Or so I'm told.
As the wedding and subsequent move to Denmark looms closer and closer, I've started to take another look at what will be required in order for me to move there legally.
At first, I was looking at the normal family reunification law requirements. By "normal," I'm referring to the laws in place so that a Danish citizen can bring a non-Danish spouse or other family member to live in Denmark as a legal resident. It's an expensive process. The financial requirements alone are daunting, requiring both a registration fee of 8,000 DKK (approximately $1,400 US), and 100,000 DKK collateral (nearly $18,000) that you cannot touch for 5 years.
We've spent the last year saving up for the wedding, so the thought of having to save up another $20K (not including the cost of shipping our belongings overseas) was causing me some stress.
Luckily, my fiance is not Danish. And even more luckily, he is an EU citizen. The EU has its own family reunification laws, which override some of the Danish laws. I can't claim to be 100% certain of this, but it sounds like the process for EU citizens bringing non-EU spouses to live with them in Europe is fairly simple, comparatively. I'm told that I've "got the golden ticket" with regards to immigrating to Denmark.
It's a relief, but I still want to make sure that we have all of our ducks in a row before we head over. I've emailed the Danish immigration folks to see what they have to say.
And now, we wait.
I'm your newest follower! We'll be in Copenhagen for a few days in May.
ReplyDeleteThanks Jake! May is a lovely time to visit. We were there last April, and it was just starting to warm up.
ReplyDeleteYou DO have a golden ticket. Here in Holland, the gov. also tries to do everything to keep their own citizens from bringing foreigners in.
ReplyDeleteOf course, 'golden ticket' doesn't mean smooth sailing with the whole process. Good luck!