Denmark’s Positive List: Eligibility, Salary, and Renewal

A Denmark Positive List work permit lets a non-EU or non-EEA worker live and work in Denmark after being offered a job in an occupation the country has flagged as short-staffed. Two separate lists run in parallel: one for roles requiring a higher education degree, one for skilled vocational trades. The Danish Agency for International Recruitment and Integration (SIRI) refreshes both on January 1 and July 1 each year.¹²³

The Two Positive Lists

The Higher Education list covers professional roles requiring at least a bachelor’s degree. Each entry states the minimum education level and the date through which the occupation stays on the list. As of early 2026, examples include biochemists (master’s degree, listed through June 2027), nurses (professional bachelor’s plus Danish authorization, through December 2027), and IT architects (at least three years of bachelor-level IT education, through December 2027).¹ The full list usually runs to dozens of occupations across engineering, healthcare, technology, and the natural sciences.

The Skilled Work list targets vocational trades: construction, metalwork, and specialized service trades. Candidates need vocational training equivalent to the Danish program in the relevant field.⁴

Check the current version of whichever list applies to you before you apply. An occupation on the list today may be gone at the next update.

Who Qualifies

For the Higher Education list, you need a completed degree at the level the occupation specifies. Some roles accept a professional bachelor’s; others require a full master’s or PhD.⁵ For the Skilled Work list, you need a completed vocational program comparable to the Danish equivalent in your trade.

Regulated Professions

Some occupations in Denmark are regulated, meaning you cannot practice without authorization from a Danish authority, regardless of your foreign credentials. Physicians and nurses are authorized by the Danish Patient Safety Authority; certified structural engineers go through the Danish Authority of Social Services and Housing.⁶ If your role is regulated, secure that authorization before or alongside the permit application. Applying without it risks outright rejection. The Danish Ministry of Higher Education and Science maintains the full list of regulated professions and links to the responsible authority for each.⁷ The authorization process runs separately from the work permit and can take weeks on its own.

An Extra Employer Condition for Skilled Work

The Skilled Work list carries a requirement that Higher Education does not. Your employer must have met apprenticeship training obligations under Denmark’s employer education contribution system (Læreplads-AUB). Specifically, the employer must have reached the target number of trained apprentices set by Læreplads-AUB in the most recently calculated contribution year (currently 2024), or in at least two of the three most recent years, without being required to pay an additional contribution.⁴ Confirm this with a prospective employer before you invest time in the application.

Salary and Contract Standards

Your pay and terms must match Danish standards for the role. SIRI does not set a single minimum figure for Positive List permits. Instead, it evaluates whether your offered compensation matches what Danish workers earn in the same job and region.

Where the employer is covered by a collective bargaining agreement, SIRI generally accepts that the salary meets Danish standards, provided the contract states this and the employer has adopted the agreement. Without a collective agreement, SIRI checks the offered salary against income statistics from the Confederation of Danish Employers (DA). Your pay must be at least at the lower quartile level for your job function and experience level in the region where you will work.⁸

Only liquid compensation counts: fixed monthly pay, employer contributions to a labor market pension, and the 1% holiday supplement. Free housing, a company car, commissions, and bonuses are excluded.⁸ A generous benefits package will not rescue a below-market base salary.

Your entire salary must be paid into a Danish bank account in your own name at a bank legally operating in Denmark. You have 180 days after your permit is granted to open that account.⁴

The employment contract sits at the center of the application. It has to specify your salary, job description, weekly hours, notice period, and holiday terms, and it must show that the position meets Danish market standards.⁹

How to Apply

Alongside the contract, you need degree certificates and academic transcripts for the relevant programs, translated into English or Danish. If your profession is regulated, include proof of your Danish authorization.

The application uses one of two forms. AR1 has you and your employer each complete separate sections. AR6 grants your employer power of attorney to submit the application on your behalf, and it is the more common route when employers handle the paperwork.¹

You start by creating a case order ID on the SIRI website and paying the DKK 6,810 processing fee.² Once payment clears, the application is submitted online. If you are already in Denmark and have MitID, the national digital identity, you use it to sign.¹⁰

Within 14 days of submitting, you must appear in person for biometric capture. In Denmark, that means a SIRI branch office or the Danish Immigration Service’s Citizen Service. From abroad, it means the nearest Danish embassy or visa application center.¹¹

SIRI targets one to three months for a decision, depending on the case.³ If SIRI has doubts about whether your salary meets Danish standards, it may refer the question to a regional labor market council, adding time. Seasonal application spikes also cause delays. You can track your case through the online portal.

