Application and Assesment of Qualifications

To have your foreign education assessed, you must submit an application to the Danish Patient Safety Authority and include the necessary documentation.

The 6-year rule 

If you completed your basic education as an occupational therapist more than 6 years prior to the receipt of a fully documented application at the Danish Patient Safety Authority, it will be rejected, unless you can submit a document proving professional experience as an occupational therapist corresponding to at least 12 months of fulltime employment within the last 6 years preceding your application. If, after an individual assessment, we believe that you have kept your professional qualifications up-to-date in your field and maintained your skills by working in the health or care sector within the last 6 years, we can grant you an exemption from the 6-year rule.

How to Apply

To have your foreign education assessed, you need to:

  • Submit your application and the necessary documentation via the application form and pay the fee.
  • Fulfill all documentation requirements. We will only process your application once we have received all the documents from you.

Application fee

A fee of DKK 1.295,- must be paid when applying for Danish authorization. You will be asked to pay the fee when filling out the application form.

In order to be able to work in Denmark as an occupational therapist, you must have obtained Danish authorization. The title is protected and you may only use the designation occupational therapist, if Danish authorization has been issued to you.

Special information about clinical hours

If your foreign education is equivalent to the corresponding Danish basic education in content, levels and duration - except for lack of clinical teaching hours - we can take this into account in the duration of the employment for adaptation and training purposes which you must complete in the authorisation process. This means that you will have to compensate for the missing hours in connection with the mentioned employment.

Please note

Not everyone succeeds in finding an employment for adaptation and training purposes, which is the last requirement in the process for obtaining Danish authorization. The number of advertised positions depends, among other things, on the capacity and needs of the regions and municipalities. Your opportunity to obtain an employment for adaptation and training purposes also dependents on your language skills, as your employer must ensure that you have sufficient level of Danish language and communication skills to be able to carry out the specific work function that is in the position.

If you already have residence and work permit in Denmark, it may therefore be a good idea to increase your knowledge of the Danish language and labor market by taking a job in the health sector that does not require an authorization, e.g. as an caregiver in a nursing home. You can find information about vacant positions at workindenmark.dk

Required Documentation

In order for us to process your application for Danish authorization, you must meet all documentary requirements. Here you can see what attachments you must upload when you apply.

When you have sent your application including your uploaded documents to us, you will soon after receive a message that you must send some of your documents by post to us.

Note: If you applied before 1 July 2024 and therefore did not upload the necessary documentation with your application, you must send all the necessary documentation to us now by post or as attachments in an email.

In order for us to process your application, you have to upload the following documents, when you fill out the application form:

  1. Proof of your identity which must be relevant pages from your passport showing your passport number/ID-number, name, date of birth, citizenship, your photo and your signature. Your information must match the information you have entered in your application. Please note this is not relevant if you have Danish MitID.

  2. Name change certificate, if applicable. Documentation of your name if you have changed your name after you have completed your education (e.g. name change certificate or marriage certificate). Please note this is not relevant if you have Danish MitID.

  3. Curriculum vitae (CV) that lists your qualifications and work experience in chronological order.

  4. Your Final Diploma

  5. Final School Transcript of Study Program (Detailed description from your educational institution of the content of your education). The documentation must include the following information:

    a. Your name

    b. Name of the educational institution

    c. Start and end date of the basic education

    d. Duration of the basic education

    e. Information of the theoretical subjects: The number of teaching hours/credits for each theoretical subject

    f.  Information of the clinical subjects: The number of teaching hours/credits for each clinical subject

    g. Number of weeks per semester

    If the scope of the courses is only stated in credits, the educational institution must provide information on how many theoretical and clinical teaching hours one credit corresponds to.

  6. If you have completed your basis education more than 6 years prior your application for Danish authorization, we need documentation of work experience corresponding to at least 12 months of fulltime employment within your profession and within the last 6 years preceding your application. The documentation must also confirm detailed information of your daily professional tasks including tasks with patient contact.

  7. Supplementary documentation or additional information, if any, that is pertinent to the assessing of your formal qualifications.

  8. You must submit a power of attorney, if another person is handling your application. Use power of attorney

Your documentation must be uploaded in colour and good quality, and the documents have to be fully visible and readable.

You must upload all documentation in the original language. If your documents are not in English, Norwegian or Swedish, you must also upload a translation into Danish, English, Norwegian or Swedish in same file.
Translations must be completed by one of the following:

  • The university or authority that issued the document
  • A certified translator.

The translator's name and stamp must be clearly visible on the translation. If the logo/stamp(s) is not in Danish or English, it should be translated by the translator. 

Please note that the translated version of your documentation must be uploaded in the same file as the original document.

You must submit a power of attorney, if another person is handling your application.

