Prior going to Denmark to look for employment you should contact your local Health Board to obtain form E128 or the Blue European Health Card. This entitles you to emergency medical treatment, until such a time that you are covered by Danish health insurance, e.g. when you start working/paying tax.
Danish Social/Health Insurance is administered by Social- og Sundhedsforvaltningen (equivalent to the Irish local Health Board) in each municipality.
Your tax matters are dealt with by the local tax office (Skatteforvaltningen). It is important to know that you only qualify for one year's tax free allowance if you stay in Denmark for an entire year. If you stay for a shorter time than a year, you will qualify for only a proportion of a year's tax free allowance. Information about tax rates and more can be found at the homepage of the Danish Ministry of Taxation.After arriving in Denmark you must register with the local National Register (Folkeregistret). Here you will be allocated a personal identity number (personnummer). This number will be used in all tax/social-welfare matters etc. Finding employmentIn spite of a strong economy, Denmark does not go unaffected by the financial crisis and its negative effect on the employment situation. Unemployment is increasing within a range of job categories – though seen from an international perspective, it happens from a very low baseline.
The general labour shortage that has characterized the Danish labour market during the past years is replaced by a situation with fewer vacant jobs. The need to recruit labour from outside Denmark is therefore drastically reduced.However, there are still areas where Denmark will need labour from abroad – especially highly skilled labourers and within the health sector. In order to keep updated on the current development in the job sector in Denmark it is recommended to seek additional information on the subject on the work in Denmark-webpage. Seen from a slightly longer-term perspective, when the state of the market again takes a positive turn, and as a result of the demographic development in Denmark, it can be expected that Denmark will once again be in a situation where there will be a demand for labour from abroad within a range of job categories.
Remember that Irish citizens are allowed to stay in Denmark for 3 months without working. If you intend to stay more than 3 months you need to contact the Danish Statsamt to get a residence permit. Being an EU-citizen allows you to go look for a job without having a residence permit, but it does not automatically entitle you to live in Denmark.The website www.workindenmark.dk is aimed to connect international job seekers with Danish companies and offers you the opportunity to place your CV online plus looking for a job in the job database.Work can be found by contacting the local jobcenter. The jobcentres are the local public employment service centres. There are several private employment service centres, which can be found on the local yellow pages.
Work may also be found through FÁS's EURES or any local FÁS Employment Services Offices. Contact information on the FÁS' head office in Dublin:
FÁSEuropean Employment Services (EURES) Section27-33 Upper Baggot StreetDublin 4 Tel.: +353 (0) 1 607 0500Website: www.fas.ie
Further useful addressesEmbassy of IrelandØstbanegade 212100 Copenhagen ØDenmarkTel. +45 3542 3233Fax +45 3543 1858E-mail: irlemb@email.dkWebsite: www.embassyofireland.dkThe Danish Irish SocietySpaniensgade 2, 2.2300 CopenhagenDenmarkEmail: info@danskirsk.dkWebsite: www.danskirsk.dk
