Ask HN: I'm desperate to stay in Denmark. Anyone need a great web/ios dev?

219 points by throwawayCPH 13 years ago | 126 comments

Using a throwaway account, although I'm pretty active on HN.

I spent 6 years working in Silicon Valley where I worked many years for companies such as Yahoo! and Facebook.

My overall experience is probably around 10 years.

I specialize in Python/Django as well as pretty good in Obj-C/Cocoa/Cocoa Touch, and I've got many apps in App Store and few Mac OSX apps as well.

I know C, C++, and PHP pretty well. I also know some Perl, and can pickup any technology very quickly.

I can do development, server admin, IT work, etc.

I freelance and run my own small business specializing in web apps and ios/osx apps.

I'm from US, but now find myself in Copenhagen, Denmark where I met a nice girl and want to stay for foreseeable future.

My tourist visa is quickly expiring, and I need a work visa to stay longer than 3 months.

Anyone interested in hiring me and sponsoring my work visa? I promise I won't disappoint and can bring my tremendous experience to any tasks you have.

Send me an email at desperateincph@gmail.com and we'll talk more.

EDIT: Thanks for all the advice and suggestions. I'm floored at all of the help. If someone is in CPH, and wants to grab coffee, and talk about tech, travel, or whatever, let me know as well.

flexie 13 years ago |

Danish attorney (and python noob) here.

Just want to add that if you can't qualify for one of the working visas or a family based visa, which can be tricky due to the many specific requirements, you shouldn't lose hope. If your girlfriend is a Danish citizen or a citizen of another European Union country you can make use of the EU rules regarding free movement of labor, i.e. live and work in Denmark without a visa and without financial requirements, without having employment at hand, without expensive application fees or the other usual obstacles set up to make immigration hard.

This follows from the Metock ruling from the European Court of Justice:

http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=CELEX:...

In short, the Metock ruling says that the free movement of labor entitles any EU citizen to bring a partner/family member, who is a citizen of a third country such as the US, with her when she moves from one EU country to another for work.

To make use of this ruling both of you will have to move to another European Union country to work there for a short period (for example 3 months). You will probably have trouble getting working visa there but your girlfriend can work there as an EU citizen. You don't have to go further away than across the bridge to Malmö. It will probably be necessary to marry, since the requirement for unmarried is a "durable relationsship", which you may not fulfill in such short period (as I understand it you met recently).

You need to live in the other EU country, not just stay there at a hotel. To be well within the requirements your girlfriend should try to work there in what is at least a half time job. She doesn't have to get any kind of qualified job.

Though they are reluctant, the Danish immigration authorities are obliged to explain how you benefit from this EU loop hole if you ask them about it. Be sure to ask in detail about the requirements.

Good luck, and welcome to Denmark :-)

throwawayCPH 13 years ago | |

Is there anyway to contact you? I wanted to ask a simple visa question.

kmfrk 13 years ago | |

This comment should be at the top. And very well-explained to boot.

kmfrk 13 years ago |

You can try contacting your embassy (http://denmark.usembassy.gov/) and see what options you have available. It sounds like you're pretty overqualified to be in Denmark. :)

You could also try to hit up the Robocat guys (http://robocatapps.com/) and ask if they know someone in the community who have any open positions.

I don't know how well they're doing, but Planely (http://www.planely.com/) offer visas for employees, and I imagine they'd love to have you there.

Airbnb also have a Copenhagen office, and while they don't explicitly have an open position, I imagine they'd love to make an exception for you: http://www.airbnb.com/jobs/locations/copenhagen-denmark.

I have no idea how getting a cool developer gig in Copenhagen works, but you could do worse than those suggestions.

EDIT: Oh, right, there is also the newly re-released Django People: https://people.djangoproject.com/dk/. Check out the profiles and see if any companies and openings show up.

EDIT2: You could also try setting up a profile on http://angel.co aimed specifically at Copenhagen.

