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The Agency of Family Law, or AFL for short, is a Danish government agency responsible for overseeing and managing all aspects of family-based law inside Denmark (such as adoption, divorce, births, marriages etc).
All marriage applications of couples wanting to get married in Denmark must be submitted to the AFL, and they will assess and process each case individually. If the AFL does not feel they have received enough information about your circumstances (such as your permit, civil status and the like) or about your relationship, they may ask further questions. They may also call you in for an interview if they cannot discard a pro-forma marriage based on the information presented with the application.
Below you will find further information about why the AFL holds interviews, what triggers an interview request, what to expect during the interview process, as well as other useful information, such as location and timings etc.
According to the AFL website:
“In Denmark, pro forma marriage is prohibited. This means that the marriage must not be entered into if there is reason to suspect that the purpose of the marriage is to obtain the right of residence in Denmark, an EU country, in Switzerland or in another country covered by the European Economic Area.
Because of the prohibition against pro forma marriage, we will inquire about your personal relationship, e.g. how long you have known each other, where you met each other, whether you have children together, whether you live or have previously lived together etc.
We may contact you during the processing of your application if we have questions or require additional information. We may also invite you to an interview, if we believe there is a need for this.”
In other words, are you entering into a ‘marriage of convenience’
“a marriage contracted for the sole purpose of conferring a right of free movement and residence under EU law on free movement of EU citizens to a spouse who would otherwise not have such a right”
When assessing a case, the AFL will also ensure the Danish laws on pro-forma marriage are upheld.
If one of the partners will be gaining rights by getting married, eg:
And also potentially:
If the AFL decides that they would like to speak with you both further, then they will contact us (if we are on your POA) or you directly to inform you of such.
You then have 2 options:
At the AFL’s offices in Odense:
Rugårdsvej 55A, 2.sal
5000 Odense C
The AFL holds many interviews, and as such, the agendas are fully booked for several months ahead. At the time of writing, you can expect to wait around 2.5 months for an interview date, give or take.
Please note that this timeframe will increase around the summer months and Christmas, too. This is because the AFL does not conduct interviews in July and August, nor in the weeks around Christmas and New Year.
If, at the time you submitted your application, you still had a considerable number of days left on your permit or visa, but the AFL is not able to give you a date for an interview within its validity period, then the AFL will give you the time to obtain a new title (but they will expect you to submit a new title asap). Once you have submitted the new title, they will confirm an interview date.
This is different if, when submitting your application, you have only a few days left to travel to Denmark on your visa or permit. Should the AFL consider it necessary to interview you, they will not fast-track you for an interview so you can come during the validity of your current permit / visa, simply because they do not have the capacity to do so.
They will in fact, close your case, and you are requested to apply again when you have a new title to enter Denmark. This must be valid for a period during which they can give you an appointment to come for an interview.
When the AFL goes through a case, they use the following as a ‘checklist’, so to speak:
If invited for an interview, you can expect the questions to focus on point 3.
You will be interviewed one at a time, each by the same two caseworkers: one caseworker will be asking the questions, the other will write the report (which at the end of the interview, you are asked to sign).
To a large extent, you will be asked the same questions. And although your stories do not have to match 100%, overall and logically, your answers should be similar and give the same information.
It will take around 1.5 hours per person. In between, you will not have time to talk to each other.
You can expect questions like the ones listed below. Some of the questions are possibly already answered in the documents you provided with the application. That does not mean the AFL won’t touch upon those or even ask for further information. Please keep in mind that not all of the questions necessarily apply to your case. It is more for you to get an idea:
You both must go there in person for the interviews.
Interviews are not done over Zoom or any other online platform.
Interviews tend to start at 8:30 am and are held Tuesday to Friday, public holidays excluded.
Interviews are held in either Danish or English only. If you do not speak either language, you will need an interpreter.
We need to inform the AFL whether you need an interpreter.
We can ask the AFL to arrange an interpreter for you. They will do so via an independent translation agency. The AFL charges a fee of 528 DKK (approx. €71) for 1.5 hours per person, which you are requested to transfer to the Agency of Family Law account.
Do be aware, however, that sometimes an interview takes longer than an hour and a half and an interpreter hired through the AFL leaves when they have worked an hour and a half! Note that it is only at the end of the interview that you are asked to sign the statement, indicating you agree with the contents.
You can bring your own interpreter to the interview. The interpreter can be a certified translator but also a friend (and thus does not have to be a certified interpreter).
If you bring a friend to translate for you, you must be 100% sure they can perfectly translate everything. They will also need to sign for what they have said and translated.
The interview will concentrate on questions. Not so much on physical or dated evidence. Still, we suggest you bring whatever you can to show for your relationship. The easiest way to do that is on your phone.
The AFL will never take your phone and go through it. They will – and must – ask your permission, and as such, they will ask you for something specific, like photos from a given period or messages sent in a specific year. You’ll then be the one to look that up and show it to them.
Also, if there are intimate photos you would rather not show, you can indicate that.
As mentioned above, two staff members of the AFL will be present during the interview: One asking the questions, the other typing the report.
At the end of the interview, the report is printed out, and you are asked to sign this statement. By signing the statement, you agree with its contents.
Make sure you understand what is written – if you hired an interpreter, they should still be there to make sure. If there is anything in the text you do not agree with, make sure to raise this.
Whereas until recently, the AFL would issue a decision (ie. approval to get married or rejection) on either the same day as the interview or the day after, this is unfortunately now taking longer.
This means that you may need to stay in Denmark for close to a week if you wish to marry after having received your approval. If you would prefer not to or are unable to do this, then you will need to travel to Denmark twice – once for the AFL interview, and once for your wedding.
Yes, if the AFL believes that the desired marriage is primarily intended to ensure that one obtains the right to remain in the EU.
Basically, they reach that conclusion when, during the interview, the couple gives “divergent statements regarding significant and personal information”.
In such a case, the AFL concludes that one lacks the information which one would be expected to know after x amount of time in the relationship and “the couple is therefore not considered to have acquired such usual acquaintance with each other as is generally expected prior to the conclusion of a marriage.”
Examples that may be cited as reasons for receiving a rejection after the interview:
If you are called in for an interview and you decide to cancel the procedure, any refunds will be issued in accordance with our cancellation policy. Please refer to the Terms of Service on our website.
As per our refund policy, once an application is submitted to the AFL, we do not offer any refunds, regardless of the outcome of an interview.
We give you all this information so you can make an informed decision about whether or not you’d like to proceed.
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