Non-EU PhD student working in Denmark, live in Sweden

Hi,

I assume in my answer that you have right to work in Denmark, also after your PhD contract ends. As an Indian national you need a residence-/work permit which gives you the right to take any job with one day notice. If you don’t have/can get that it probably don’t give mening to join A-kasse. For being eligible for Unemployment benefits (“dagpenge”), you must be available for the danish labor market.

We do not guide about residence-/work permit, but refers to The Danish Agency for International Recruitment and Integration (SIRI).

When commuting to work on the other side of Øresund, you must be covered by an a-kasse in the country of work (in your case a danish A-kasse).

The cost of membership varies between DKK 451 to DKK 527 (in 2022). You can see a full list of the 22 A-kasser in Denmark here: https://www.a-kasser.dk/unemployment-insurance-funds/

As a PhD student you have two ways to go regarding A-kasse membership:
1. You can have a free study membership, and if you have been student member for at least 1 year when you finish your PhD, you are eligible for benefits according to the “graduate” rule from first day after finishing PhD.
You can also use the graduate rule if you apply for membership at latest 2 weeks after finishing PhD. But in this case you must accept a 1 month quarantine with benefits.
Graduates get only DKK 13,836 per month in 2022 (with no dependent children).
You can read more about free study membership and the graduate rule on our website, in the “guide section”.

2. You can also choose to pay for a normal membership for employees (about DKK 470 per month, tax deductable). If you do that there are other requirements for being eligible for benefits. However you will get DKK 19,351 per month.
You can read more about the requirements here: https://www.a-kasser.dk/requirements/.

Yes you will be eligible for Unemployment benefits, even if you live in Sweden and work in Denmark.

However you must be aware that if you become unemployed, the rules say that you must change to an A-kasse in the country of residence (in your case Sweden).

If this happens, you can transfer your earned rights (memberhip periods, working periods) from the danish A-kasse to the swedish. This requires that you get a PD U1 document from your danish A-kasse. This PD U1 document is then used by your swedish A-kasse to have your earned rights correctly transfered and registered.

Best regards,

Anders Weber, http://www.a-kasser.dk