EDIT3: You could also check out LinkedIn and Quora. I doubt they'll get you anywhere, but it doesn't hurt to try.

iconfinder 13 years ago | |

We have open positions at Iconfinder. Call 0045 61 69 67 81 or mail martin.leblanc@iconfinder.com

franzus 13 years ago | |

> overqualified to be in Denmark

explain

hirenj 13 years ago | | |

I think the overqualified here probably is in respect to the points system. You gain points for the level of education that you have, what your nationality is etc. For example, I've got points to burn here being an EU national with a bevy of academic qualifications.

seanmcdirmid 13 years ago | | |

Ya, that's weird. From my own anecdotal experience, Denmark has the maybe highest per capita computer science PhDs in the world.

antr 13 years ago | |

you seem to be underqualified to make qualification assumptions of the Danish labour market

geoffw8 13 years ago | | |

Was there a point to your comment? A rebuttal? A... anything? Fed up of people on HN just trying to be the smartest guy in the thread through odd means, disagreeing being one. The guy made a helpful contribution to the thread, don't give him a hard time for doing so, or worse, calling him under qualified

Worse of all its just not nice, you might have inferred from his comment he isn't qualified to x, what do you think people inferred from your comment, about you?

luke10ferrari 13 years ago |

I can help, I am an entrepreneur having a web startup in Copenhagen.

Come to Founders House, Gothersgade 8d, 1123 Copenhagen. It's a shared working space with 15-20 web startups. Ask for Luca from Evertale (me). We don't need to hire but I am happy to give you an introduction to all the companies and possibly someone might need your skills! You will find us any working day 9:30-18:00. We'll be on holidays in August, so try to come in the next two weeks.

Good luck and take care,

Luca

iconfinder 13 years ago | |

Hi luca. Martin from iconfinder and fellow FH member here :-)

We're hiring developers!

jcslzr 13 years ago | |

We'll be on holidays in August

You have a national holiday that last a month?

keevie 13 years ago | | |

There's a reason he's desperate to stay in Denmark...

iconfinder 13 years ago | | |

We have 6 weeks

jjoergensen 13 years ago |

Hi, try and give me a call if you like +45 31 36 97 05 or write me here jmj@dagensbedste.dk. I cannot make any promises though.

Today we do development in Barcelona and with some externals, but our main office is in Denmark and I could use someone locally who can work independently. We are making a very successful daily deals site in Denmark and 7 other countries.

Best of luck

- Jonathan

prtk 13 years ago |

Even before I clicked I knew it was about "girl". ;-)

pdelgallego 13 years ago | |

It was that or the weather :)

oellegaard 13 years ago | | |

No-one would move to Denmark for the weather. Trust me, I'm Danish.

mahmud 13 years ago | | |

I did it for the girl, weather was just a bonus :-) Greetings from Australia :-)

messyp 13 years ago |

If nothing pops up soon, just move to Malmö. Just about everyone here is shacked up with a Dane and living in exile (Denmark changed their residency laws so that now even if you're married to a Dane it's still difficult to get a visa). In Sweden, you'll get at least 6 months on a tourist visa.

philipk 13 years ago |

We are hiring qualified people for both our office in Malmö and in Copenhagen. Send me your resume and come by for coffe. Best Phil philip@jayway.com

tonfa 13 years ago |

Unity has an office in DK: http://unity3d.com/company/jobs/overview

haasted 13 years ago |

Trifork (www.trifork.com) are pretty big in the app space in Denmark. Try applying there.

Edit: also, tradeshift have their development offices in CPH.

Yet another edit: A Danish blogger recently assembled a list of Danish startups. Try looking through that for a match.

http://www.version2.dk/blog/opdateret-liste-over-danske-ivae...

wiredearp 13 years ago | |

Just to add that Tradeshift also has development offices in San Francisco and that they might (well) be on the lookout for an experienced iOS developer in Copenhagen, even though it may not show from http://tradeshift.com/jobs

xfax 13 years ago |

Microsoft has a development center in Copenhagen. I believe they develop the Dynamics CRM product there. Here's a list of open engineering positions as of today:

https://careers.microsoft.com/search.aspx#&&p4=DK...

Good luck!

hjalle 13 years ago |

I'm pretty sure you already thought about it, but you might consider Sweden (Malmo) as well, since it's really close to CPH and will probably increase your chances of staying in that area at least, although it's not Denmark.

throwawayCPH 13 years ago | |

Yeah, Malmö is also an option, although I'm not sure how big the tech community is there?

koevet 13 years ago |

Hi, drop me an email (luciano@aestasit.com), I have good connections in Copenhagen

kokey 13 years ago |

Good luck. Welcome to being a visa requiring foreigner ;-) I have no idea about the Danish system, hopefully it's easier than in the UK. In the UK an employer needs to apply for a sponsorship license first, then they can sponsor you, it costs money and takes many months, and subjected to a monthly quota.

