Adopting a child

Leave before receiving the child
—receiving the child abroad
If you are staying abroad to receive your child, you are entitled to leave with pay for up to four weeks prior to receiving the child. In certain cases, the benefits period may be extended further by up to four weeks.

—receiving the child in Denmark
If you receive your child in Denmark, you are entitled to leave with pay for up to one week prior to receiving the child if—out of consideration for the child—the adoption authorities require you to stay in the place in which the child is living. In certain cases, the benefits period can be extended further by up to one week.

Leave after receiving the child
Both parents are entitled to leave of absence for six weeks in the first ten weeks after receiving the child. You are only allowed to take two of these weeks together with the other parent. The weeks must be taken as a continuous period.

Additional (parental) leave
Read more about Parental leave.

Notice of leave
In as far as possible, you must give DTU three months’ notice of when you expect to receive the child, 

If you want to take leave of absence in connection with receiving your child, you must notify DTU of the start date and duration of your leave as early as possible.

You do this by filling in this form and uploading it in DTU Fusion. Your manager will automatically be notified of your leave through the DTU Fusion system. Here is a guide, which quickly and easily guides you through how to upload your leave form correctly.

Once your leave has been registered, you will receive a confirmation letter via e-Boks with an enclosed leave form, which you must also complete and upload in DTU Fusion after having received the child. 

If you have not already notified DTU of how you intend to use your other leave options prior to receiving the child, the following notice rules apply:

There are no other special notice rules for leave within the first ten weeks after receiving the child, but please inform your department/section as early as possible if you want to take leave during this period.

No later than six weeks after receiving the child, you must inform DTU about how you intend to use your other leave options—the parental leave—including whether you want to extend or defer the parental leave.

You must use the form— Notice of adoption and parental leave, which Corporate HR will send you when you have notified DTU of your adoption leave.

Entitlement to benefits
As a general rule, in families in which the parents live together after receiving the child, each parent is entitled to 24 weeks of leave with maternity/paternity benefits after receiving the child. You may choose to transfer some of the weeks to each other so that a parent can take more than 24 weeks of leave with maternity/paternity benefits.

After receiving the child, each parent is entitled to six weeks of leave with maternity/paternity benefits, which must be taken within the first ten weeks after receiving the child. After the first ten weeks after receiving the child, each parent has 18 weeks of leave with maternity/paternity benefits, which must—as a general rule—be taken within the first year after receiving the child. A number of these weeks are earmarked and cannot be transferred to the other parent.

Entitlement to salary

Your right to receive salary from DTU during periods of leave with pay is conditional upon DTU receiving the full benefits for the salary paid.

This means, for example, that you are obliged to review and complete/submit (where necessary) any forms you receive from Udbetaling Danmark in connection with your leave.

Any failure to meet your obligations may result in salary deductions, parental leave without pay, or the loss of other time off in lieu of leave.

Please note that it is your responsibility to ensure that daily benefits are available when you want to take leave.

Please note that exercising the full entitlement to salary under the Agreement on Maternity, Paternity and Parental Leave generally requires that weeks are transferred from the other parent. You can read more about the options of transferring leave from the other parent at www.borger.dk.

Holiday and pension
The taking of holiday in connection with leave must be agreed with your department/section. You cannot interrupt your leave with pay to go on holiday.

You accrue holiday and special days of holiday as well as the usual pension contributions during your leave, but if you choose to extend your leave, no pension contribution will be paid during the additional weeks.

Public holidays, etc.
If a period of leave contains public holidays and the like (such as Store Bededag or Constitution DayI), these days will count as days of leave and no compensation will be paid.

Seniority
The time you have been absent due to leave (receipt of child, stay abroad, as well as adoption and parental leave) counts towards your seniority in relation to salary, period of notice, and long service anniversary.

Childcare days
You are entitled to two childcare days with pay per year per child, up to and including the calendar year in which the child turns seven. This means a total of 16 days in the child’s first eight years of life.
Read more about childcare days.

Further information
You can find more useful information on planning leave, payment of maternity/paternity benefits, duty of disclosure, and many other matters at www.borger.dk.