Denmark passes a new work-permit route for 16 countries: DKK 322,000 a year at certified, union-covered employers from 1 January 2027

Denmark's parliament, the Folketing, passed a law on 3 September 2026 that creates a new work-permit route for citizens of 16 countries outside the EU, among them the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, India, Japan, Brazil and China. From 1 January 2027, a Danish employer that is covered by a collective agreement and certified by the immigration agency SIRI will be able to hire a national of one of those countries for a full-time job paying at least DKK 322,000 a year, roughly 43,000 euros at the krone's euro peg. That is far below the salary the ordinary Pay Limit Scheme demands, so the route opens Denmark to skilled and unskilled workers who were priced out before. It only operates while Danish unemployment is low.

Background

The scheme comes out of a political agreement reached on 30 June 2025 between the then Social Democrat, Liberal and Moderate government and a broad group of parties. The design follows a deal between the Danish employers' confederation DA and the trade-union confederation FH: employers get easier access to non-EU labour, and in return the job must sit under a collective agreement. A first bill, L 138, was introduced on 26 February 2026 with a planned start of 1 October 2026, but it lapsed when a general election was called for 24 March. The new government reintroduced it as bill L 16 on 25 June 2026 with the start moved to 1 January 2027, and the Folketing adopted it on Thursday 3 September. The same sitting passed a separate bill introducing mandatory ID cards on larger construction sites. Employment and Equality Minister Ane Halsboe-Jørgensen said the aim was to safeguard social cohesion: "Time and time again, we see foreign nationals coming to Denmark without receiving a fair wage, with employers disregarding their working conditions."

What exactly changed

The law adds a collective-agreement-based business scheme to the Danish Aliens Act. A company applies to SIRI, the Danish Agency for International Recruitment and Integration, for certification, which is valid for three years and can be extended for up to four years at a time. Once certified, the company can offer a full-time job under its collective agreement to a national of one of 16 listed countries: the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, India, China including Hong Kong, Japan, Brazil, Singapore, Malaysia, and the EU-candidate countries Montenegro, Serbia, North Macedonia, Albania, Ukraine and Moldova. The list is built from two criteria, the top-ten third countries by combined Danish investment abroad and inward investment, plus countries negotiating EU membership, and it can grow when Denmark signs a bilateral mobility agreement, as it has with India. The salary floor is DKK 322,000 a year at the 2026 level, indexed annually; only cash and cash equivalents count, and the pay must land in a Danish bank account. A preliminary permit allows a quick job start while the case is processed; the residence and work permit then runs for three years, extendable in periods of up to four years. If the employer later loses its certification, the worker keeps the right to stay and work until the permit expires. The route closes automatically if seasonally adjusted gross unemployment, averaged over the previous three months, rises above 3.75 percent. The ministry's own estimate is modest: around 550 people by 2030 and 1,300 by 2050.

Who it affects

The route is aimed at people who have a Danish job offer but not a Danish-level salary. A British chef offered a hotel kitchen job in Aarhus at DKK 340,000, a Brazilian warehouse worker at a logistics firm in Kolding, or an Indian software tester at a mid-sized firm could all qualify from 2027, provided the employer is certified and the job sits under a collective agreement. Erickson Immigration Group put the ordinary Pay Limit Scheme floor at DKK 514,000 a year at the 2025 level, so the gap is large. Ukrainian, Serbian and Moldovan workers at construction, agriculture and industrial firms with collective agreements are the other obvious group. Accompanying family members can apply to join the permit holder. Who it does not help is just as clear: nationals of any country outside the 16; anyone whose employer has no collective agreement, fewer than ten staff or less than two years of accounts; and part-time or freelance work of any kind.

What this means in practice

Nothing can be filed before 1 January 2027, and employers must be certified before they can use the route, so the realistic first hires are in the spring of 2027. If you have a Danish employer in mind, the useful questions now are whether it is covered by a DA/FH agreement, whether it has a shop steward, and whether it intends to apply for certification when SIRI opens the process. SIRI will publish a list of certified companies on nyidanmark.dk. Until then the existing routes apply: the Pay Limit Scheme, the Positive Lists for shortage occupations, the Fast-track scheme for certified companies, and the EU Blue Card. Our Denmark country guide (/country-guides/denmark) covers those routes and the residence-permit steps that follow.