UK → DENMARK Moving to Denmark: how customs works, and the documents to expect

A van from London reaches Denmark by road through Germany, and Copenhagen is on the far side of the country from that border. From Jutland the carrier takes the Storebælt link, a 17-kilometre bridge joining east and west Denmark. Or it skips Jutland and sails from Puttgarden in Germany to Rødby. That crossing is about 20 kilometres of water and takes 45 minutes, with check-in at least fifteen minutes before departure. At the bridge, the toll station measures the vehicle’s height and length and prices it from those. Which way the van goes is the carrier’s call on the day. It does not touch your price or your range. Water on this route counts as the driver’s rest, so it adds no days either. The driving itself, London to Copenhagen, is 14.5 hours, and day 2 is the earliest any range here begins.

How long does the transport take once the van is loaded? We quote a shared load, 5 or 10 m³, at 2–9 days. It travels with other moves, and the carrier delivers it in turn. A 20 or 30 m³ vehicle of your own is quoted at 2–4 days, and loading day is day one of that range. The delivery-times guide explains why the honest answer is a range and not a date.

Denmark is in the EU and the UK is not, so your belongings enter the EU as imports, and they clear in France, not at the Danish border. French customs applies the EU’s transfer-of-residence relief, which spares them duty and VAT if you meet its tests. You must have lived outside the EU for a minimum of 12 consecutive months. You must also have owned and used your belongings for at least six months. The goods must clear within twelve months after your move. Should you want them in Denmark before you land, that needs arranging, so raise it before booking. Sell, lend out, pledge or rent out your belongings in the first twelve months after import? Then you lose the relief, and the duty and VAT are due after all.

Toldstyrelsen’s own pages describe a clearance declaration and a declaration of personal property. Neither is yours to file on this lane, as the move is declared in France. That is the part we do, as our transfer of residence page describes. What customs wants from you is the proof of your move. The papers on this page are the usual set, and we confirm your own list after your quote. If customs asks for more documents than the pack we instructed, we tell you at once, and our guide shows what that looks like.

Denmark runs on the CPR number, and you cannot get one until you have somewhere to live and are living there. Anyone staying more than three months must notify the civil registration office. The deadline for reporting an address is five days after you move in, and you may report it up to four weeks before. You register in person, at an International Citizen Service centre or the municipality, with your passport and proof of the address. For Copenhagen that is International House on Nyropsgade. Its application cannot be lodged earlier than four weeks before you arrive. How long you must have lived at the address first varies by municipality, usually between one and three months. A British citizen who arrived after 2020 is a third-country national in Denmark. So a residence and work permit comes before the CPR number, not after it.

A signed lease is the document that unlocks your CPR appointment, so sign it and have the permit in hand first. The health card, a GP, the tax card, MitID and Digital Post all follow the CPR number. None of them is a job for moving week.

The timing question we hear most on this route is about keys. The rental starts on a set day, usually a weekday, and you want the belongings there the same week. The way to plan it is to count back from the day you get the keys. A 10 m³ move has a 3-day window, and we give you the exact loading time the day before. A 20 or 30 m³ vehicle of your own loads on a day you choose instead. That is the size to book when the keys are fixed and the furniture must follow them to the day.

Then the range runs from loading. So a Friday collection in London can put a shared load in Copenhagen the following week. The ranges rest on the tachograph’s 9-hour driving day, so those hours are two days at the wheel. If the keys slip, storage bridges the gap, and your locked price stays with you when the date moves.

Our example prices for London to Copenhagen, as read on 13 October 2026: a shared 5 m³ load £1,701, a 10 m³ £1,955, a 30 m³ vehicle of your own £4,544. Your quote prices your own addresses, and then it locks on every size. If the list grows and you need the next size, you pay that size’s locked price. Nobody invents a new one on loading day. The fixed price removals page sets out the rule. The deposit is 25%, with the balance on loading day.

The locked price is one bill: the move, the customs clearance work and the driver’s help. The bridge, the ferry and the fuel add nothing to it. Goods in transit cover of £20,275 per event applies from loading until arrival, with a £481 excess. What it excludes is on the cover page. At the Copenhagen door a named Danish partner’s crew meets the van; at the London end the crew is our own.