Denmark · India

Royal Danish Embassy in New Delhi

Overview

Indian-resident applicants for a Schengen visa to Denmark — tourism, family visits, business travel, conference and cultural visits — file through the Denmark Visa Application Centres operated by VFS Global, with biometric capture across the eleven Indian VFS centres. Decisioning happens at the Royal Danish Embassy at 33-B Dr. S. Radhakrishnan Marg in the Chanakyapuri diplomatic enclave. Long-term residence-permit applications are also accepted at the VFS Denmark New Delhi centre and forwarded to the Embassy the next working day. The Embassy houses the chancery, the consular section for Danish nationals in India, and the migration section handling the residence-permit pipeline filed through the Danish Agency for International Recruitment and Integration (SIRI). Work permits under Denmark's Positive List, Pay Limit Scheme and Fast-track Scheme for Indian IT engineers, EU Blue Card for graduate-level employment with Denmark's salary threshold, student permits for Indian degree-seekers at Danish universities (the Technical University of Denmark, Aalborg University, Aarhus University, Copenhagen Business School and the University of Copenhagen draw substantial Indian cohorts), family-reunification permits and entrepreneur permits all route through the embassy's migration section. Bilateral context: Denmark-India relations are anchored on green-energy cooperation (the Indo-Danish Green Strategic Partnership signed 2020 has made Denmark one of India's most substantial European partners in the renewable energy transition — Vestas dominates the Indian wind-turbine manufacturing landscape, with Indian-Danish joint ventures across the wind, solar and green-hydrogen sectors), shipping and maritime (A.P. Moller-Maersk's substantial Indian operations and the broader Danish maritime industry — DFDS, Norden, Torm, Lauritzen — have long-standing Indian ties), water management (Grundfos has a major Indian footprint with its India headquarters in Chennai and manufacturing in Hyderabad and Ahmedabad), pharmaceuticals (Novo Nordisk's substantial Indian operations across Bengaluru and other Indian cities make Denmark a major insulin and biopharmaceutical supplier to the Indian market), and the substantial Indo-Danish academic-research cooperation. The Indian-origin community in Denmark numbers around 20,000 to 25,000 — concentrated in Copenhagen, Aarhus, Aalborg and Odense, with growth since the mid-2000s through IT employment, EU Blue Card and family routes. Travel from Denmark to India for tourism, yoga and ayurveda retreats, Buddhist pilgrimage and trekking runs almost entirely through India's e-Visa programme without embassy contact.

Visa Services

Schengen short-stay visa (Type C, up to 90 days in any 180-day rolling window) is the primary visa product for Indian travellers to Denmark. Indian passport holders are not eligible for visa-free travel to the Schengen area and must apply before departure. VFS Global Denmark operates Visa Application Centres across India — Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Pune, Chandigarh, Ahmedabad, Jaipur and Goa. Applicants book online through the VFS Denmark India portal, attend in person for biometric capture, and pay the Schengen fee (currently EUR 90 for adults, EUR 45 for children 6–11, free for children under 6) plus the VFS service fee. Applications from outside Delhi attract a mandatory courier charge of approximately EUR 4 for India and EUR 13 for Bhutan. Typical processing is 15 calendar days from application receipt at the embassy (excluding submission time at VFS), longer during peak season (March-June for European summer travel) and for cases requiring additional documentation. Long-stay Danish residence-permit applications — work permits under the Positive List for Higher Education, Pay Limit Scheme, Fast-track Scheme and Researcher Scheme; EU Blue Card; ICT permits for inter-company transfers (heavily used by the Indian IT-services majors moving staff to their Danish operations); student permits for admitted Indian degree-seekers at Danish universities; family-reunification permits and entrepreneur permits — are filed online through the SIRI portal (nyidanmark.dk) with biometric capture at the embassy or at the relevant Indian VFS Denmark centre. Processing times vary substantially by category and SIRI backlog. Indian applicants for Danish residence permits should follow the published guidance closely and budget significant lead time before any planned travel.

