Business visits Denmark

You can be issued a visa in connection with a business visit if there is an actual commercial relationship between your own company/organisation and the company/organisation in Denmark which you wish to visit.

The relationship with the company/organisation in Denmark must have been established prior to your entering Denmark, and the purpose of your visit must be related to your line of business in your country of origin. However, special rules apply for applicants from Somalia and Iraq.

An agreement reached in May 2009 with the Iraqi authorities on the return of Iraqi refugees has not altered this practice. The Ministry of of Refugee, Immigration and Integration Affairs will assess the effectiveness of the agreement once statistics are available.


If you are subject to work permit regulations, you will not be granted a business visa. This can be the case if you are a trainee receiving pay while in Denmark, or if you are employed by a Danish company's foreign sister company or subsiduary, and you are in Denmark in order to work for the Danish company. If this applies to you, you should not apply for a business visa but for a work permit. Read more about work.

However, during visits of less than three months you may carry out certain work-related activities without holding a work permit. Read more about visa and work permit.

If your company/organisation will be holding a large international event where many of the participants will need visas, the Immigration Service can help you with the preliminary planning. Read more about holding large events.

If the Immigration Service suspects that you intend to seek permanent or long-term residency in Denmark or another Schengen country, your visa application will be turned down. In the past, there have been cases of individuals misusing a business visa. This has resulted in measures to prevent misuse of business visas issued to Chinese citizens.

Who processes the application?
The Danish authorities process approximately 80,000 visa applications annually. In more than 60,000 cases, a visa is granted by a Danish diplomatic mission in the applicant's country of origin. The rest, just under 20,000 cases, are processed in Denmark by the Immigration Service. In many instances, visas for business visits are issued directly by the Danish diplomatic mission without the involvement of the Immigration Service. These cases are known as bona fide cases.

Applications processed by the Immigration Service
If the Danish diplomatic mission in your country of origin is unable to issue a visa, your application will be transferred to the Immigration Service, which will rule on the case. Your case may be transferred to the Immigration Service if the diplomatic mission suspects that you intend to seek permanent or long-term residency in Denmark or another Schengen country, or if there are circumstances which the Immigration Service can more easily assess, e.g. circumstances relating to the company/organisation you wish to visit in Denmark.

In general, the Immigration Service will issue a visa if you can document that you are commercially active and wish to come to Denmark as part of these activities, e.g. to trade, make an business deal or inspect machines or products prior to purchasing them from the Danish company/organisation.

When processing your visa application, the Immigration Service takes into consideration the purpose of your visit as well as your background, and it assesses whether there is reason to suspect that you intend to seek permanent or long-term residency in Denmark or another Schengen country.

The company/organisation in Denmark will normally have access to information about your visa application, and the Immigration Service will automatically send a copy of the ruling to the company/organisation.

Documentation
The Immigration Service processes your visa application based on both the information sent by the diplomatic mission which initially received your application, as well as information about the visit that the Immigration Service receives from the company/organisation in Denmark.

You must be able to document your line of business by providing, for example, a business permit or a proof of registration issued by the relevant authorities in your country of origin.

Further documentation of your background can include proof of your education, proof of previous business dealings within the same field, or proof of the financial resources of your company.

If you apply to visit a company/organisation a part of a group, the application must include a description of each applicant's role during the visit.

The company/organisation in Denmark must confirm your visit. The Immigration Service will normally send a questionnaire to the company/organisation in Denmark when processing your application.

The company/organisation will be asked to provide further information about the visit, including information about any previous commercial relations with you, how contact with you was established, as well as documentation that the company/organisation in Denmark is commercially active.

If a concrete offer to buy or sell machines or products has been made, a copy of the offer should be included in the application. In certain cases, a detailed itinerary for the visit will be required.

It is a good idea for the company/organisation in Denmark to include with the questionnaire other relevant information regarding the company itself, the relationship between the company/organisation and you, as well as the specific purpose of your visit. The more supplementary information is included, the less further information the Immigration Service will need to gather, and the faster the case will be processed.

If the Immigration Service requires more information about you, it will contact the diplomatic mission where you submitted your application.

After processing your application, the Immigration Service will send its ruling to the diplomatic mission where you submitted your application. A copy of the ruling will be sent to the company/organisation in Denmark.