Permit Length and Renewal

For the Skilled Work list, the permit is normally valid for the length of the employment contract, capped at four years. Longer contracts still get a four-year permit initially and renew from there. If you apply from outside Denmark, you can request that the permit start up to one month before your job begins, provided you declare you can support yourself and any family during that period. Without that declaration, the buffer shrinks to 14 days.⁴ A permit can never extend beyond three months before your passport expires, so renew the passport in good time.

At extension, SIRI checks that you have been working and receiving salary according to your contract throughout the current permit, that your salary still meets Danish standards, that your full salary has been paid into a Danish bank account in your name, and that you have not received public benefits under Denmark’s social assistance laws.¹² The extension fee is the same DKK 6,810.²

What if your occupation is dropped from the list before you renew? As long as you are still employed under the same terms and your salary meets Danish standards, you can extend even though the profession is no longer listed.¹² The list change affects new applicants, not existing permit holders in good standing.

Changing Jobs or Losing Employment

Your Positive List permit is tied to a specific employer and role. To switch companies, you have to submit a brand-new work permit application before starting the new job. Under SIRI’s job change rule, you may begin work at the new company on the same day you submit the new application; you do not have to wait for approval. But if you start working before submitting, you must stop immediately until the new permit is issued.¹³ Get the sequence wrong and the rule bites.

If You Lose Your Job

Layoff through no fault of your own, such as restructuring or downsizing, may let you stay in Denmark to look for new work, but only if your permit is on the Higher Education Positive List. Holders of that permit can apply for a six-month jobseeking residence permit, provided the application is submitted no later than two days after employment officially ends, meaning two days after the notice period expires.¹⁴

Workers on the Skilled Work Positive List are not among the schemes eligible for the jobseeking permit. That gap matters. If you lose a Skilled Work position without another job lined up, your legal basis for staying in Denmark ends with the employment.

Bringing Family

Your spouse, registered partner, cohabiting partner, or children under 18 can apply for residence as accompanying family members. Cohabiting partners must be over 18 and show at least 1.5 to 2 years of living together, evidenced by documents like a joint lease or shared bank accounts. Children of separated parents need written consent from the parent not moving to Denmark.¹⁵

Because your permit is based on salaried employment, family members do not need to prove separate financial support. Each family member submits an individual application with a DKK 3,080 fee, and processing takes about two months. Family permits are typically valid for the same period as yours, and everyone must live at the same address.¹⁵

An accompanying family member permit generally carries the right to work in Denmark without a separate work permit. Your spouse can also run a business or enroll in studies. The one restriction: they cannot work for the same company as you, or a closely related one, without obtaining their own separate work permit.¹⁶

If Your Job Isn’t on Either List

Denmark’s Pay Limit Scheme offers a parallel route for occupations that do not appear on the Positive Lists. Instead of matching a listed occupation, you qualify on salary alone: for 2026, the threshold is an annual salary of at least DKK 552,000. The job can be in any field, as long as the salary clears the bar and other standard conditions are met. Fees and process are largely the same as for the Positive List.

1
New to Denmark. The Positive List for People with a Higher Education
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New to Denmark. Fee – overview of fee rates
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New to Denmark. Case processing times in SIRI
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New to Denmark. The Positive List for Skilled Work
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New to Denmark. The Positive List for People with a Higher Education – Section: What are the conditions?
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Danish Ministry of Higher Education and Science. List of regulated professions
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Life in Denmark. Access to regulated professions
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New to Denmark. Danish standards for salary
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European Commission. International service provider in Denmark
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Life in Denmark. MitID – Denmark’s national eID
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New to Denmark. Biometric features
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New to Denmark. The Positive List for People with a Higher Education – extension
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New to Denmark. The job change rule
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New to Denmark. Have you been dismissed or are you concerned about being dismissed?
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New to Denmark. Accompanying family member to an employee
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New to Denmark. Accompanying family member to an employee – extension