The Association has received the following letter from the Danish Consulate General:

The Embassy in Canberra along with the Consulate General in Sydney would like your help in spreading the word about an issue that could affect Danish-Australian couples who had children before 1 September 2015. If the children were born outside Australia and acquired Australian citizenship by descent before 1 September 2015, there is a risk that the Danish citizenship was lost when Australian citizenship was acquired by descent. Therefore, we cannot issue Danish passports to these individuals, until their case has been tried with the Danish Nationality Division under the Ministry of Immigration and Integration.

We have published a page on our website with information about this issue. In English: http://australien.um.dk/en/travel-and-residence/documents-and-fees/danish-citizenship and in Danish: http://australien.um.dk/da/rejse-og-ophold/dokumenter-og-gebyrer/dansk-statsborgerskab.

In cooperation with the Australian Department of Immigration and Border Protection and the Danish Nationality Division, we have described the legal aspects of the issue as well as the process that the affected individuals have to follow before a new Danish passport can be issued.

The process the affected individuals have to go through will probably take around 1-1½ years in total before the Nationality Division has made a decision. Should the Nationality Division find that the Danish citizenship was lost, the individual can then – and only then – reacquire Danish citizenship by declaration towards the State Administration. This is the very last possible step of the process. As you may be aware from when the new law on dual citizenship was introduced on 1 September 2015, the option of reacquiring Danish citizenship by declaration, if it had been lost prior to 1 September 2015 due to the individual acquiring a foreign citizenship, is only possible for a five year period until 31 August 2020. Therefore, it is important that this information reaches as many of the affected individuals as possible before this window closes. Since the process can take up to 18 months in total, suddenly 2020 isn’t far away and that is why we need your help in spreading the word to all the Danes in your network.

If you have any questions regarding the above or the information on our website, please do not hesitate to contact us.

With kind regards

GITTE JOHANSSON / SYDGKL@UM.DK
CONSULAR OFFICER / SYDNEY
THE DANISH CONSULATE GENERAL, SYDNEY
LEVEL 33, 1 O’CONNELL STREET / SYDNEY N.S.W. 2000
TEL: +61 (2) 9247 2224 / FAX: +61 2 9251 7504
WEB: AUSTRALIA.UM.DK