Consular Services

The Consular Section serves the Danish national community in India — registered Danish residents number in the high hundreds to low thousands, concentrated in Mumbai (the Danish maritime-and-shipping community around the Maersk and broader Danish shipowner presence), Delhi NCR (diplomatic, Grundfos and broader Danish business community), Bengaluru (the Vestas regional headquarters and the substantial Danish renewable-energy and tech community), Chennai (Grundfos's India headquarters), and the smaller communities in Pune and Hyderabad. The full Danish consular pipeline runs from New Delhi: passport renewal and biometric passport issuance (the embassy is an issuing post on the Danish passport network), Danish national ID-card issuance, civil-status notification to the Danish Civil Registration System (CPR) of births and marriages abroad, voter registration for Danish parliamentary, European Parliament and local elections, notarial certifications, apostille issuance for Danish-issued documents to be used in India under the Hague Apostille Convention, and emergency consular assistance for Danish nationals in detention, hospitalisation, victims of crime, repatriation or bereavement. The Honorary Consulates in Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata are authorised for extension of passports, provisional passports, applications for children's passports, and Danish/international driver's licence services — a specific scope agreed by SIRI and the Royal Danish MFA. The Consulate General in Bangalore handles consular services for the southern Indian states with the explicit caveat that all visa and work permit enquiries route through the Embassy in New Delhi. Out-of-hours emergencies anywhere in India route through the MFA Citizen Service in Copenhagen on +45 33 92 11 12, available 24/7.

Trade & Export Support

India is one of Denmark's strategic Asian markets, with bilateral trade anchored on the Indo-Danish Green Strategic Partnership (signed 2020 — one of Denmark's most substantial bilateral green-energy partnerships globally) and Denmark's substantial industrial presence in shipping, water management, pharmaceuticals and renewable energy. The Embassy's economic section coordinates closely with the Trade Council of Denmark's Mumbai and Bengaluru operations, the Indo-Danish Chamber of Commerce, the Confederation of Danish Industry (DI) India desk, and the Vestas-anchored renewable-energy industrial cluster. Bilateral trade in goods runs in the range of USD 2 to 3 billion annually, with strong growth in wind energy and green-hydrogen cooperation, shipping and maritime, water and wastewater management, pharmaceuticals and food technology. Danish exports to India are dominated by wind turbines and renewable-energy equipment (Vestas dominates the Indian wind-turbine manufacturing landscape and is one of the largest Danish industrial positions globally), water pumps and water-management equipment (Grundfos's Indian manufacturing in Chennai, Hyderabad and Ahmedabad supplies the Indian municipal-and-industrial water sector), pharmaceuticals (Novo Nordisk's insulin and diabetes-care portfolio is among the major suppliers to the Indian market; Lundbeck has substantial Indian operations), industrial enzymes and biotechnology (Novozymes' Indian operations are among the major Novozymes positions globally), shipping and logistics services (A.P. Moller-Maersk's Indian operations are substantial), and food and dairy technology (Arla Foods' India presence). Indian exports to Denmark are concentrated in IT-services (the major Indian IT majors operate Danish delivery centres), pharmaceuticals and generic medicines, textiles and garments, automotive components and the growing green-hydrogen and renewables collaboration through the joint Indo-Danish Joint Working Group on energy.

Investment Opportunities

Danish foreign direct investment in India is among the most substantial single-country FDI positions of any Nordic economy. Cumulative Danish FDI in India runs in the range of USD 2 to 3 billion across the major industrial Danish names — Vestas (the Indian wind-turbine manufacturing leader with substantial operations in Chennai and other locations), Grundfos (Indian manufacturing in Chennai, Hyderabad and Ahmedabad — the company's India headquarters is in Chennai), Novo Nordisk (substantial Indian sales and R&D operations primarily in Bengaluru), Novozymes (Indian fermentation and biotechnology operations), A.P. Moller-Maersk (one of the largest container-shipping presences in Indian ports), Carlsberg (Indian brewing operations), LEGO (Indian sales and a substantial Indian-tech presence), Arla Foods (Indian dairy operations), Lundbeck (Indian pharmaceutical operations), Velux, Danfoss, and the substantial Danish maritime and shipowner presence in Mumbai (DFDS, Norden, Torm, Lauritzen). Indian outbound FDI into Denmark has grown substantially since the mid-2000s, concentrated on the Indian IT-services majors' Danish delivery centres (TCS, Infosys, Wipro, HCL, Tech Mahindra all have substantial Danish operations), Indian pharmaceutical-and-generics groups establishing Danish marketing and regulatory operations, and the occasional larger industrial acquisition in Danish industrial-equipment supply chains. The Embassy's investment promotion work includes coordinating the bilateral Indo-Danish Joint Working Group on green energy, the green-hydrogen partnership, and the Indo-Danish Innovation Centre that connects Danish industrial expertise with Indian scale-up.

