Danish passports are issued to citizens of the

Kingdom of Denmark The Danish Realm ( da, Danmarks Rige; fo, Danmarkar Ríki; kl, Danmarkip Naalagaaffik), officially the Kingdom of Denmark (; ; ), is a sovereign state located in Northern Europe and Northern North America. It consists of metropolitan Denma ...

to facilitate international travel. Besides serving as proof of

Danish citizenship Danish nationality law is governed by the Constitutional Act of the Realm of Denmark (of 1953) and the Consolidated Act of Danish Nationality (of 2003, with amendment in 2004). Danish nationality can be acquired in one of the following ways: * ...

, they facilitate the process of securing assistance from Danish consular officials abroad (or other EU consulates or Nordic missionsArticle 34 of the Helsinky Treaty
Article 34 p. 8
in case a Danish consular official is absent). Different versions exist for nationals of Denmark,

Greenland Greenland ( kl, Kalaallit Nunaat, ; da, Grønland, ) is an island country in North America that is part of the Kingdom of Denmark. It is located between the Arctic and Atlantic oceans, east of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. Greenland ...

, and the

Faroe Islands The Faroe Islands ( ), or simply the Faroes ( fo, Føroyar ; da, Færøerne ), are a North Atlantic island group and an autonomous territory of the Kingdom of Denmark. They are located north-northwest of Scotland, and about halfway bet ...

although they do not indicate a different nationality, with all holders being Danish citizens. Danish nationals residing in Greenland can choose between the Danish—EU passport and the sub-national Danish-—Greenlandic passport. Every Danish citizen (except for nationals residing in the Faroe Islands) is also a

citizen of the European Union European Union citizenship is afforded to all citizens of member states of the European Union (EU). It was formally created with the adoption of the 1992 Maastricht Treaty, at the same time as the creation of the EU. EU citizenship is additio ...

. The passport entitles its bearer to

freedom of movement Freedom of movement, mobility rights, or the right to travel is a human rights concept encompassing the right of individuals to travel from place to place within the territory of a country,Jérémiee Gilbert, ''Nomadic Peoples and Human Rights ...

in the

European Economic Area The European Economic Area (EEA) was established via the ''Agreement on the European Economic Area'', an international agreement which enables the extension of the European Union's single market to member states of the European Free Trade As ...

and

Switzerland ). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...

. For travel within the

Nordic countries The Nordic countries (also known as the Nordics or ''Norden''; lit. 'the North') are a geographical and cultural region in Northern Europe and the North Atlantic. It includes the sovereign states of Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sw ...

no identity documentation is legally required for Nordic citizens due to the Nordic Passport Union. According to the April 2021

Visa Restrictions Index The Henley Passport Index (abbreviation: HPI) is a global ranking of countries according to the travel freedom enjoyed by the holders of that country's ordinary passport for its citizens. It started in 2006 as Henley & Partners Visa Restrictio ...

, Danish citizens can visit 189 countries without a visa or with a visa granted on arrival.

Physical appearance

The Danish and Greenlandic versions of the passport have burgundy colour covers, according to the

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational union, supranational political union, political and economic union of Member state of the European Union, member states that are located primarily in Europe, Europe. The union has a total area of ...

's recommendations, while the Faroese-Danish version is green. All contain the

National Coat of arms of Denmark The coat of arms of Denmark ( da, Danmarks rigsvåben) has a lesser and a greater version. The state coat of arms () consists of three pale blue lions passant wearing crowns, accompanied by nine red lilypads (normally represented as heraldic ...

emblazoned in the centre of the front cover, with the word ''DANMARK'' (''Denmark'') above it, and the word PAS (''Passport'') below. Since 1 August 2006, biometric passports are issued. Above the word ''DANMARK'', the Danish version contains the words ''DEN EUROPÆISKE UNION'' (''European Union'') (as all other EU passports), while in the Greenlandic and Faroese versions the text ''KALAALLIT NUNAAT'' (''Greenland'') or ''FØROYAR'' (''Faroe Islands'') is written. Fields on the bearer's page are in Danish, English, and French, with translations in the official

languages of the European Union The European Union (EU) has 24 official languages, of which threeEnglish, French and Germanhave the higher status of "procedural" languages of the European Commission (whereas the European Parliament accepts all official languages as working l ...

elsewhere in the document. Instead of French, Faroese or Greenlandic are used in the Faroese and Greenlandic versions respectively. The page contains the following information: * Photo of the passport holder * Type (P) * Passport No. * Surname * Given names * Sex * Nationality ( da, Dansk, ''Danish'', french: link=no, Danoise) ** In a Faroe passport the following: Dansk/Danskur/Danish-Færøsk/Føroyskur/Faroese ** In the Greenlandic passport the first page is in Greenlandic, Danish, and English, and the text on pages 1 and 2 are not in so many different languages, as in the Danish * Height * Date of Birth * Personal Code Number * Place of Birth * Date of issue/expiry (validity is 10 years from date of issue for adults and 5 years for children) * Authority (usually the municipality in which the holder resides) * Holder's signature Passports contain a machine readable strip starting with P>DNK for all types.