Seems like Denmark is a lot easier. Their points based system still let you in without a work permit (but only with certain occupations and if you have a masters degree or better) or if a Danish employer offers you more than 375k dk ($80k US), you won't need to get a work permit either.

nhannah 13 years ago | |

hahaha 375k dkk is about 62k USD right now...I wish it was 80k

oellegaard 13 years ago |

I know someone that might be hiring in Copenhagen. I linked them here ;)

P.S. We should totally make a Django meetup in Denmark soon!

colkassad 13 years ago |

Perhaps you qualify for a green card?

http://www.nyidanmark.dk/en-us/coming_to_dk/work/greencard-s...

luckystrike 13 years ago |

Conferize is looking to hire a Senior Developer with Rails experience based in Copenhagen. Might be worth a shot:

http://jobs.hasgeek.com/view/g7588

volpav 13 years ago |

Trustpilot is actively hiring. Take a look, mb you'll find something. http://www.trustpilot.com/jobs

sorenbs 13 years ago | |

We Are very international and already have english speaking people on the team. We Are primarily a .Net shop though.

Spas 13 years ago | | |

Yea. Otherwise it would be cool to have him I think :)

/Søren P

cskau 13 years ago | |

I was just about to post this.

The atmosphere is nice and international. It's organized yet dynamic; fast paced yet relaxed. They're a relatively young start-up and last I heard they were well funded. Give them a call or drop them an email. :)

Full disclosure: I used to work with these guys before they moved to Copenhagen.

jtheory 13 years ago |

Another possible avenue: if you can work as a private contractor (or remotely) for companies OUTSIDE of Denmark, you may be able to base your source of revenue in the US, pay US taxes only, and get a long-term visitor visa in Denmark.

Basically, you set up a business presence in the US (an address and a phone number.. which could be a paid virtual office service and a SkypeIn number... and stick with US bank accounts, file a D/B/A, etc.), then you simply work remotely, all the time.

From the Danish perspective -- my experience is in France, but I know other European countries have variations on the same theme -- basically you prove to them that you have sufficient money and external income to stay in Denmark, housing (your gf would sign an affidavit), health insurance, and they give you a visa for a year, which you can renew each year by proving the same thing over again.

In France you have to apply from outside the country, so if you have to get things set up in the US this would be the time to fly back there to get the process going.

Whatever you do, best of luck; my wife & I have worked our way through different immigration statuses in various countries, and it's always frustrating.

nhannah 13 years ago |

It looks like a ton of people have helped you but I still thought I would put in my 2 cents as I may be the person closest to where you are...I went to DK on a student visa, met a girl, finished school in the US(where I am from) and moved back with the need of a visa.

You will have 3 options I would say, one, get a job that pays you enough/is on the positive list(this is what I did), but you will pay out your ass in tax and not have the right to stay if you lose the job. Two, get enough points on the Danish immigration system to stay(unlikely I would guess, but I haven't looked in a little while). Three, what I would suggest, keep freelancing but pay tax in the US, spend 3/6 months in DK. You will spend less in plane tickets by a ton then the difference in tax.

I can't really push this tax bit enough, the difference in cost of living combined with the high tax will change your lifestyle most likely. Unless you find someone who will pay you 2X what you make now you will end up with less in the bank and not be entitled to a lot of what the Danish welfare system offers. Just a warning. All the best in CPH!

danielsju6 13 years ago |

If you're kick ass, my start up AppBlade (mobile application distribution, management, and security) is looking for help, https://appblade.com

We have native SDKs (open-source [android, ios, javascript, and blackberry]) and are developed in Ruby on Rails on the back end. Send me a message if you are interested.

Ecco 13 years ago |

Google's V8 is being developed in Denmark. Just apply at Google :-)

cskau 13 years ago | |

In Denmark yes, but not in Copenhagen. Google's Danish development office is locate in Aarhus, near Aarhus University.

As far as I know they do have a sales office in Copenhagen though.

dalleng 13 years ago | |

If he already worked at FB and Yahoo it seems he has the right qualifications.

cskau 13 years ago | | |

Not necessarily.

The Danish dev team is working almost entirely on V8 and Dart which is primarily C.

They work on very specific things related to optimization of virtual machines and programming language design.

mraleph 13 years ago | |

Not anymore, V8 team is now mostly located in Munich.

wingerlang 13 years ago |

Read this post, they are looking for some (game devs) and will provide housing. No pay for 2 months though.

http://www.gamedev.se/forum/viewtopic.php?t=7030&start=0...

wasigh 13 years ago |

Sitecore is based in Copenhagen. You may have a shot there: http://www.sitecore.net/Company/Job-Opportunities/Denmark.as...

bronc 13 years ago |

You'll need to get residency first. They don't use work visas per say, it's the EU which regulates it all. I'd apply for residency first, even without a job. You can ask for residency based on you living with your girlfriend (EU laws are a lot more relaxed). If you were in Sweden I could help out more, but unfortunately I'm just across the water from CPH.

