In March 2026, the Ministry of Immigration and Integration announced that it would freeze all applications for citizenship and naturalisation in Denmark.
The announcement followed several years of discourse, a dramatic trio of hearings, and the calling of an early election.
At the same time, it signals a long process ahead: an expert group making deliberations, political negotiations, and then the likely establishment of a new naturalisation regime.
This article will take the reader through how Denmark ended up here and what internationals can expect in the coming years.
‘Undemocratic views’
The current freeze traces its roots to 2024, when a proposed naturalisation bill garnered significant attention. In Denmark, all naturalisations have to be voted through by Folketinget, so this happens through laws in which thousands of cases are pooled together.
In the 2024 bill, three applicants were found to have shared ‘undemocratic views’ on social media.
This was flagged by an anonymous citizen and raised by the Danish People’s Party (Dansk Folkeparti) naturalisation spokesperson and Chairman of the Naturalisation Committee, Mikkel Bjørn.
A majority on the committee, made up of the whole of the blue bloc of parties to the right of centre plus the Social Democrats (Socialdemokratiet), decided to hold hearings of the three applicants.
The hearings were highly dramatic and saw the applicants questioned on their views of liberal issues and democracy.
Despite the pushback of the Danish People’s Party, the Denmark Democrats (Danmarksdemokraterne), and the Conservative People’s Party (Det Konservative Folkeparti), the three applicants, plus the many uncontroversial applicants on the bill, were eventually voted through.
However, legal experts raised concerns that these sorts of hearings may not have been fully legal. At the same time, a majority in Folketinget emerged in support of increased screening of applicants.
An expert group
Then-Minister of Immigration and Integration Kaare Dybvad Bek of the Social Democrats announced in September 2025 that the Ministry would establish an expert group to look into the legalities and possibilities of screening processes.
This group is due to report on its findings by the end of the calendar year 2026.
It is made up of five experts: Deputy Director of the Immigration Service Henrik Thomassen, Director of the think tank Justitia Birgitte Arent Eiriksson, history PhD Jens Lei Wendel-Hansen, professor of economics Andreas Bjerre Nielsen, and professor of leadership and economics Anders Kristian Munk.
The naturalisation process would continue as before throughout this period, though it did slow significantly through 2025.
In January 2026, the government presented bill L98, which would see 2,055 applicants who fulfilled all requirements naturalised. This was due to be voted on in the spring of this year.
Early election upends everythingIn February 2026, Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen of the Social Democrats called an early election for the end of March. This automatically tosses out all planned legislation, in this case also L98.
This led the Ministry of Immigration and Integration to announce that the whole application process would be frozen until a new government was formed and a new agreement was reached on naturalisation.
This means that L98 will not be reintroduced, and other applications will not be moved forward, until the expert group finishes its evaluations and politicians find a majority behind a plan for naturalisation.
With a strong majority of parliament supporting this timeline (the blue parties plus the Social Democrats), parties of the left are unable to change it.
What happens now?
Some 19,000 citizenship applications are currently in the system at various stages. This includes the 2,055 applicants who had been approved and saw their names on L98.
It is now uncertain when any of these applicants can expect to be naturalised. However, it seems unlikely that this will happen this side of the new year.
First, the expert group will have to deliver its verdicts. Then negotiations for a new process can take a long time, and applications will need to be re-evaluated based on potential new circumstances.
Some parties, including three of the four governing parties, have floated reintroducing L98 in the meantime, but this has been shut down by Mette Frederiksen, who allegedly rolled her eyes at a colleague proposing this to her behind closed doors.
In an interview with The Danish Dispatch, Deputy Chairman of the Naturalisation Committee Peder Hvelplund of the Red-Green Alliance (Enhedslisten), an opponent of additional screening, suggested there was a risk of no new citizenships being granted in 2027.