Hello - I'm a US citizen who is thinking of moving to Denmark. I had a few questions and would be happy if anyone could answer some of them. 1) Currently, what's the average rent price for a one room apartment or studio apartment relatively close to, but not in, Copenhagen? 2) Is it particularly difficult to obtain a working visa? 3) If I work as a freelance writer and translator, would I be able to work all right? 4) If I were to work as an English teacher in Denmark: What qualifications would be needed? Would I be able to find work easily? What would be my monthly salary? 5) How bad are taxes? 6) Is it troublesome to acquire health care? I'd be glad for an answer to any one of these questions. Thank you! Also, I live in New York City, so what might be considered expensive to midwesterners might seem totally normal to me.
Denmark - 4 Answers
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1 :
I can answer a couple and I'm afraid then the others wouldn't then apply For an non-EU citizien this is becoming impossibly difficult to get a job in the EU anyway. To obtain this, you must have a job offer from an employer, and this employer will have to obtain a work permit on your behalf. This exercise is (a) costly (b) takes time - can be up to 6 months and (c) difficult - the employer must prove that the job has been advertised for at least 6 weeks and also credible reasons why it cannot be fulfilled by another EU member citizen. Taking into consideration the recession which is biting hard, then this option is nigh impossible for someone without very specalist skils/experience (who could therefore also apply for the highly skilled migrant tier) - working as a general worker in the catering industry will not get you this permit as there are hundreds of thousands of people within the EU who could fulful the vacancy and no employer would try to prove otherwise. I answered a question from a fellow American and this gives a lot more details on how difficult it is (granted this is for the Netherlands, but the general principles apply throughout the EU) and you can read more here if this helps http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=AoNhS_x5OwfyI.GZJm2WjL_ty6IX;_ylv=3?qid=20081029005645AAYhd63 Concerning being an English teacher, I am afraid that this would not be considered a specialist job as of course Europe has native speakers in the UK & Ireland. Also Danes generally have a very high level of English and (same as here in the Netherlands) foreign language teachers are not necessarily native speakers. Indeed very few are. You would not be able to work as a freelance writer for sure and a translator would require you to speak Danish to a very high level with qualifications I realise that it looks like I am being very negative, but unfortunately (same as in the US), in the last 10 years there have been massive movements of immigrants into the EU and as a result, immigration policies have been substantially tightened as a result For official info you can read the info on the Danish immigration dept site http://www.nyidanmark.dk/en-us/coming_to_dk/work/work.htm. It is a really good site actually answering all questions very clearly.
2 :
Average rent would be DKK 6000-10,000 for a one bedroom in the Copenhagen area. If you were willing to share a flat with other people, you could pay DKK 2500-4000 for a room Yes it is difficult to get a work visa if you don't have specialized skills that no EU citizen can fill.Or you can get transferred over by a company if you are at management level (I got transferred over by a US company that had offices in Denmark) As the other poster says, teaching English is not a specialized skill. There are plenty of Danes who are fluent enough in English to teach it (most English teachers in Denmark are Danes), as well as thousands of English and Irish working as English teachers I don't know how you would do translation work unless you were completely fluent in Danish. There are plenty of fluent Danish-English speakers already in the country. As for freelance writing, there is only one English language weekly paper, the Copenhagen Post (www.cphpost.dk) that you could try to get a job with, but it wouldn't pay your rent. Minimum tax rate is 50% but it rises based on your income Healthcare is free and easy to get if you are a legal resident. When you register with your commune, you get a booklet listing doctors offices in your area and you register with the one close to you. I moved to Denmark from NY and the cost of living is at least 40% higher. Food, drinks, entertainment, utilities, insurance, cars, etc are all much more expensive in Denmark.
3 :
it is like in the heavy, but they should not take the austrlain woman as their princess
4 :
I love Denmark. I'm an American and I really want to live here. But I'm seeing that it may not be a realistic thing since it's so hard to find a job if you're not a European Citizen. :-(
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