Danish passport


Danish passports are issued to citizens of the Kingdom of Denmark to facilitate international travel.
Different versions exist for nationals of Denmark, Greenland, and the Faroe Islands although all citizens have the same nationality. Danish nationals residing in Greenland can choose between the Danish EU passport and the local Greenlandic passport.
Every Danish citizen is also a citizen of the European Union. The passport entitles its bearer to freedom of movement in the European Economic Area, Switzerland and the United Kingdom.
According to the January 2019 Visa Restrictions Index, Danish citizens can visit 187 countries without a visa or with a visa granted on arrival.

Physical appearance

The Danish and Greenlandic versions of the passport have burgundy colour covers, according to the European Union's recommendations, while the Faroese version is green. All contain the Danish Coat of Arms emblazoned in the centre of the front cover, with the word DANMARK above it, and the word PAS below. Since 1 August 2006, biometric passports are issued.
Above the word DANMARK, the Danish version contains the words DEN EUROPÆISKE UNION , while in the Greenlandic and Faroese versions the text KALAALLIT NUNAAT or FØROYAR is written. Fields on the bearer's page are in Danish, English, and French, with translations in the official languages of the European Union elsewhere in the document. Instead of French, Faroese or Greenlandic are used in the Faroese and Greenlandic versions respectively. The page contains the following information:
Passports contain a machine readable strip starting with P>DNK for all types.

Different spellings of the same name

Names containing special letters are spelled the correct way in the non-machine-readable zone, but are mapped in the machine-readable zone, æ becoming AE, ø becoming OE, and å becoming AA. This follows the international machine-readable passport standard.


For example, Gråbøl → GRAABOEL.

Types

Besides the ordinary passport, also 3 versions of blue service passports and a single red diplomatic passport are issued. The latter does not bear the text DEN EUROPÆISKE UNION.

Visa requirements

In January 2020, Danish citizens had visa-free or visa on arrival access to 187 countries and territories, thus ranking the Danish passport fifth in the world according to the Visa Restrictions Index.
According to the World Tourism Organization 2016 report, the Danish passport is first in the world in terms of travel freedom, with the mobility index of 160.

Controversy

In 2010, an atheist Danish citizen filed a complaint to the Danish Ministry of Justice, due to the passport's inclusion of a picture of the crucifixion of Jesus as shown on the Jelling Stones, arguing that passports should be free of religious symbols. This argument was rejected by leading Danish politicians, arguing that Christianity is a part of Denmark's cultural history, and Christianity was not depicted exclusively, since the passport also includes an image of a dragon motif, likewise taken from the largest Jelling Stone. The passport design including images from the Jelling Stones was introduced in 1997, when the current red design was introduced. Previous Danish passports had been green or beige.

Lack of National identity card

EU rules allow any citizen of a member country to travel anywhere in the EU without a passport, if they have a national identity card stating citizenship and some other standardised information. Denmark and Ireland are the only EU countries that do not issue national identity cards however Ireland issues passport cards which are treated by law as ID cards by some EU countries, therefore Denmark is the only country in the EU which solely does not have the possibility of any form of ID card travel. There has been some political support for introducing such cards since the EU rule was introduced, but this has not yet become a reality.