Denmark Work Permit for a Cook: Positive List, Pay, AUB

Denmark lists cooks on its Positive List for Skilled Work, giving a Japanese restaurant a real route to hire from Japan, but the gate is a condition that has nothing to do with the cook: your business must already be meeting its apprentice training obligations under Læreplads-AUB. If you clear that gate, set pay against SIRI's own wage statistic rather than the collective agreement alone; a reasonable market anchor is Statistics Denmark's 2024 median of about DKK 220 an hour (roughly DKK 35,150 a month) for cooks nationally, though SIRI's own current lower-quartile figure for the DISCO 512000 job is not published on its public pages and should be confirmed with your case officer. Both work routes carry a SIRI fee of DKK 6,810.

1. Cooks are on the Positive List for Skilled Work

Denmark's Positive List for Skilled Work is updated twice a year, on 1 January and 1 July. Under service work, it includes 512000: Kok (cook), classified under the DISCO-08 occupational code. If you offer a job as a cook, the candidate can apply for a residence and work permit under this list. According to SIRI, processing normally takes 3 months, up to 4 if more information is needed; the employer fills in its part first (form AR1), then the cook completes theirs, or the employer can use form AR6 with the cook's power of attorney. For employment of less than four years, the permit runs for the contract length; for four years or more, it is normally issued for four years. The permit covers only the job and employer it was granted for.

2. The gate: apprentice training obligations

A permit under the Positive List for Skilled Work can only be granted if the employer is covered by, and meets, its obligations to train pupils and apprentices under the employers' education contribution scheme (Læreplads-AUB). SIRI requires that at the time of application the employer either met its target for the number of pupils and apprentices for the latest calculated contribution year (currently 2025) without owing an additional contribution, or met that target in two of the last three calculated years (2023 to 2025) without owing it in those years. SIRI states this condition cannot be waived, even for an employer who only partly meets it.

This is the step to check before anything else. Look up your annual statement with AUB. If your business is not covered by Læreplads-AUB at all, the Positive List route is closed until it is; look at the Pay Limit Scheme below instead, or talk to an adviser about becoming covered before your next filing window.

3. Usual pay, and what counts as salary

Pay and conditions must be "usual by Danish standards." SIRI uses its own salary statistic for the Positive List, based on Statistics Denmark's pay register for the same DISCO code, and the current statistic applies from 1 August 2026; SIRI's public pages do not publish the figure itself, so ask your case officer to confirm the current lower-quartile number for 512000 Kok before you fix an offer. As a market anchor while you do that: Statistics Denmark's own wage statistics (table LONS20, DISCO 5120) put the median gross pay for cooks at about DKK 220 an hour, roughly DKK 35,150 a month, in 2024, the latest year published when we checked. SIRI's lower-quartile figure will sit below that median, but budgeting near the DST median rather than the legal floor avoids a refusal on pay grounds.

For the assessment, SIRI counts cash pay, pension contributions and holiday pay actually paid by the current employer. It does not count board and lodging, allowances, a free car, phone, internet, benefits in kind or subscriptions. Housing you provide is welcome but will not lift a low salary over the line. Salary must be paid into a Danish bank account in the cook's name.

4. The Pay Limit Scheme for senior chefs

For a head chef or executive chef on a high salary, the Pay Limit Scheme sets no positive list and no apprentice condition. The requirement is an annual salary of at least DKK 552,000 (2026 level, adjusted every 1 January). Only cash salary, including guaranteed fixed supplements, counts; canteen, car, phone, internet and paid housing do not. SIRI says processing can take up to three months if more information is needed. It is a high bar, but for a group bringing in a senior Japanese chef, it avoids the apprentice question entirely.

Statistics Denmark counted 731 Japanese citizens living in Copenhagen municipality on 1 July 2026, and 1,883 in Denmark as a whole; Japan's foreign ministry counted 2,129 nationals as of 1 October 2025. Either way, the local pool is small, so most restaurants will be recruiting directly from Japan on one of these two routes rather than finding an already-eligible candidate locally.

5. Cost and schedule

6. Copy-paste offer summary for your candidate

English gloss: restaurant name and city, role (Kok/cook), permit route (Positive List for Skilled Work, DISCO 512000, or the Pay Limit Scheme if applicable), gross monthly cash salary (noting that food or housing benefits do not count toward SIRI's assessment), contract length and probation, target start date flagged as dependent on SIRI's timeline, and housing and travel arrangements kept separate from the salary line.

7. A Danish hiring plan

1. Check your Læreplads-AUB status before anything else; it decides whether the Positive List route is open to you at all.
2. If you meet it, confirm "Kok" is still on the current Positive List and ask SIRI for the current usual-pay figure for your case.
3. Set pay in cash terms, counting only salary, pension and paid holiday pay, at or above what SIRI confirms.
4. Send the candidate the offer summary above, create the case, pay the DKK 6,810 fee and complete the employer's part first.
5. For a senior role above DKK 552,000 a year, consider the Pay Limit Scheme instead, which skips the apprentice question.
6. Allow three to four months for processing, and help the cook open a Danish bank account.

General information gathered from official sources in September 2026, not legal or immigration advice. Danish lists and amounts change every January and July; confirm with SIRI or a qualified adviser before acting.