Denmark also has a central job site (run by the govt), and LinkedIn has a lot of jobs there as well.

stelian 13 years ago |

Try starting a company. You'll probably have to have some money to start, but I'm guessing that's not a problem.

Look for other americans on forums. They should know the drill.

Look for an authorized translator. Born in US. She can probably advise you the best.

Search for a way to get an extension. Even if that means you have to go back to US for a couple of months. If the girl is serious she should still be in Denmark 3 months later.

Bottom line, avoid begging for a job.

kirchhoff 13 years ago |

Marry the girl?

kzrdude 13 years ago | |

Danish immigration law is more complicated than that!

exim 13 years ago | | |

I remember Danmark had issues with skilled human resource leakage, (partly) because of high taxes. So maybe they enhanced the immigration laws a bit, for easy "importing" skilled workforce.

exim 13 years ago | |

Or fake at least.

INTPenis 13 years ago |

Think about the Swedish job market. It's the wrong way to be commuting from Denmark to Sweden but if you're desperate it might keep you going.

Praveens 13 years ago |

All the best for and hope something works out for you. And despite what few of the comments suggest, i don't think your motivation and in turn your dedication would be any less towards the company hiring you. And based on your qualifications, you would be a "Catch"<hope i am using it right> for any company.

pallinder 13 years ago |

Well, send an email to zendesk, they are based in Copenhagen and are a nice bunch. They are a rails shop though.

exim 13 years ago |

Why don't you start a PhD job? e.g. at http://www.itu.dk/

kmfrk 13 years ago |

I'm pretty sure any company who don't have their heads up their asses would love to have you. This is a great opportunity for anyone who knows someone in Denmark to do them a nice favour and get them to hire him. They'll be happy they did.

dejv 13 years ago |

How about making trip outside of EU and return back which should give you another 90 days tourist visa?

It is not permanent solution, but it give you some more time to get better visas.

throwawayCPH 13 years ago | |

I would need to stay out 90 days as well before returning for another 90 days...

regandersong 13 years ago |

This online petition might be a good directory of startups to get in touch with. Best of luck!

http://www.westart.dk/

surething 13 years ago |

Phase One A/S is looking for a dev; take a look: http://www.phaseone.com

daniel_iversen 13 years ago |

Good luck with everything dude, Denmark is a lovely place (I'm biased, grew up there). A tweet was all I could lend though ;)

troels 13 years ago |

Could you be a bit more specific about the kind of work you would like to do? Web apps? iOs? Game development? HTML+Js?

tomjen3 13 years ago |

https://www.workindenmark.dk/ might be worth looking at.

throwawayCPH2 13 years ago |

Podio is a great place to work in CPH, and not only because we have the best parties. Get in touch: phil@podio.com

achristoffersen 13 years ago |

Podio is in Denmark. Send them a line.

pdelgallego 13 years ago |

This is your best option, apply to everything

http://it-jobbanken.dk

the1 13 years ago |

> want to stay for foreseeable future.

and then

> I need a work visa to stay longer than 3 months.

I don't know about the law, but if a company sponsors you, you probably need to stay with the company for at least a year. And, I personally wouldn't hire someone whose primary purpose for staying with the company is a girl. You didn't have to mention about it at all. But, good luck.

r3m6 13 years ago |

Broaden your search: If you find work with any company in continental Europe (=> Schengen area!) the work visa will allow you to live in Denmark. You could, for example, work remotely for a company in Germany.

For example in Germany, most IT jobs with a salary over 40000 Euro/Year qualify for a work visa (first three years, then unlimited).

Andaith 13 years ago |

I'm no help sorry, I just wanted to say: Good luck and I hope you get to stay there.

schierbeck 13 years ago |

Write me at dasch@zendesk.com - we're always interested in meeting talented people.

mxttr0 13 years ago |

Just so you know, VMware has a dev office in Aarhus. Good luck.

tonfa 13 years ago | |

Google does too (V8), not sure if they are hiring though.

stewie2 13 years ago |

I've dreamed to work for LEGO.

johsoe 13 years ago |

try out nodes.dk perhaps, dunno if they are still looking for iOS devs

tunele 13 years ago |

marry her

noob1 13 years ago |

http://www.nyidanmark.dk/en-us/coming_to_dk/work/work.htm

Good luck!

adv0r 13 years ago |

I forwarded this to a friend ;) Good luck with that!