Use power of attorney

Some of the documentation you have uploaded in connection with your application must subsequently be sent to us by post. We will send you a message about what needs to be sent, but you can also see it here if you want to prepare:

  •  Your Final Diploma
  • Final School Transcript of Study Program

If you send copies instead of the original documents, they must meet the following requirements:

  • Each copy must be certified by either an embassy, consulate, notary public, the police, or the issuing authority. Certified copies cannot be made by private individuals or employees of e.g. employment agencies.
  • Each copy must have a stamp and signature confirming in English or Danish that it is a true copy of the original document
  • The authority and signatory must be easily identifiable

You must further ensure that we receive the following documentation by post from your educational institution and from the competent health authority:

Your educational institution must issue:

  • Certificate of confirmation of degree in a sealed envelope. The name, address and logo/stamp(s) of the institution must clearly appear on the envelope. The certificate must contain information of your name (written with Latin letters), date of birth and when you started and finished your education.

    You may also choose to send the form Request for confirmation of degree to your institution and ask them to fill it out: You find the form here

The competent authorities in your most recent country of work or residence must issue:

  • A certificate of your professional status (Certificate of Current Professional Status/Certificate of good standing) in a sealed envelope. The name, address and logo/stamp(s) of the competent health authority must clearly appear on the envelope. The certificate must be no more than 3 months old when all necessary documentation has been received from you. The certificate must confirm your legal entitlement to practice your profession, affirming that you have not been involved in any misconduct or deemed unfit to practice, and that no cautions or conditions have been applied to your registration.

    You may also choose to send the form Validation of Registration to the competent health authority and ask them to fill it out: You find the form here

Certificate of non-registration

If you have not yet registered within your profession and therefore cannot provide a certificate of good standing, you must instead provide a certificate of non-registration in a sealed envelope. The name, address and logo/stamp(s) of the institution must clearly appear on the envelope. Please find further information here

You may send the certificates by post yourself

You or someone else may send the above-mentioned certificates to us, provided that each certificate is in its own sealed envelope. You must ensure that the name, address and logo/stamp(s) of the authority in question must clearly appear on the envelope, otherwise we will not accept the certificate. Please do not break the seal.

 

Assessment Process 

Once we receive your application and documentation, you will receive a confirmation email (please check your junk email folder, as our emails sometimes end up there). The assessment process may take up to 6 months from the date when the Danish Patient Safety Authority receives all the required documentation. During this time, we will determine whether your application is complete or if additional documentation is needed. If you provide additional documentation, you will not receive a confirmation.

We will conduct an individual assessment of your qualifications to determine whether your education is equivalent to the Dansih basic education. Additional documentation regarding your study program may be requested.

We assess whether you have achieved an overall level of education abroad which is equivalent to the Danish primary education or whether you only lack clinical teaching hours in order for your education to be assessed equal to the Danish education. In case that your education lacks clinical teaching hours this must be compensated for in the authorization process that you must complete to obtain Danish authorization.

If we require additional documentation, we will notify you by email or digital post (e.g., e-Boks, the Danish online digital mailbox, if you have a Danish CPR number). Alternatively, we will send you a letter containing your documentation to the address you have specified in the application form via post.

If your formal qualifications are approved, the letter will provide information on the requirements for obtaining Danish authorization. Please note, that this letter does not serve as your authorization.

Please inform us immediately if there is any change in your address. If you reside abroad, please ensure that you have provided your full address in the application form and that you are able to receive letters by post, as we do not utilize courier services.

Three-Year deadline

Once we have finished our assessment of your foreign education and found it is equivalent to the corresponding Danish basic education, you must within three years have completed the requirement in the application process, and document this to us.

You may be granted an exemption from the three-year deadline if you:

  • Reside in Denmark AND
  • Only need to complete an employment for adaptation and training purposes at the time when the deadline has expired AND
  • Can document that you have either started or have been offered an employment for adaptation and training purposes.

You can also apply for an exemption from the three-year deadline if you:

  • Have been on maternity leave or that you have been absent for a continuous period of at least 3 months during the authorisation process due to serious health conditions or similar circumstances AND
  • Can document this with a medical certificate or other similar description signed by either your medical doctor, the hospital that treated you or another relevant healthcare professional.

Please note that if your absence is due to being unable to travel to Denmark, this is generally not considered a valid reason for extending the deadline.

Application processing time

We process applications in the order in which they are received.

Currently, we are processing applications received by post in October 2024. An assessment of an application begins when the fee is paid.

We expect your application to be processed within approx. 7 months from receipt of your application. The subsequent processing time depends on whether we have received all the documents needed to process your application. You should also expect the relevant educational institution that helps us assess your education to have a processing time of approx. 4 weeks.

We prioritize those applicants who are closest to being able to contribute to the Danish healthcare system. This applies to all applications from healthcare professionals from countries outside the EU/EEA or Switzerland where we are aware that the applicant has a Danish CPR number and active residence in Denmark. The same applies if you are covered by the special process for specifically requested healthcare professionals.

If the applicant meets these conditions, we expect to process the application within a few working days after the applicant has submitted an application including the necessary documentation.

If you already are registered in our system with a CPR number and live in Denmark, you do not have to contact us. We will automatically prioritize your application when you have submitted an application including the necessary documentation.

If you have a CPR number, but have not yet informed us of this, please contact us by phone +45 72 28 66 00 or send by secure email.

Please note that we cannot address questions related to Danish CPR numbers. For more information, visit: LifeinDenmark.dk