**** WARNING: This is not a warm, fuzzy post about how awesome and romantic it is to move to and live in a foreign country. It's very often those things, of course. It certainly starts off that way. You arrive in your new country and are instantly enamored with its charm and beauty. It's all so DIFFERENT! So EXCITING! You explore your new city and check out all the neighborhoods you've been visiting online for months. You spend a few days looking for a place to call home. You sign a lease and then BAM! Reality hits you and you realize you have absolutely no idea what you're doing. It's a completely new country with a completely foreign way of doing things. And they probably do it in a language that you don't speak yet. How/Where do I sign up for electricity, gas, water? Which cable and internet company is the best? What's the recycling policy? (This was a VERY big deal in Greenwich. Do it wrong and they would not pick up your trash.) I have to register with HOW many people? And by when? And where do I go to do that exactly? The more public benefits you are entitled to as a taxpayer, the more people you have to sign up with, and what public benefits AM I entitled to again? How the hell do we hang these lights? (We're still working on that last one. We are not DIY people.) Sometimes, if you have a lot of help, all of these things get worked out fairly quickly. If you don't have a lot of help, well, then getting truly settled in can go on for a while. Either way, the "I didn't know I had to do that" can go on for months. You, as a foreigner, will have no clue about having to/how to do "it" and chances are your friend who has been helping you out will take "it" for granted as something that everyone here just knows to do. So until the business of the move is taken care of, you might have a very bipolar relationship with your new country. One day you might be out exploring and absolutely IN LOVE with everything around you and then the next day you get a notice in the mail saying (in a letter you need to Google translate) that you've failed to do something and could you please rectify the situation ASAP.
Now that that's out of the way...
I know that I promised you this post FOREVER ago. And, as its length will show, I've been working on it ever since. I've given it a lot of thought and done tons of research and tried to remember the process, but it's the darnedest thing - my normally super reliable, elephant like memory is somehow super hazy on the details and logistics of this move to Denmark. Maybe it was because we were coming off of a month of visiting family in the US and I felt discombobulated. Maybe it was because I was still in mourning about our having to move away from London. Maybe it was because this was our first move with a toddler in tow. Maybe it was because ALL THREE OF US came down with the stomach flu on the flight from the US and spent the first 48 hours in Denmark in agony. (That's a story for another day.) Maybe it was a combination of all these things, or none of them, but whatever it was, when it comes to those first three months and the red tape of moving here, I find my memory is really really murky. Still. Here goes.****
The first thing that you should know about our move to Denmark is that it did not go entirely smoothly. (See above.) There isn't just a whole lot of information out there about how to do things here and a lot of what we managed to get done was simply a matter of trial and error. I'm fairly sure that we went about things the hard way. We got some help and guidance from The Boy's HR department, but with hundreds of expat employees assigned to just one woman, well, needless to say she couldn't devote her entire life to getting us settled. She did what she could and for that we are grateful.
The second thing that you should know is that Denmark is expensive. Southerner that I am, I hate to talk about money, but this is really something you should know. You should prepare yourself for serious sticker shock. It doesn't help that $1 = 5+ Danish kroner which just feels more expensive. The income tax rate here is around 43% for most people. The VAT (basically a sales tax) is 25%. There is an import tax which I believe to be around 33% as well. This means if you buy, say Clinique makeup, instead of paying $24 you will pay $47 (245 DK). I know these numbers seem overwhelming but there are silver linings. The social benefits are substantial. Your medical care is provided for by the state and, despite the anti social medicine rhetoric in the US, it is quality healthcare. The work week is 37 hours long and after working here for a year you will have 30 days (HOLY COW!) of paid vacation. Paid maternity leave is up to 52 weeks. Paternity leave is 2 weeks and the father is allowed to spilt maternity leave with the mother if they choose. Child care is heavily subsidized.
Documentation
If you are moving to Denmark, you are going to need a Danish work or residence visa. This is one of those hazy parts of my memory. To be honest, I'm not really sure what the process is on this. It was all arranged by The Boy's employer. I can tell you that, while we did have his contract and letter of employment when we entered the country, the actual visa was placed in our passports later when we registered with the police.
Once you're in Denmark, you will need to be assigned a
CPR number ASAP.* It's like a Social Security Number. You will take your residence permit and a photo ID to your local Folkeregisteret. While you are there they will ask you to choose a doctor from a list that they will provide. A few weeks later your Yellow Card will arrive in the mail. This card will have your name, your CPR number, and the name and address of your doctor on it. This card/CPR number is very very important. With it you can open a bank account, get a mobile phone contract, cable and internet service, check out a book from your local library, receive state funded healthcare, the list goes on. I take it with us everywhere we go because I still never know when I might be asked for it.
*The Boy somehow got his CPR number through work. I'm not sure if this is standard.
Transportation:
We've not had a car since moving abroad and I've gotta say, I have not missed it. I love public transportation. I love not having to worry about a car. I love riding trains and buses and people watching on the subway. I love that it's someone else's job to get me where I'm going and all I have to do is sit back and enjoy the ride.
Denmark has excellent public transportation. I strongly recommend taking advantage of it. If you don't absolutely have to have a car to get to work, don't get one. Take the train or the bus. Buy a bike. The biking culture is HUGE here. Avoid buying or leasing a car like the plague. They are serious money sucks. Most unfortunately The Boy is one of those that needs a car to get to work.
Oh, car! How do I hate thee? Let me count the ways:
- The tax on buying a new car here is 180%.
- We opted to lease and there was a substantial deposit involved.