Business Support

Practical commercial support for Danish exporters and investors entering India is delivered through the Trade Council of Denmark's India operations (Mumbai and Bengaluru offices) in partnership with the Embassy: market intelligence, partner identification, regulatory navigation through India's complex GST and corporate-law environment, support for setting up Indian subsidiaries, and Indian-customs and trade-compliance support. The Indo-Danish Chamber of Commerce is the principal forum for the Indian-resident Danish business community — networking, sectoral working groups (green energy, water, shipping, pharma, food technology, IT), Danish Industry Days, and joint advocacy with Indian central and state governments on the regulatory environment. Indian companies seeking to invest in Denmark are supported by the Embassy and the Trade Council's invest-in-Denmark function in cooperation with Copenhagen Capacity and Invest in Denmark.

Cultural & Educational Programs

Cultural and educational programming runs through the Embassy's Cultural Section, the Danish Cultural Institute's India operations, the substantial Indo-Danish academic-research partnerships, and the Indo-Danish Higher Education Partnership. Educational mobility is anchored on Indian students at Danish universities — the Technical University of Denmark (DTU), Aalborg University, Aarhus University, Copenhagen Business School, the University of Copenhagen and the IT University of Copenhagen all draw substantial Indian cohorts in engineering, technology, business and design — with the Erasmus Mundus framework, Danish State Scholarships and the DTU-IIT-Bombay joint programmes supporting the academic flow. The Embassy hosts the Danish Constitution Day reception on 5 June and supports Danish cultural programming through Indian cultural venues. The substantial Indo-Danish cultural exchange runs through the Danish Cultural Institute, Statens Kunstfond's international programmes, and the Hans Christian Andersen heritage that resonates strongly in Indian children's-literature and translation communities. Danish-design programming with India Design Forum, Danish-Indian musical exchanges anchored on the Royal Danish Academy of Music and Indian classical-music institutions, and Danish-Indian co-production in film and animation support the cultural sector.

Service Area

Service area covers the Republic of India in its entirety for direct embassy services. The Consulate General in Bangalore handles consular services for the southern Indian states (Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Lakshadweep, Andaman & Nicobar Islands) with the explicit caveat that visa and work permit enquiries route through the Embassy in New Delhi. The Honorary Consulates in Mumbai (western states — Maharashtra, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Goa), Chennai (Tamil Nadu and adjacent southern coverage area) and Kolkata (eastern and north-eastern states) handle the agreed scope of passport extensions, provisional passports, children's passports and Danish/international driver's licence services. The embassy in New Delhi covers the northern, central, eastern and remaining union-territory areas directly.

Appointment Information

Schengen short-stay visa appointments are booked through the VFS Global Denmark India portal. Long-stay residence-permit applications are filed online through the Danish Agency for International Recruitment and Integration (SIRI) portal at nyidanmark.dk, with biometric capture booked through the same VFS network or directly at the embassy depending on category. Danish passport, ID-card, civil-status and consular appointments are booked through the embassy. Phone enquiries route through the switchboard +91 11 4209 0700 during office hours (Monday to Friday 09:00–16:00, closed 13:00–13:30 for lunch — no visa enquiries on the main line). The visa helpline +91 11 4209 0751 is available on Monday, Wednesday and Friday only, between 14:00 and 15:00. Visa email enquiries: nyhamb-visa@um.dk. Residence-permit enquiries: nyhamb-rp@um.dk. General enquiries: nyhamb@um.dk (no visa enquiries). Out-of-hours emergencies route through the MFA Citizen Service in Copenhagen on +45 33 92 11 12, available 24 hours.

Special Notes

The Chanakyapuri diplomatic enclave hosts most of the major foreign missions in Delhi — the Royal Danish Embassy at 33-B Dr. S. Radhakrishnan Marg sits in the central cluster of the enclave, near several other European missions, with the Lok Kalyan Marg metro station (Yellow Line) about 2 km away. Approach by Delhi Metro plus autorickshaw or taxi, or directly by taxi from anywhere in central Delhi. Visitors must present a valid government-issued photo identification and pass airport-style security screening at the gate. Large bags are not permitted inside; mobile phones may be confiscated for the duration of the visit depending on the security posture of the day. The embassy observes both Indian and Danish public holidays: Republic Day (26 January), Independence Day (15 August), Gandhi Jayanti (2 October), the principal Hindu and Muslim festivals (Diwali, Holi, Dussehra, Eid-ul-Fitr, Eid-ul-Adha), Christian festivals where they fall on Indian holidays (Good Friday, Christmas), and the Danish national observances (Constitution Day 5 June, Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, New Year's Day, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, Easter Monday, Prayer Day, Ascension, Whit Monday). Direct air connections between Copenhagen (CPH) and Indian destinations route via Doha (Qatar Airways), Dubai (Emirates), Istanbul (Turkish Airlines), Frankfurt (Lufthansa) and Amsterdam (KLM); there is no current direct SAS or Indian-carrier service between Denmark and India.

