Denmark removes ‘silly’ requirement from citizenship application forms

A requirement for applicants for Danish citizenship to provide details of every single trip outside of the country for the last 12 years has been scrapped by the government.

Since 2017, people hoping to become nationalized as Danes have had to declare every trip outside of the country, they have taken in the last 12 years on their application forms, including weekend breaks and other short trips, such as shopping runs to Sweden or Germany.

The requirement was based on the legal criteria for citizenship, which include living in Denmark continuously for at least nine years.

Danish Minister for Immigration and Integration Mattias Tesfaye said he believes that there is no need to document such short trips, and they will therefore no longer need to be declared on paperwork.

Travel outside of Denmark must still be documented if it had a duration of four weeks or more; if the applicant left the country 10 times in one year or more; in cases of repeated trips to the same destination (for example, every other week); or if all trips add up to over six months spent abroad in one year.

Danish citizenship can only be granted to foreign nationals via legal nationalisation: the application must be approved by a parliamentary majority. Accepted applications are normally processed in parliament twice yearly, in April and in October.

Via The Local.dk