Job plan to secure qualified foreign labour

The government will institute a new work visa and green card system based on the Canadian model to attract well-educated foreign workers to the country

A new 10-point job plan to be presented by the government today will address the country’s acute labour shortage by easing the requirements for highly-educated foreigners to work in Denmark.

The plan will be based on the Canadian immigration model, which gives automatic work and residence permits for highly qualified individuals hired by companies in Denmark. The current law requires those same persons to have fulfilled an 80-point proviso to receive a ‘job card’, including the requirement that the job must pay at least DKK 450,000 (EUR 60,000) per year.

That salary requirement will be lowered to DKK 375,000 in the new plan, and several new job positions will be added to the government’s ‘positive list’, which gives certain exceptions to the rules governing the issuance of work and residence permits.

The Confederation of Danish Industries (DI), which had pushed for the changes, believes the new ordinance will result in 70,000 new jobs - 10,000 of those from the work visa changes alone.

‘We have previously had difficulties getting these proposals accepted,’ said Hans Skov Christensen, DI’s director general. ‘This plan will make Denmark a globalised nation and means we can now keep many of our corporate headquarters here in the country.’

In addition to the changes initiated by the new plan, the government announced it would also be renewing income tax incentives for professional foreign workers.