice. It serves every Act, consolidated Act, ministerial regulation, circular and guidance document at a stable ELI address of the form https://www.retsinformation.dk/{pubMedia}/{year}/{number}, where pubMedia is lta for Lovtidende A, retsinfo for documents published on the service itself and mt for Ministerialtidende. Each document is offered in three representations off that address: the bare address, which is a JavaScript shell; /pdf, which is the publisher's own typeset PDF with a real text layer; and /dan/xml, which is the LexDania source. A consolidated Act prints on its first page the consolidation it supersedes, every amending Act folded into it, and a paragraph-by-paragraph list of the amendments it does NOT incorporate because the minister has not yet set their commencement date. The XML carries a metadata block with the accession number, the signature date, a Status field reading Valid or Historic, and a Change block naming each amending instrument.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: The address itself serves a 4.8 KB React shell and no text; a reading taken from it is page furniture, not the law. The XML representation of older documents can be metadata only: Danmarks Riges Grundlov, the Constitution that Danish naturalisation rests on, has a record with a title and a status and no text at all, and its /pdf address answers 404. The free-text parameter of the public search API is ignored, so the service can be filtered by document type and ministry but not searched by word from outside the browser. A document marked Historic may still be operative: the 2014 regulation listing the countries whose driving licences exchange without a test is marked Historic because the 2016 regulation repealed it, and the 2016 regulation's own transitional provision keeps its list in force. The StartDate and EndDate fields in the XML are record-keeping dates and are not the validity period of the instrument - they must not be read as a commencement or a repeal. The service publishes what has been enacted and nothing about how an agency applies it: the Positive List, the unemployment level that opens one of the salary routes, the driving-licence exchange list and the annually adjusted amounts are all published elsewhere by the administering body.
We re-read it every 45 days. More about this source
Practical notes
Section 17(2) lets a permit be declared not to have lapsed, on application. Nothing here says when that is granted.
The adjusted figures for any given year are published elsewhere and were not read. What is recorded is the mechanism and the base figures the Act prints.