Nearly 500 people who were told they could expect Danish citizenship in October are still waiting, after naturalization was paused pending a new law to screen applicants for anti-democratic attitudes.
According to reporting by DR, 487 people received messages in e-Boks saying they could expect to become Danish citizens in October 2026. They were not included in the citizenship bill that followed, and now have no clear timeline.
One of them is Nicola Ens, a Canadian who is married to a Dane and works as a lecturer at the IT University of Copenhagen. She applied for Danish citizenship 1,122 days before DR’s report, and was told around New Year that she met all the conditions.
Why the applications are on hold
Citizenship decisions are paused until the spring, when politicians expect a new law designed to filter out applicants with anti-democratic views. Applicants who were included in a bill in January can still expect to become citizens. Ens is not among them, and must wait to be screened under rules that do not yet exist.
Alternativet and Enhedslisten are pressing for the promises made to the 487 applicants to be honored before the screening model is in place. De Radikale and Moderaterne argue that the parties must accept there is no majority for the citizenship law in its current form, which means those who were promised a Danish passport have to wait. As noted by DR, Moderaterne’s naturalization spokesperson, Mohammed Rona, does not consider the outcome reasonable.
Per DR, the immigration and integration minister, Morten Bødskov, was called to a parliamentary consultation about the group on October 28. A separate DR report contrasts the 487 with 2,055 people the government proposed in October to approve, even though the screening model is not yet operating.
Ten years of temporary permits before permanent residence
Ens told DR that the process has been very hard. For her first ten years in Denmark she held temporary residence and had the permit renewed repeatedly. Under the Aliens Act, she could be asked to leave the country within 15 days if a permit was not renewed.
That insecurity made her hesitant to buy a house or have children, she said, because separation from her husband or his death could have cost her the right to stay. The rules also pushed her to work without interruption as an academic, which is difficult in research, where many posts are project-based. Insufficient employment would have blocked an application for permanent residence.
She was granted permanent residence in 2022. She now has a three-year-old daughter, is pregnant again, and has secured a permanent lectureship. As stated by Ens, the issue is both security and having the same rights as everyone else.
What the citizenship pause means for foreign residents
In Denmark, citizenship is not granted by an agency but by the Folketinget, which must include each named applicant in a naturalization bill before it takes effect. A message in e-Boks, the official digital mailbox used by Danish authorities, confirming that an applicant meets the conditions is therefore not the same as a final decision. As DR’s reporting shows, applicants can meet every requirement and still be left out of a bill.
For internationals following immigration rules, the practical difference matters: permanent residence secures the right to stay, while citizenship adds voting rights in general elections and a Danish passport. What is not yet known is when the screening law will be adopted, how the screening will work, or whether the 487 applicants will be approved before it applies. Proposals to tighten citizenship further, including a 10-year probation rule, have been part of the wider political debate.
