Spouse Immigration Visa

If your spouse, registered partner or live together partner (girlfriend, boyfriend) lives in Denmark, you can submit an application for a residence permit on the basis of family reunification or marriage immigration.

Though, you and your spouse or partner, in addition to your association with him/her, must meet up certain requirements.

There are several precise requirements relating to your spouse residing in Denmark. These requirements chiefly concern the grounds for his/her residence in Denmark and his/her capability to sustain him/her and you.

Requirements concerning to your marriage for spouse immigration visa:
•Your wedding or registered partnership should be accepted by Danish law.
•Your marriage or registered partnership should have been entered into willingly, i.e. there must be no uncertainty that it was entered into consistent with the wishes of both you and your spouse/partner.
•The marriage or registered partnership should not have been entered into solely for the purpose of obtaining a spouse immigration visa or residence permit for you.

Requirements for you and your spouse/partner for spouse immigration visa:
•You both have to be over the age of 24.
•You should live together at the same address in Denmark when your spouse immigration visa or residence permit is granted.
•Your mutual attachment to Denmark must be greater than your mutual attachment to any other country.

Requirements relating to your spouse in Denmark in order to get spouse immigration visa:
Your spouse/partner in Denmark should either:
•Be a Danish national or a citizen of one of the other Nordic countries (Norway, Sweden, Finland and Iceland), or
•Hold a Danish residence permit granted on the basis of refuge or Protected Status, or
•Have held a permanent Danish residence permit for the previous 3 years or more.
•Should live permanently in Denmark.
•Should have accommodation of sufficient size at his/her disposal.
•Should be able to sustain him/her and you.

Marriage Immigration - Forced marriages

Denmark is very much concerned about marriage immigration visa because a lot of cases in marriage immigration may be forced. A forced marriage is defined as a wedding happened in opposition to the wishes of one or both of the spouses.

How does the Immigration Service decide whether a marriage is forced?
When evaluating whether a marriage may have been forced, the Immigration Service evaluates all information obtainable to marriage immigration visa.

If the spouses are close relatives for instance, cousins, the Immigration Service will usually suppose that they did not marry of their own liberated will. Therefore, such applications will frequently be rejected.

If there are earlier examples of spouse reunification in the spouses’ closest families, this is a situation which may point out that the marriage is forced.

In addition, the Immigration Service will pay exacting attention to the following situations of marriage immigration visa:

•Conditions surrounding the wedding, and the spouses' individual contact and relationship before the marriage.
•The age of the partners
•The length of the marriage
•The spouses' contact and relationship with their future families-in-law previous to the marriage
•The spouses' individual situations, together with financial situation and professional and educational backgrounds
•Information about any contact that may have been completed by either spouse to a crisis or counseling centre.

Also taken into concern will be whether the spouses' families have been vigorously involved in arranging the wedding. However, it should be emphasized that a marriage will not automatically be characterized as 'forced' simply because it occurs with the co-operation of the two particular families.

The Danish authorities, together with Danish diplomatic missions abroad, where an application for marriage immigration is generally submitted, and the Immigration Service in Denmark, are instructed to pay particular attention to conditions of marriage immigration visa which may indicate that a marriage has been forced.

In case, when receiving the application, the diplomatic mission becomes doubtful that a marriage may have been forced, the applicant will be interviewed concerning the circumstances of the marriage and why he want to get marriage immigration visa.

When the request is forwarded to the Immigration Service, it will ask the partner in Denmark to answer in writing a series of questions concerning the circumstances surrounding the marriage. Upon receiving the answers, the Immigration Service may call the spouse to an interview.

The final decision will be made by the Immigration Service on the basis of all obtainable information in the case.