Visa information

The 2026 guide's Denmark routes are all work- or business-led: the Positive List and Pay Limit schemes for skilled workers with a job offer, the Fast-track scheme for certified companies, and Start-up Denmark for approved entrepreneurs — with, in the guide's own words, no self-sufficiency or nomad visa. The guide's cover line calls Denmark “hard to enter without a job,” and its visa and bureaucracy score of 42/100 underlines the point.

The routes the guide names — all of them job-led

Positive List and Pay Limit schemes — for skilled workers with a job offer above ~DKK 400k/yr (see the income section below).

Fast-track scheme — for certified companies; the schemes list restates it as “fast-track work permits for certified firms.”

Start-up Denmark — for approved entrepreneurs.

And the guide is explicit about what does not exist: no self-sufficiency or nomad visa. There is also no retirement visa — see the Retirement page for what that means in practice.

The income test — one figure, and a closed door for nomads

Only one route carries a printed income figure: the Positive List and Pay Limit schemes, tested against a job offer above ~DKK 400k/yr. Neither source prints which occupations sit on the Positive List, a separate threshold for each scheme, or any salary figure for the Fast-track or Start-up routes — so this page does not invent them.

For remote workers the position is stated twice and is unambiguous: no nomad visa, and remote work for a foreign employer is not permitted on a visit. At the guide's exchange rate of $1 ≈ kr6.4, any krone figure you are quoted converts at roughly that rate for planning.

What the paperwork costs — plan budgets, not government fees

The guide does not list individual government visa fees. What it gives is a bundled “Visa, permits & translations” budget line in each move plan, and those lines are the only sourced cost figures for the application itself:

• $1,200 — Affordable plan (you file yourself)
• $1,750 — Mid-range and Retirement plans
• $4,200 — Luxury plan (the plan notes the luxury tier adds an immigration lawyer)

The Retirement plan carries one further, separate line: $3,250 for “Retirement visa, lawyer & pension certification”, covering an immigration lawyer, apostilled pension letters, medicals and translations.

Application steps and timelines, by tier

The guide builds the application into each plan's timeline rather than printing a single step list. The common sequence across the plans and checklists is:

• Choose the route first and print its requirements; the Affordable checklist starts with “Visa route chosen and requirements printed.” For Denmark that realistically means securing the job offer or approval first, since every route the guide names depends on one.
• Gather and legalise documents — apostilles and translations are named in every tier; the Retirement paperwork stage adds pension or income letters certified and apostilled, a police certificate, a medical, and birth and marriage certificates translated.
• Check your passport — the Affordable checklist requires a passport valid 18+ months.
• Arrange health insurance before you file (see the Hospitals page for the guide's first-year insurance budgets).
• File — yourself on the Affordable tier, or with a lawyer or agent on the Mid-range, Luxury and Retirement tiers.

Paperwork-stage durations in the guide: ~10 weeks filing yourself (Affordable), ~8 weeks with a lawyer or agent filing (Mid-range), ~6 weeks with a lawyer filing everything (Luxury), and ~14 weeks for the Retirement paperwork stage. After the move, the settle stage includes registering your address and opening a bank account.

Renewals and the path to residency — the honest limit of the guide

Neither the guide nor the site data gives renewal intervals, years to permanent residence, or absence limits for any Danish route, so this page does not state them. What the sources do establish is the shape of entry: a qualifying job offer, a certified employer, or an approved start-up — and no self-sufficiency fallback. Treat everything past the initial permit as something to confirm with an immigration lawyer or the consulate before you rely on it; the Retirement plan's lawyer line exists for exactly this kind of question.

Frequently asked questions