Denmark Police Certificate 2026 — Straffeattest: Free, Online with MitID, E-Apostille Ready

Order the private straffeattest online at politi.dk using MitID — it is completely free and is normally delivered to your Digital Post inbox within about 5 business days. If you are exempt from Digital Post but have MitID, it goes to your registered address; without MitID you can order in writing or at a police station. If you live abroad, politi.dk has a dedicated ordering procedure for non-residents. There is no fee for any variant — private, public-use or børneattest — which surprises applicants used to paying for certificates elsewhere.

Yes — if you have no criminal record in Denmark, you can request the private certificate in English, German, French or Spanish when ordering on politi.dk, which most foreign immigration authorities accept without translation. If you do have entries, the certificate issues only in Danish, and you will need a translation arranged under the destination country's rules. For EU destinations, remember you can instead request the multilingual language annex under Regulation 2016/1191, which removes both the legalisation and translation requirements when the certificate goes to a public authority in another member state.

Two routes, both via the MFA Legalisation Office (the only apostille authority in Denmark). Fastest: the digital certificate from the National Police carries a certified Digital Signature, so you can buy an apostille in the MFA webshop (dys.um.dk), upload the PDF, and download an E-Apostille in your browser — no visit, no postage. Check first that the destination accepts E-Apostilles, since they bear no wet signature. Otherwise, forward the certificate from Digital Post to the Legalisation Office after purchasing in the webshop; the MFA prints and wet-stamps a physical apostille for collection or postal return (5–7 working days by mail).

The børneattest is Denmark's child-protection certificate, showing convictions for sexual offences against children under 15. You never obtain it yourself: the employer, school, sports club or association must request it from the police — with your electronic consent — before you start any role involving direct, sustained contact with children under 15. This is a legal obligation on the organisation, and it applies to volunteers as well as employees, so expect the consent request when joining a football club's coaching staff just as much as when taking a teaching job. It is free and processed digitally.

For the standard work and study schemes, SIRI's checklists do not include foreign police certificates — Denmark's screening at that stage is documentary and biometric. Conduct screening happens later and domestically: permanent residence and especially citizenship check the Danish criminal registers directly, and the citizenship rules attach waiting periods to fines of DKK 3,000 or more, with a duty to declare offences committed anywhere. Specific case types (and some employers, particularly for child-related work) can still require foreign certificates, so always follow the current checklist for your exact application on nyidanmark.dk.

Denmark itself attaches no expiry date — the certificate is a snapshot of the register on its issue date. Validity is decided by whoever receives it: foreign immigration authorities typically require certificates issued within the previous 3 to 6 months, and Danish employers usually want a recent one. Because the certificate is free and arrives in Digital Post within days, the practical answer is to order it as late as the receiving deadline allows rather than stockpiling. Also note what 'clean' means: entries age off the private certificate after set periods, so an old conviction may appear on the public-use version but not the private one.