Danish nationality law

The primary law governing nationality of Denmark is the Danish Citizenship Act (Danish: Lov om dansk indfødsret), which came into force on 27 May 1950. Regulations apply to the entire Danish Realm, which includes the country of Denmark itself, the Faroe Islands, and Greenland.

Denmark is a member state of the European Union (EU), and all Danish nationals are EU citizens. They are entitled to free movement rights in EU and European Free Trade Association (EFTA) countries, and may vote in elections to the European Parliament.

Danish nationality can be acquired in one of the following ways:

• Automatically at birth if either parent is a Danish citizen, regardless of birthplace, if the child was born on or after 1 July 2014.
• Automatically if a person is adopted as a child under 12 years of age
• By declaration for natural-born nationals of another Nordic country who have resided in Denmark for at least 7 years
• By naturalisation, via the Folketing passing a law declaring a person to be a Citizen (which is the only legal way to naturalise a foreigner according to Article 44 of the Constitution)

In December 2018, the law on Danish citizenship was changed so that a handshake was mandatory during the ceremony. The regulation was made in an attempt to target members of the Islamist group Hizb ut-Tahrir from receiving Danish citizenship, since many of them refuse to shake hands with individuals of the opposite sex.