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Getting Started

Residents Permit & Social Security card

This guideline will help simplify the whole administrative process of studying in Denmark.

Please follow the guideline in the chronological order.

1. First of all, it is very important to have insurance when coming here, as you will not be covered by the Danish medical insurance straight away.
2. Non-EU citizens will have to apply for a visa before entering Denmark.

You can find information about applying for a visa at the following link: Ministry of foreign affairs

3. (FOR EU CITIZENS)The first thing you should do when you get to Denmark is apply for a Certificate of Registration (residents permit). You are allowed to stay in Denmark for three months without a residents permit, but you need this in order to get you social security card, which will allow you to go to the doctor, the hospital and use the library etc.

(If you are a Nordic citizen, e.g. from Norway, Sweden, Finland or Iceland you do not need a residents permit to stay in Denmark)

In order to get a residents permit you need to show up in person at the regional state Administration located at the following address:

Lyseng Alle 1
8270 Højbjerg
(in Århus)

Phone: +45 7256 8300
E-mail: midtjylland@statsforvaltning.dk
Fax: +45 9732 4517

Conditions

In order to be granted a residence permit you must document:

That you have been admitted to a higher educational programme which has been approved by a state authority or which is offered by a publicly accredited educational institution.
That you can support yourself for the duration of your stay in Denmark. If you are to pay a tuition fee, you must document that you have paid the tuition fee for the first semester or year, instead of documenting that you can support yourself.
That you can speak and understand the language of instructionand have a working knowledge ofeither Danish, Swedish, Norwegian, English or German.

There is usually a waiting period of around two months to receive the residents permit.

4. Once you have received the residents permit, you can go to the local Municipality in the town centre and apply for the yellow social security card. Once you receive you social security card you will automatically be appointed a doctor. This card will also let you borrow books from the library and open a bank account. Speak to the International Office at the school about which bank to choose, as some banks are more open towards international students than others.