Private visits and tourist visits Denmark

Countries with a visa requirement to visit Denmark are divided into three national categories - an asylum group, an immigration group and a tourist group.

Different rules for visa issuance apply to the three groups.


Each visa application will be processed individually, so the division into groups is intended as a guideline only. If the applicant has previously held a visa and met the conditions, this may play a part in the processing of a later visa application. Extraordinary circumstances may also be relevant to the case, for example if the family member residing in Denmark suffers from a life-threatening illness or has died.

The Immigration Service may also issue a visa to persons who have not previously held a Schengen visa, even if the applicant does not belong to the group of persons who can normally be issued a visa. This can apply in cases where the Immigration Service assesses that there is no immigration or security risk.

Likewise, it applies to all three groups that the Immigration Service may turn down an application for a visa if it suspects that an applicant intends to seek permanent or long-term residency in Denmark or another Schengen country, or that he or she may pose a security risk.

The asylum group
The following countries currently comprise the asylum group:

Afghanistan, Algeria, Iran, Iraq, Kosovo, Nigeria, Pakistan, Somalia, Syria and stateless Palestinians. However, special conditions apply to Iraqi and Somali citizens (see below). Stateless persons other than Palestinians will be assessed based on their country of residence.

Citizens from these countries are generally only granted visas if they are spouses/registered partners/cohabiting partners, children under the age of 18 or parents of the person residing in Denmark. Cohabiting partners are defined as persons who can document that they have lived together with the person they wish to visit in Denmark in a permanent relationship at a shared address for at least 18 months.

Iraqi and Somali citizens will normally only be granted a visa in extraordinary situations, e.g. if a family member residing in Denmark suffers from a life-threatening illness or has died.

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.

In some cases, Iraqi and Somali citizens can be granted a visa in order to visit a spouse or cohabiting partner, but only if the applicant has previously applied for family reunification and has been turned down because he or she did not meet the attachment requirement.

I these cases, a visa can be granted if the spouse/partner residing in Denmark has a considerable attachment to Denmark; if the marriage is legally valid, and if the other conditions for family reunification with a spouse are met (e.g. the housing requirement and the requirement that he/she has not received certain types of public assistance within the past 12 months). However, the spouse/partner residing in Denmark is not required to produce the demand guarantee connected with the collateral requirement at this point. This will only be required in connection with a later application for family reunification.

The immigration group
The immigration group is divided into two sub-groups:

A group whose citizens are required to have a personal or familial relationship with the person residing in Denmark.
A group for which no such relationship is required.
The following countries are currently listed as part of the immigration country category whose applicants are required to have a personal or familial relationship with the person residing in Denmark:

Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, Belarus, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Burundi, Cameroon, China, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Gambia, Georgia, Ghana, India, Ivory Coast, Jordan, Kenya, Lebanon, Macedonia (FYROM), Moldova, Montenegro, Morocco, Russia, Rwanda, Serbia, Sierra Leone, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Togo, Turkey, Uganda, Ukraine, Vietnam and Yemen.

Citizens from countries in this group are normally granted visas if they are spouses/registered partners/cohabiting partners, boyfriends/girlfriends and fiancés/fiancées, children irrespective of age, parents, siblings and their spouses.

Visas are also granted to nieces, nephews and grandchildren under the age of 18 who wish to come to Denmark for a temporary holiday visit unaccompanied by their parents or another adult, close acquaintances of previously foreign-stationed Danes, sponsor children and applicants accompanying older, frail family members.

In order to grant visas to boyfriends/girlfriends - including applicants wishing to travel to Denmark for the purpose of marriage - the couple must document that they are in an actual relationship. That is, they must be able to document that they know each other personally, and that they have seen each other in the year leading up to the visa application. It is not enough that the couple only know each other through telephone and/or written contact. If the couple do not have a significant level of mutual personal knowledge, the visa application will be turned down.

For certain countries - Russia, China, Ukraine and India - so-called travel agency arrangements have been established, making it easier for citizens from these countries to visit Denmark as tourists. Read more about travel agency and tourist arrangements.

Currently, citizens from the following countries are not required to have a personal or familial relationship with the person residing in Denmark:

Albania, Benin, Burma (Myanmar), Congo (Brazzaville), Libya, Mongolia, Niger, Peru, Tanzania, Thailand and Tunesia.

Visas are generally granted to applicants from these countries, no matter who they intend to visit, including friends and acquaintances. Applicants from this group are not required to document a personal or familial relationship with the person residing in Denmark.

For applicants from the entire immigration group, immigration authorities have the right to render a visa contingent on an economic guarantee of DKK 58,603 (2010 level). However, no economic guarantee is required with visa applications from spouses/registered partners/cohabiting partners, children under the age of 18 or parents.

Based on an individual assessment, the Immigration Service may chose to demand an economic guarantee from the person that the applicant intends to visit in Denmark. This may be the case in instances where the applicant's connection to his or her country of origin is uncertain, due for example to the applicant's lack of employment or young age. This may also be the case in instances where a visa applicant wishes to visit a boyfriend/girlfriend or fiancé/fiancée in Denmark, and where there is a risk that the applicant intends to seek permanent or long-term residency in Denmark or another Schengen country.

Visa applicants can be rejected in the event that the resident reference cannot or will not submit an economic guarantee.

Read more about processing time.

Read more about how to apply.

The tourist group
The following countries currently comprise the tourist group:

Angola, Antigua and Barbuda, Bahamas, Bahrain, Barbados, Belize, Bhutan, Bolivia, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Cambodia, Colombia, Comoros, Cuba, the Central African Republic, the Dominican Republic, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Djibouti, Dominica, Ecuador, Fiji, the United Arab Emirates, Gabon, Grenada, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Guyana, Haiti, Indonesia, Jamaica, the Cape Verde Islands, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Kiribati, Kuwait, Laos, Lesotho, Liberia, Madagascar, Malawi, the Maldives, Mali, the Marshall Islands, Mauritania, Mauritius, Micronesia, Mozambique, Namibia, Nauru, Nepal, Oman, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Qatar, Solomon Islands, Samoa, Sao Tomé & Principe, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Seychelles, St Kitts and Nevis, St Lucia, St Vincent and the Grenadines, Surinam, Swaziland, South Africa, Tajikistan, Taiwan, Chad, Trinidad and Tobago, Tonga, Turkmenistan, Tuvalu, Uzbekistan, Vanuatu, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Equatorial Guinea and East Timor.

Citizens from these countries are generally eligible for visas for purely tourist-related visits, and even if the applicant has no connection to anyone living in Denmark.

Read more about processing time.

Read more about how to apply.