Divorcing EU partner as Non EU

[user881313]

Hello
Will be getting divorced from my EU partner, me being non EU. We've been married for over 3 years (got married in Denmark), and been living in Denmark for over 2 years. When the divorce conversation happened with my partner, I asked my company to apply for my residence permit, which they did and I just got a positive answer. While searching about if it was safe now (from an immigration standpoint), to submit the divorce request I found about the EU rules (here the link: https://www.retsinformation.dk/eli/lta/2019/318) that state that I can maintain my current EU permit, because of having been married for more than 3 years, and living in Denmark for more than one year.

So my questions are as follow:
- Has my family reunification under EU rules permit lapsed, by getting my new work permit?
- If my family reunification permit has not lapsed, do I need to apply for some permit at SIRI after filing the divorce at familiehuset? I have checked all around nyidanmark but haven't found anything that applies to this case
- If I'm able to get divorced and continue under EU rules, will the over 2 years of already living here count towards the 5 years for permanent residence?

I appreciate any responses, and now realise that I should've done my research before applying for my work permit (for which the conditions are of course not as convenient as if I can maintain my permit as EU).

Thanks in advance to anyone that can offer some info.

[user881313]

I was able to answer all the questions by calling SIRI so posting them here, might be useful for someone else:

The rule about the three years + 1 year is indeed valid, but it took some time until someone at SIRI could actually confirm this. On the nyidanmark website there is no mention of this, and they insisted that when the divorce happens the permit will lapse. After they internally rechecked the info I got another call confirming the validity of the rule.

Answers to my questions:
- No, the previous permit didn't lapse. A person can have several simultaneous residence permits, that as long as conditions for those are met are all valid.
- No, there is no application that needs to be made. According to SIRI official the process gets started automatically after the divorce has been filed. I'm supposed to be contacted by them at some point, once all the different offices get the info (familieretshuset, kommune, SIRI)
- Yes, the previous time on permit counts towards PR

[mhg]

I suppose you took a deep sigh of relief. And as long as you stay self-sufficient, you will qualify for pr in three years time.

[nathan]

May I ask if you know that you can only stay because of your new work permit? I’m in the exact same situation(3y married and 2 of these years living in Denmark with a salary above the 309k minimum per year, so self sufficient) except that I can not apply for a work permit, I asked my work and they only hire people who already have a visa.
Do you think I could stay in Denmark in my case? With the family reunification visa under EU law?

Thank you in advance

[mhg]

@nathan, user881313 can stay with double residence permit/right. One EU-card, and another one under Danish rules.
If you got family reunification under EU-rules, have been married for at least three years, and lived in DK for at least one of the three, before you divorce from the person you got reunited to, you may keep your EU-residence right, and if you stay self-supporting (that is: do not claim any benefits under 'Aktivloven'), you may after 5 years of residence gain the right to a permanent EU-residence.

I do not quite understand why your job refuses to help you get a work visa, but on the other hand it is not really an advantage, as it is so tightly tied to a specific job that changing jobs means you have to apply for a new permit. The EU-visa just requires you to be self-supporting be either job, independent business/income, income from 'A-kasse', living off income from assets, or even spousal support, and in two years time you will qualify for your permanent residence card - after getting which, should you for some reason need to apply for benefits it will no longer affect your residence right negatively.