Documents cheatsheet

SIRI (EU Residence Document)

If you’re an EU/EEA/Swiss or Nordic citizen – or a family member of one – you’ll need an EU residence document to show your right to live in Denmark.

You can stay in Denmark for up to 3 months without it (or 6 months if you’re looking for a job). But if you plan to stay longer, make sure to apply for your residence document before that time runs out.

It’s also important to know that this document is a key step in getting your CPR number, which you’ll need for many things in Denmark.

We recommend booking an appointment as early as possible, due to busy SIRI timetables. The closest SIRI department would be in Aarhus or Odense.

Prequisities:

  • VIA Acceptance letter
  • Passport or ID License photo
  • Declaration of financial self-support

Step by step process:


CPR (Central Person Register)

All residents in Denmark need to have a CPR number. You need it to open a bank account, access your health insurance, borrow books from the library, pay tax, receive a salary and so on. Total must have.

Prequisities:

  • EU residence document
  • Passport or ID License
  • Signed accommodtation contract

How to get your CPR as fast as you can?


Tax Cards

You need them to be able to get that bread. Denmark has high taxes, but there are couple tricks you can do to get the most as a student. In Denmark, there are 3 types of tax cards you should know about.

Prequisities:

  • CPR
  • Signed accommodation contract
  • Yellow Card
  • MitID or TastSelv-kode

Tax cards in a nutshell:


Tax card is a generic term for primary tax card (hovedkort), secondary tax card (bikort) and tax exemption card (frikort). You can read about how to get them in detail here. While applying they will ask you for approx. year income and so on, so be prepared. Don't worry, any amounts put too high will be returned in TAX return on March. Better put it a bit higher than actual year income to be sure you chill.

We recommend you don’t apply for your tax card until 1 month before you start your job, as they simply might not manage to get it for you before you start work. With that said, once you are sure you will get it, apply right away.

By default, you set it to receive your salary on a hovedkort(A card) and put SU on bikort(B card). We mean by default, because, usually the monthly salary is bigger than SU, which means if we want the highest income with the lowest paid in TAX, we put the HIGH income on A card and LOWER income on B card, so the lower income gets taxed the most and high income the lowest.

Calculate your expected profit here.

SU (Danish state educational grant)

This is the sauce. SU stands for Statens Uddannelsesstøtte, which is the Danish State Educational Grant and Loan Scheme. It is a financial aid program that provides financial support to eligible students studying at institutions of higher education in Denmark.

You will receive approx. 1000$ per month. So, to put it into perspective its 7000DKK before tax - 4500DKK after tax (SU on B tax card).

Prequisities:

  • You are a worker or self-employed person in Denmark under EU law and will continue to work while studying
  • Have been/will be working in Denmark for at least 10-12 hours per week. (Just be sure to have 40h total per month)
  • You don't receive any other public benefits (I believe you can still apply for Accommodation Support tho)
  • MitID
  • NemKonto account
  • DigitalPost account (e-boks)
  • Equal citizen status document

How to apply for SU:


We recommend you apply for SU right after you get the employment contract. It is due to long waiting times to get a response (approx 2-4 weeks) and I assume we want to get the SU ASAP.

Yellow Card (Health Insurance Card)

The Yellow Card is your health insurance card in Denmark. It proves that you are entitled to healthcare services in the country.

Wait time for it is about 1-3 weeks (since getting a CPR number).

Prequisities:

  • CPR
  • MitID (If you want to have Sundhedskortet app)

How to use it?


yellow-card
It is quite simple...

It contains information on:

  • Your name
  • Your CPR number
  • Your health insurance provider
  • Validity period
  • At the Doctor's Office: This is its main job. When you walk into your doctor's clinic, there's a little scanner at the reception desk. You just slide your card through it to check in for your appointment.
  • At the Pharmacy (Apotek): When you need to pick up prescription medicine, you just hand over your yellow card. They scan it, and your doctor's prescription pops up on their computer.
  • At the Library (Bibliotek): It's a cool life hack – your yellow card is often your library card as well. Just take it to your local library, and they can activate it in their system.
  • At the Hospital or Specialist: If you have a hospital appointment or need to see a specialist, you'll always need to bring it to register.
    • Pro-tip: Download the "Sundhedskortet" app on your phone. It's a digital version of your yellow card, so even if you forget the plastic one at home, you've always got it with you. (It's available on both Android and IOS)

Student Card

You must have noticed by now, that you didn't receive a real student card. It is because VIA don't have those (we don't count the keycards which serve as university building access card). Therefore, we have to get one somehow, so we can make use of those tasty student discounts, right?

That's where ISIC(International Student Identity Card) comes in place...

Prequisities:

  • VIA College acceptance letter
  • VIA College student e-mail & outlook access
  • Photo of your ugly ahh face (will serve as ISIC card picture, any pic of yours will work)

How to get your ISIC card?