Understand the integration requirement in minutes

[Kim P. Nyberg]

INTRO:

If you are applying for family reunification under the rules of the Aliens Act, it is often the integration requirements that come up when the application is rejected. Therefore, here is an overview of the different points and how they should be understood.

The integration requirement consists of 6 so-called integration-relevant requirements. Three of them apply to you who are either a Danish citizen or a foreigner with at least 3 years permanent residence permit in Denmark, and the other three apply to your spouse/partner. Together you must fulfil at least 4 of the 6 requirements. You just need to fulfil at least 4, but of course may fulfil 5 or all 6 requirements.

Even though 4 is enough, either of you must fulfil at least one. Thus, if you only fulfil one requirement, your spouse must fulfil all three of his/her requirements, or vice versa.

If you fulfil two requirements, it will be sufficient that your spouse also fulfils two requirements.

To make it a little easier to understand, I will write "you" if I am writing about the Danish citizen or foreigner with at least 3 years permanent residence permit, and "your spouse" if I am writing about the new spouse or partner.

I'll take the requirements one at a time and start with those that are specific for you. The purpose of this review is, of course, to minimise the number of rejections and to ensure that you and your spouse understand the requirements as well as possible.

The requirements must be fulfilled at the time you submit application form FA1. There is no point in submitting the application and then trying to fulfil some of the requirements. It will be too late and will always lead to a rejection of the entire application.

NOTE: This requirement does NOT apply to you if you submit an AO1 application.

[Kim P. Nyberg]

FOR YOU (the Danish citizen/resident):

FIRST REQUIREMENT: Danish language skills at a certain level:

This requirement is mandatory as a starting point. You must be able to document that you have completed 9th or 10th grade in primary school, i.e., show a certificate. Specifically, you must document your knowledge of written and spoken Danish with an examination certificate. The primary school certificate shows a grade in "order", which is not taken into account.

If you have been graded according to the 13-point scale, your average grade in the two disciplines must be at least 6 (i.e. your grade for oral must be at least 7, if the written is 5).

If you have been graded according to the 12-point scale, your average grade in the two disciplines must be at least 02.

If your average grade is below the above-mentioned grade, you do not fulfil the integration requirement, even if you can fulfil 4 other requirements together. However, if your average is above this grade, you can tick this box.

As mentioned above, the requirement is basically mandatory. When I write "as a starting point", it is because the requirement can still be waived. This is due to Denmark's international obligations, and in particular our obligations under the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. This means that if you for example are dyslexic, you have documentation of this, and you have therefore not been able to achieve the above-mentioned grades, the point about your Danish language skills can be waived entirely. In that case, you must fulfil a total of 4 other requirements.

If you have left school after 6th or 7th grade (note that primary school until 1972 was only 7 years, while it now is 10 years, if you include kindergarten (grade 0)), and have worked your arse off since then without any further formal school education, you do not fulfil the integration requirement. Not even if you have become an autodidact bestselling author. You must either go back to school, go live in your spouse's home country, go live a minimum of three months in another EU country, or give up the relationship altogether.

Further, your primary school education MUST have taken place in a Danish school on Danish soil. If you have completed 9th or 10th grade abroad by distance education, it does not count.

SECOND REQUIREMENT: Level of education:

Officially, it is stated that you must have at least 6 years of education, including at least 1 year of continuous education beyond primary school. Some people misunderstand this.

What you need to focus on is "including at least one year of continuous education beyond primary school". Primary school means either primary school or a private independent school/boarding school, or home schooling. The first 5 years of the requirement are therefore on primary school level, and then you need to supplement that with at least one year of secondary education. In this case, it must be an upper secondary or a vocational programme that is qualifying you for a specific trade or craft, further it must an education for which you according to current law can receive SU.

Thus, it is not mandatory that you study for 6 years after primary school to fulfil the requirement. It is also not required that you passed any tests of the programme. You just need to complete the one year beyond compulsory primary schooling, but it must be immediately after finishing primary schooling. If you take a gap year between compulsory schooling and further education, you will not fulfil the education requirement.
If, on the other hand, you have attended the full primary schooling of 10 years (0-9th grade) and a full year in a general or vocational upper secondary education programme in Denmark, you do fulfil the education requirement.