Different spellings of the same name

Names containing letters not used in English (æ, ø, å) are spelled the correct way in the non-machine-readable zone, but are mapped in the machine-readable zone, æ becoming AE, ø becoming OE, and å becoming AA. This follows the international

machine-readable passport A machine-readable passport (MRP) is a machine-readable travel document (MRTD) with the data on the identity page encoded in optical character recognition format. Many countries began to issue machine-readable travel documents in the 1980s. Mos ...

standard.
For example, Gråbøl → GRAABOEL.

Types

Besides the ordinary passport (with PAS on the cover), also 3 versions of blue

service passport A passport is an official travel document issued by a government that contains a person's identity. A person with a passport can travel to and from foreign countries more easily and access consular assistance. A passport certifies the personal ...

s (TJENESTEPAS) and a single red

diplomatic passport A passport is an official travel document issued by a government that contains a person's identity. A person with a passport can travel to and from foreign countries more easily and access consular assistance. A passport certifies the personal ...

(DIPLOMATPAS) are issued. The latter does not bear the text ''DEN EUROPÆISKE UNION'', ''KALAALLIT NUNAAT'' nor ''FØROYAR''.

Visa requirements

As of 21 September 2022, Danish citizens had visa-free or visa on arrival access to 188 countries and territories, thus ranking the Danish passport fifth in the world (tied with the passports of

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

the Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

, and

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Kingdom of SwedenUNGEGN World Geographical Names, Sweden./ref> is a Nordic countries, Nordic c ...

) according to the

Henley Passport Index The Henley Passport Index ( abbreviation: HPI) is a global ranking of countries according to the travel freedom enjoyed by the holders of that country's ordinary passport for its citizens. It started in 2006 as Henley & Partners Visa Restricti ...

. According to the

World Tourism Organization The World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) is the United Nations specialized agency entrusted with the promotion of responsible, sustainable and universally accessible tourism. Its headquarters are in Madrid, Spain. UNWTO is the leading inter ...

2016 report, the Danish passport is first in the world (tied with Finland, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg, Singapore, and the United Kingdom) in terms of travel freedom, with the mobility index of 160 (out of 215 with no visa weighted by 1, visa on arrival weighted by 0.7, eVisa by 0.5 and traditional visa weighted by 0). As a member state of the European Union, Danish citizens enjoy

within the

(EEA). The Citizens’ Rights Directive defines the right of free movement for citizens of the EEA. Through bilateral agreements freedom of movement is extended to Switzerland, and all EU and

EFTA The European Free Trade Association (EFTA) is a regional trade organization and free trade area consisting of four European states: Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland. The organization operates in parallel with the European U ...

nationals are not only visa-exempt but are legally entitled to enter and reside in each other's countries.

Controversy

In 2010, an atheist Danish citizen filed a complaint to the Danish Ministry of Justice, due to the passport's inclusion of a picture of the

crucifixion of Jesus The crucifixion and death of Jesus occurred in 1st-century Judea, most likely in AD 30 or AD 33. It is described in the four canonical gospels, referred to in the New Testament epistles, attested to by other ancient sources, and consider ...

as shown on the

Jelling Stones The Jelling stones ( da, Jellingstenene) are massive carved runestones from the 10th century, found at the town of Jelling in Denmark. The older of the two Jelling stones was raised by King Gorm the Old in memory of his wife Thyra. The large ...

, arguing that passports should be free of religious symbols. This argument was rejected by leading Danish politicians, arguing that Christianity is a part of Denmark's cultural history, and Christianity was not depicted exclusively, since the passport also includes an image of a dragon motif, likewise taken from the largest Jelling Stone. The passport design including images from the Jelling Stones was introduced in 1997, when the current red design was introduced. Previous Danish passports had been green or beige.

Lack of national identity card

EU rules allow any citizen of a member country to travel anywhere in the EU without a passport, if they have a

national identity card National may refer to: Common uses * Nation or country ** Nationality – a ''national'' is a person who is subject to a nation, regardless of whether the person has full rights as a citizen Places in the United States * National, Maryland, c ...

stating citizenship and some other standardised information. Denmark and Ireland are the only EU countries that do not issue national identity cards; however, Ireland issues passport cards which are treated by law as ID cards by some EU countries. Therefore, Denmark is the only country in the EU whose citizens cannot travel to other nations with ID cards or equivalents. There has been some political support for introducing such cards since the EU rule was introduced, but this has not yet become a reality.Flertal for nationalt ID-kort
(b.dk 2004)

External links

European Community Passport (1989 — 1999)
Description and images.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Danish Passport

Denmark ) , song = ( en, "King Christian stood by the lofty mast") , song_type = National and royal anthem , image_map = EU-Denmark.svg , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of Denmark , establish ...

European Union passports