Frequently asked questions

Do Indian passport holders need a visa for Denmark?

Yes. Indian passport holders need a Schengen short-stay visa (Type C) for any visit to Denmark up to 90 days in a rolling 180-day window — for tourism, business, family visits, conference and cultural travel. Schengen visa-free travel is not available for Indian passport holders. Applications are filed in person at the VFS Denmark centres in Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Pune, Chandigarh, Ahmedabad, Jaipur or Goa, with decisioning at the Royal Danish Embassy in New Delhi. Longer stays for work, study, family reunification or business require a separate Danish residence permit through SIRI (the Danish Agency for International Recruitment and Integration).

Where do Indian-resident applicants submit Danish visa paperwork?

At the Visa Application Centres operated by VFS Global Denmark. Eleven centres operate across India. Applicants book the appointment online through the VFS Denmark India portal, attend in person for biometric capture and document intake, and pay the Schengen fee plus the VFS service fee. The Royal Danish Embassy in New Delhi is the decisioning post for every application. Applications from outside Delhi attract a mandatory courier charge (approximately EUR 4 from India, EUR 13 from Bhutan).

Why does the Embassy have a visa helpline only on Monday, Wednesday and Friday afternoons?

The dedicated visa helpline at +91 11 4209 0751 operates Monday, Wednesday and Friday only, between 14:00 and 15:00 — a deliberately narrow window to keep the line available for substantive case-specific enquiries rather than general visa-information queries. The main embassy switchboard +91 11 4209 0700 explicitly does NOT take visa enquiries. General visa information is on the Embassy and VFS Denmark India portals; email queries route through nyhamb-visa@um.dk for Schengen and nyhamb-rp@um.dk for residence permits.

Does the Bangalore Consulate General handle Danish visa applications?

No. The Consulate General in Bangalore explicitly directs all visa and work permit enquiries to the Embassy of Denmark in New Delhi. The Bangalore post serves trade and consular support for the southern Indian states (Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana) but does not provide visa decisioning. Visa intake for the southern Indian catchment routes through the local VFS Denmark centre.

How long does Schengen visa processing take from India?

Typical processing is 15 calendar days from the day the embassy receives the application (excluding submission time at VFS). Peak-season demand from March to June (European summer travel) extends the timeline, sometimes to 20–25 calendar days, and applications requiring additional documentation or interviews can run longer. Applicants from outside Delhi face slightly longer end-to-end timelines because of the mandatory courier transit to New Delhi.

Where do Danish nationals in India get consular help, passport renewal or emergency assistance?

Danish nationals in India have multiple consular posts for direct services: the Royal Danish Embassy in New Delhi (full consular service for the northern, central, eastern and accredited-region cases), the Consulate General in Bangalore (consular services for the southern states), and the Honorary Consulates in Mumbai (western states), Chennai (Tamil Nadu) and Kolkata (eastern and north-eastern states) — the three Honorary Consulates are authorised for extension of passports, provisional passports, children's passports and Danish/international driver's licence services. Out-of-hours emergencies route through the MFA Citizen Service in Copenhagen on +45 33 92 11 12, available 24/7 worldwide.

Links & more info

Government & travel advisories

New to Denmark — Danish immigration portal

Denmark's central immigration authority (Styrelsen for International Rekruttering og Integration / SIRI) and the corresponding portal for residence-permit applications: work, family reunification, study, EU/EEA cases and citizenship. Indian applicants for long-stay Danish permits file via the SIRI online portal with biometric capture at the embassy or local VFS Denmark centre.

nyidanmark.dk
Indian e-Visa portal (reverse-direction reference for Danish travellers)

India's Government of India e-Visa portal for Danish passport holders travelling to India. Covers e-Tourist, e-Business, e-Conference, e-Medical and e-Medical Attendant categories — most short-stay Denmark-to-India travel runs through this portal without embassy contact.

indianvisaonline.gov.in

Visaja keeps this page's contact details and visa guidance under continuous review — still, requirements can change at short notice, so confirm the essentials with the mission or the official government portal before you travel.