If you wish to be granted equal status with Danish citizens according to this rule, you must be:
a citizen of an EU Member State, an EEA country or Switzerland and have had continuous residence of at least five years in Denmark, or have a family relationship to an EU, EEA or Swiss citizen and have had a continuous stay of at least five years in Denmark (irrespective of the country you are a citizen of).
By the term family relationship we mean that you are:
- the spouse of a citizen of an EU Member State, an EEA country or Switzerland, or
- the parent of a citizen of an EU Member State, an EEA country or Switzerland, or
- the child of a citizen of an EU Member State, an EEA country or Switzerland.
- If you have resided outside Denmark for a continuous period of two years, you can only become eligible for SU when you subsequently once more have a continuous stay in Denmark of at least five years.
This is what we do
When we investigate whether you have had continuous residence in Denmark of at least five years, among other things we use the information about you contained in the national register. If you wish us to assess your case on the basis of other information than that contained in the national register, in some cases we can approve other documentation in our concrete assessment of your case. If you think that the information in the national register is inadequate or incorrect, you must approach the national register in the municipality you live in.
Exceptions
In assessing whether you have had five years’ continuous residence in Denmark, we disregard brief stays outside of Denmark that do not exceed a total of six months a year.
We also disregard one longer stay outside Denmark due to:
- your national service, or
- you having stayed outside of Denmark for a maximum of 12 continuous months for weighty reasons (for example because of pregnancy and birth, serious illness, studies or vocational education, or posting abroad).
If you have had a stay outside of Denmark for a lengthy period due to one of the above-mentioned exceptions, you must provide documentation for this when applying to be granted equal status with Danish citizens.