Identity or close link between companies?
Accompanying family members with a residence permit linked to a person with a residence permit under one of the following schemes must apply for a work permit if they wish to work at the same company as their sponsor, or at a company closely related to the company that the sponsor works for:
- The pay limit track, the educational track and the short-term track of the Fast Track Scheme
- The Pay Limit Scheme
- The Positive List for People with a Higher Education
- The Positive List for Skilled Work
- Trainees
- Special individual qualifications
- Employees on drilling vessels or the like
- Herdsmen and farm managers
- Labour market attachment
- Change of job within the same industry which formed the grounds for the original residence permit due to labour market attachment
In this context, you work for the same company when you are employed under the same CVR-number. The CVR is the Danish state’s master register of information about businesses. All Danish companies must be registered with a CVR number.
Whether a company is closely linked to another company will be decided on a case by case basis where the merits of each individual situation will be assessed.
The term “closely linked” is to be understood in a wide sense and can cover a multitude of constructions.
It can indicate a close link if the foreign worker and the accompanying family member are employed under different CVR-numbers, but
- share the same physical workplace or,
- share the same group of owners and/or
- share the same board of managers or
- a specific evaluation concludes that a close link is considered by SIRI to be present between the place of employment of the sponsor and the family member.
A person owns a company if the said person is the legal or actual owner of the company.
A legal owner can be legal or an actual person. Legal owners are persons or companies with voting rights or investments in a company.
An actual owner is that or those actual person(s) who owns or controls a company by direct or indirect ownership of a sufficient part of the equity interest or voting rights, or who by other means controls the company.
A specific assessment by SIRI may find that there is a close link between the companies if for example:
- The legal or actual owner of the company where the sponsor works, previously has owned or run the company where the accompanying family member is offered employment.
- The board of directors of the company where the sponsor works, previously has owned or been managing the company where the accompanying family member is offered employment.
- If the owner or management of the company where the accompanying family member works, previously has owned or managed the company where the sponsor is employed.
Please note that in general it is only when identity in ownership/management is recent, that the identity will speak in favour of there being a close link between the two companies.
Identity in the line of trade can also speak in favour of a link between two companies with separate CVR numbers.
Please note that if you, as an accompanying family member or prospective employer, is in doubt whether SIRI will find that two entities is part of the same company or two companies are so closely linked that a work permit is needed, please write to us for guidance. You can write to us via our contact form.
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