Although I am an EU citizen and should, therefore, have freedom of movement within EU countries, this doesn’t mean that I can just swan up to any country and settle there. It was, surprisingly, that easy when I moved to the UK. In Denmark I need to jump through a few more hoops however.
The first on my list of things to do was applying for a registration certificate. This certificate is the piece of paper I need to be able to stay in the country for more than 3 months (or 6 months if a job seeker).
There should be three ways of applying for this certificate:
- at the state administration offices in Denmark,
- via mail or email,
- or at the Danish mission abroad.
As I was not yet in Denmark I tried option 3 first. I tried to call the embassy but no one seemed to know what I was talking about. I decided to try and visit the embassy in London myself, but there I was not even allowed in to speak to anyone. My final try involved getting Michael to call himself to a new number I was given, where he was told that I should apply when I get to Denmark. So option 3 was scrapped.
In the same way, it was not clear where to send the documents by email or post. I tried to call Danish Immigration but they kept on telling me that I should call somewhere else but didn’t know the number of where I should call. Also, no one seemed to know that Malta is in the EU, so that approach also didn’t work too well. I then hunted down another number online and finally got through to someone who spoke English and knew what I needed. Unfortunately it seems that although I can send them things by email, this won’t speed up the process at all as the application will only be processed once I appear in front of them in person. Therefore, I am not too sure why they list the last 2 as options.
On to my last option: waiting till I arrived in Denmark. I managed to find a list of state administration offices in Southern Denmark on the Danish Immigration Services website by going through the Danish language part using googletranslate.
Ahhhhh, experiences with the Danish immigration service. Like nothing else on earth. 🙂
I am Canadian married to a UK citizen and we applied once we were here through the offices in Aabenraa and they were delightful to deal with. So don’t worry, it will be okay! (And it was easier for me to immigrate to Denmark than for me as the wife of a UK citizen to immigrate to the UK!)
Phew – thanks Judith! That makes it sound manageable – especially as I am an EU citizen so (hopefully) it should be just as easy. Will be trying to sort things out next week and will post back about how it went.