- The Boy needed his CPR number before we could lease the car, so we had to rent one. We thought we'd be renting for 2 weeks tops. Turns out it was more like a month.
- Gas, maintenance, and insurance are all expensive. Part of this is purchasing two sets of tires : one for winter and one for summer.
- Unless you are from the EU and a hand full of other countries (the US isn't one of them) you will need to get a Danish driver's license. To obtain a Danish license you will have to take both a theory test and a practical test. It is recommended that you take one or more classes in driving theory and driving before taking the tests. These classes can cost anywhere from 700 kr for a one of class to 10,000 kr for an entire series of classes. Both the theory and driving tests are administered in Danish, so if you don't speak Danish, you will have to hire a police approved translator ( 400 kr for the theory test, 550 kr for the driving test). I believe, though am not certain, that if you take these classes through a driving school (køreskole) they will provide you with all the translators you need and will arrange your tests for you.
Housing
Housing for our first three months was arranged for us by The Boy's employers while we looked for a permanent place. Since we had leased our first house for that time period, we didn't want to overlap rent if we found something that we really wanted. We thought that a month would be more than enough time to find a place so we didn't really start looking until January. BIG MISTAKE. A lot of real estate agents don't have much in the way of rental properties. (We were told that most people just don't rent in Jutland.) The newspaper in Herning had maybe 3 listings tops. So we had to turn to the internet. A lot of the apartments for rent (til leje) on these sites are posted many months ahead of vacancy. So if you need a place to stay in say September, you'd might want to start looking in June.
We found these sites to be the most helpful:
If you're going to Google something, try using the words bolig and til leje.
Deposits here can be insane - like up to 6 months rent upfront insane. This isn't always the case, but it does happen. Some people, like Sage from Sage and Simple, opt to buy a house instead. You can read all about her quest to find her Danish dream home
here.
This post about her house hunting process is particularly interesting and helpful.
Utilities
I'm fuzzy on the utility situation. Our rent covers heating and water. Our building supervisor contacted the electric company to give them our billing information. I think that payments are made on a quarterly basis. Once a month we get a statement from our bank which contains all the information from all the companies we've set up automatic withdrawals with. We don't receive separate statements from the individual companies.
Getting A Cell Phone
Wow! Was this a horrible experience! Please. Learn from our pain.
First, let me explain how getting a cell with a contract here works. Let's say that you want an iPhone 4. The total cost of that iPhone is 5242 DK ($1,015). You'd put a downpayment down of say 200 DK and then pay the balance off over the course of 6 months in addition to whatever you are paying for your plan. After that, you own that iPhone and your cell phone bill goes down to cover just the price of your plan.
In London I used a cheap £5 pay as you go cell the entire time we were there, which was fine. It was actually completely my idea. But when we moved to Denmark, Apple fan that I am, I wanted an iPhone. We got here in November and The Boy's grand plan was to have it wrapped up and under the tree for Christmas. Being somewhat frugal people we naturally wanted the best deal so we headed to
3 mobil. They have a deal with Apple which makes the iPhone 4 slightly less expensive if you purchased the phone and your plan from them. I went first. No go. I didn't have the right letter in my visa. OK. Fine. I understand. I have a resident visa, not a work visa. How are they to know I can pay for it? The Boy went to work his magic and, though he has a work permit, he didn't have the right letter on his visa that would allow him to purchase a cell phone with 3 either. We went to
TDC (home of the
weirdest ad campaign EVER) because The Boy's company phone is through them and they have a free calling from TDC cell to TDC cell. They would give us a phone but only if we put down 5000 DK ($1000) ON TOP OF the 5000+ DK cost of the iPhone. They would then KEEP that 5000 DK FOR TWO YEARS which is looong after we'd actually finished paying for the iPhone. And the reasons for these policies? Well, we're foreigners who have not permanently immigrated to Denmark, you see. How do they know we won't just take the iPhone and head for the boarder? (To be fair, these were company policies. The employees were nothing but embarrassed about having to tell us no and why.)
We eventually went with
Telnor. It's been a completely enjoyable and, more importantly, hassle free experience. I also hear good things about
Telia.
Cable
If you are planning to use a TV, computer, or radio in Denmark, then you have to pay for a media license (around 2,260 DK annually).
Cable providers are:
Internet
Any of the cable or cell companies I've listed here also provide broadband service.
Furniture
Denmark truly is an interior design addict's dream. Everything here is just gorgeous and unique. Part of the fun is discovering something amazing in one of those little out of the way shops. Here are a few stores and websites you might need to tide you over until you find those charming boutiques.
Ikea We've probably done most of our house ware shopping there. We like the furniture and, since we were pretty much completely kitting out our new home from scratch, it fit into our budget.
Lauritz is an auction website packed with mid century modern awesomeness.
I bet after all this you're probably asking yourself, "Well, jeez, why should I move to Denmark?" My answer: Because Denmark is an absolutely amazing and beautiful country! Moving anywhere is always going to be stressful and moving to a completely different country in a totally different part of the world, well, that's always going to be really really stressful. But. By taking a chance and doing something that will seem completely crazy to many people in your life, you will discover that you are more courageous and resourceful and creative and aware and self reliant than you ever thought you could be. It won't always be easy. It probably won't even always be fun. But it will be one hell of an adventure.
And really isn't that what life is all about?
If you have any questions about something that isn't covered here or would like for me to expound on something that is, please feel free to comment or shoot me an email.
And please stop by and visit these awesome expats in Denmark:
and very new to Denmark