Any form of education abroad does NOT count. Both primary and secondary schooling MUST have taken place in Denmark.

THIRD REQUIREMENT: Work experience:

You must have worked for at least 5 years. Here, too, there are often misunderstandings.

? Is it 5 years in a row?
No, it is not.

? Is it within the last 5 years?
No, it is not.

? Can it be work for several different employers?
Yes, it can.

? Can it be part-time jobs?
Yes, if you have two or more part-time jobs at the same time, totalling at least 30 hours per week.

? Do holidays count?
No, they don't.

? Does unemployment benefits count?
No. However, maternity allowance counts as income and maternity leave is considered full-time work.

? I work evening or night shifts in the healthcare sector 28 hours a week and according to my contract this is full-time work. Does this count?
Yes, it does.

So, the point is that if you can provide payslips for a total of five years distributed over your entire working life that show that you have worked at least 30 hours a week or at least 120 hours a month, you fulfil the work requirement. This means that it can easily be gathered from a 10- or 15-year period if that's what you need. You just need to show a total 60 months with minimum 120 hours/month.

The work must have taken place in Denmark. Work abroad does not count.

[Kim P. Nyberg]

FOR YOUR SPOUSE:

FIRST REQUIREMENT: Danish or English at a certain level:

Your spouse has two options here: either fulfil Danish 1, which corresponds to the Danish level in a Danish 0. or 1. grade, or fulfil English B1, which corresponds to a Danish primary school's 9th grade final exam in the subject English. In most cases, Danish 1 will be completely unrealistic.

English B1 can be met by your spouse taking an IELTS or TOEFL test in English in his or her home country or where your spouse last lived before arriving in Denmark. If the test is passed, the integration requirement of English at B1 level is fulfilled. However, showing the print-out of a downloaded pdf-file of your score results is not enough. You must request a paper copy report, which will be accepted. The fact that the person's native language is English is also not enough. There must be documentation of the level, in the form of a diploma from an educational institution.

Your English level may be higher than the B1 level. It just can't be lower.

SECOND REQUIREMENT: Education level:

As with yourself, your spouse must also have at least one year of continuous education beyond primary school. In other words, upper secondary or vocational education. The one year must be completed with a passing grade. The programme can be taken in Denmark or abroad.

THIRD REQUIREMENT: Work experience:

Your spouse must have worked for at least 30 hours per week or at least 120 hours per month for 3 years out of the last 5 years. This can be either a full-time job or several simultaneous part-time jobs that together fulfil the hour requirement. It does not have to be with the same employer for the entire period. The work can be performed either in Denmark or abroad.

Only documentation in the form of payslips, possibly together with employment contracts, is accepted. An employer's declaration will not be accepted.

Please note that an au pair position is not considered work, it is a cultural exchange, and the money received are considered pocket money, not salary. Therefore an au pair position does not count towards the calculation.

[Kim P. Nyberg]

EXCEPTIONS TO THE REQUIREMENT:

You do not have to fulfil the integration requirement if you are raising a minor child who has an attachment of their own to Denmark, or if you have regular contact with a minor child from a previous relationship whose other parent is Danish/has legal residence in Denmark, the so-called ‘special child’.

A child is considered to have an attachment of their own to Denmark, if they have lived in Denmark about 6 years, speak Danish, and have attended Danish day-care and/or school.

If the child is too young to yet have an attachment of their own to Denmark, but the other parent is Danish/has legal residence in Denmark, the integration requirement may still be waived, if the child has fixed, regular access to both parents, for example in a 7-7 or a 4-3 arrangement or equivalent. This is due to the right of a child to continue its established relation to both its parents.

Similarly, the requirement does not need to be met if your sexual or religious orientation is an obstacle to exercising family life in your spouse's home country.

[Kim P. Nyberg]

All this post has been edited by today's date.