In a massive blow to applicants for Danish citizenship, it has now been confirmed that the process for establishing new naturalisation rules has been delayed.
In March this year, the Ministry of Immigration and Integration announced it would freeze citizenship applications, with narrow exceptions, until a new political agreement was reached on naturalisation.
Many parties are hoping to introduce a screening model that would ensure new citizens don’t hold undemocratic views.
Now, the expert group that was due to present findings that would be used for political negotiations has announced it will not finish its work by the original deadline.
Expert group established
The expert group, which is led by Henrik Thomassen, Vice Director of the Danish Immigration Service, was established in 2025 to consider the screening of applicants’ views on democratic questions.
This followed a tumultuous period in 2024, when the Naturalisation Committee called three applicants in for extraordinary hearings because of social media posts they had made that raised concerns.
Questions were asked about the legality of these procedures, leading to the establishment of the expert group.
The findings of the group are expected to serve as the foundation for political negotiations in the Folketing, the Danish Parliament, to see what new measures can be introduced.
Extended deadline
The expert group was due to deliver its findings at the end of 2026. However, these plans have now changed.
In a press release, Thomassen said, “Due to the scope and complexity of the work, we will not be able to deliver our recommendations around the turn of the year. I expect instead that we will complete our work in mid-March next year.”
Impact on applicants
As the citizenship process is frozen until a new agreement is made, applicants can likely expect to wait even longer for their cases to be taken up again.
This is expected to impact roughly 17,000 applicants who are waiting for their cases to be moved forward.
It is still possible to apply and to sit the necessary tests; however, it is entirely unknown how long applicants can expect to wait before they finish the process.
The political agreement that will be reached following the expert group’s report could also see the goalposts moved, meaning some applicants could have their applications rejected due to changing requirements.
No change for 2,055 applicants
In Denmark, naturalisation cases have to be voted through by the Folketing, which normally happens in twice-yearly bills pooling thousands of applicants at once.
The 2,055 applicants who appeared on the naturalisation bill that was introduced in January 2026, known as L98, will not be impacted.
L98 lapsed when the general election was called, but the government has promised to reintroduce it following checks on all the applicants who appeared on the list.
However, the bill does face challenges following revelations that one of the applicants on the list had previously praised leaders of Hamas on social media, and another had shared a post supporting the murder of blasphemers.
