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

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

219 pointsthrowawayCPH126 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.

View on HN

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 :-)

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

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

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.

> overqualified to be in Denmark

explain

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

also, Danes came up with or were leads in the development of Ruby on Rails, PHP, C#, Turbo pascal, C++, Delphi, Google maps, Google wave, the V8 javascript engine for Chrome, and the Varnish cache.

Pretty good for a country with half the population of New York I'd say.

This is true, but the unfortunate angle on that is that, with the exception of Varnish, none of those things were actually made IN Denmark, if I recall correctly.

Update: Seems DHH started RoR while studying at CBS.

Varnish was started in Norway as far as I know. Not that it's that relevant to know exactly where it was started. :)

The initial funding came from Norway, but the code was written partially in Norway and Denmark IIRC. Perhaps mostly Denmark.

The lead developer, Poul Henning-Kamp, is a danish national but was hired by a norweigan newspaper to develop Varnish.

Turbo Pascal was definitely Danish (polydata)

Very interesting. What do you think is responsible for this? How did it come about? My understanding is that the education system in Denmark (and their core educational values) is different than most places.

> What do you think is responsible for this?

Legos? That and crappy weather that makes staying inside a good idea:-)

Lego is a medium. Like paint or sand. No need to pluralise :-)

It's a fairly fluid concept. In Italian, for instance, spaghetti and capelli ("hairs") are both plurals, rather than their "uncountable" English equivalents. I.e. "We're having spaghettis for dinner, but first comb your hairs".

I always played with "Legos" as a kid, so for me that's what they are.

All of scandinavia is really good in IT in regards to their tiny population. They also often have the best gamers/clans in the world :) Most of the year its very cold, IT infrastructure was very very good 10 years ago already and the countries are wealthy and have very good educational systems.

Yeah true. However from my understanding a country like Finland focuses on different things than Denmark. Look at their rankings on the international PISA tests for example. Finland scores are great, Denmark not as much (18th I believe). I remember reading at some point (though now I'm not finding it) that Denmark focuses a bit more on personal development relatively, while Finland (and most other places) on the knowledge (math/science).

True. Although I recall a couple of studies in the early nineties that measured skill levels, and also "claimed skill levels". Scandinavia was top-tier in actual skill levels, but a country-mile winner in claimed skill levels.

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.

> I've got points to burn here being an EU national with a bevy of academic qualifications.

I thought EU citizens were free to move to other EU countries without questions?

We are, what's this points system?

We are, 'though for staying for longer than three months you need to have a job or enough resources such that you won't "become a burden on the social services of the host Member State during the stay".

http://europa.eu/legislation_summaries/justice_freedom_secur...

just to expand, it is highly unlikely you would have any issues with the three months period in general, as there is no structure to actually check if you have been in a country more than three months or not (no borders so you can most likely claim that you were in another country until yesterday).

I'm joint EU and Australian - so that's probably why I had the points system in my head. There's no points system for the first three months. There are, however, restrictions on EU citizens after three months, as you need a registration certificate. As far as I can see, you can get this if you're either employed, able to fend for yourself while studying, or are filthy rich.

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

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?

Yes, the point is the comment. I haven't said that his comment is not helpful, I think otherwise. On the other hand, the remark on the qualifications of the Danish labour market is short sighted: "Hey, lets label the Danish average people for the sake of it". PS: this is not about being "smartest guy in the thread", it's about calling on those who make unsubstantiated remarks; in this case of the people's abilities in Denmark.

On "disagreeing being one" - looking forward to your comments ("Fed up") on each thread of HN. It's human nature to differ on views, and express alternate opinions, and that is of value.

That still isn't a point pal. Its an observation which frankly I don't even know if you're qualified to make. I know I certainly am not. He may have been just trying to make a guy feel better about a bad situation?

Regardless, my point is that yours did not add any value to the conversation at all, it did not leave an open door to discuss the state of the labour market, or ask "hey, are you saying that from experience?". Worse, you called someone you don't know unqualified.

Even if you happen to be the labour minister of Denmark, you still should have tried to add value to the conversation.

Edit (and last I'll say): "It's human nature to differ on views, and express alternate opinions, and that is of value."

DUDE - If thats what you'd done, we wouldn't be having this conversation. You didn't offer an alternate opinion.

Anyway, that is all. Have a good day.

It's a shame you don't apply the same criticism / comment standards to the very first remark towards the Danish.

take it easy man - too much passive-agressiveness

Hey, no aggression intended. Just saying it how it is.

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

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

We'll be on holidays in August

You have a national holiday that last a month?

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

We have 6 weeks

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

We're hiring developers!

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

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

It was that or the weather :)

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

Not for Sweden either (they do it for the very-easy-to-explore wellfare system... sigh)

I was kidding. I moved to CPH three years ago from Andalusia, Spain. I am still in shock

Hey man, the cold and the rain just makes you appreciate the summers :p

yeah .. which occurs on average every forth year or so ..

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

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.

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

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

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...

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

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!

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.

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

They've got a pretty interesting mobile payment start-up named iZettle: https://www.izettle.com. They're currently using Facebook integration, so you might be able to help them out with that.

There are a bunch of other companies in the same space in Sweden alone, apparently: http://blogs.wsj.com/tech-europe/2012/05/25/mobile-payments-....

tech community here is actually pretty good for a city of its size. Malmö is kinda the Oakland to Copenhagen's San Francisco... A lot of startups seem to come out of projects related to Lund University, so you might also look for things in Lund as well (about 10 minutes N. of Malmö .. actually just search for anything in Skåne, which will catch anything in Malmö/Lund/Helsingborg )

monster.se and se.indeed.com are pretty good for generic job listings. Also i've found universities here (i.e. http://www.lunduniversity.lu.se/about-lund-university/jobs , http://www.mah.se/english , http://www.slu.se/en/ ) are a good place to look for Python jobs, as a lot of bioinformatics/science dept. are looking for developers. I guess you might also try blocket.se and thelocal.se , as there are some jobs posted there...

Lastly, not too clear about your situation, but another option might be to enroll in a Pd'D program, as they will give you a visa and a decent wage. This is true in either Denmark or Sweden.

But, just to be warned, Denmark does have a reputation of having rather harsh visa requirements. I'm not joking when I say a lot of people in Malmö moved here because of the somewhat recent Danish crackdown on visas.

oh yeah, I forgot about these guys: http://www.jayway.com/jobs/

They're hiring iOS devs and seem like a good company. Offices right next to the central train station too.

Neo4j is in Malmo (http://www.neotechnology.com/2012/05/neo-technology-is-hirin...)

You can check out The Duffy Agency (English language ad-agency in Malmo), no idea what their hiring situation is. Very nice team of guys.

There's always ... Ikea

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

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.

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

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!

Perhaps you qualify for a green card?

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

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

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

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

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

/Søren P

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.

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.

It probably wouldn't work. Denmark taxes residents on their world wide income, cf. the Danish Act on Taxation at the Source: https://www.retsinformation.dk/forms/r0710.aspx?id=134306 (Sorry, I can't find a translation)

Another question is whether he would be interested in avoiding Danish taxation.

If he chooses to incorporate in Denmark, the taxation is a flat 25 percent of the profits, and - which is just as important as the percentage - most expenses can be deducted when calculating the profits for tax purposes. I don't believe American corporate tax is lower.

If he doesn't incorporate, or if incorporates and pays out salary from his corporation to himself, he is taxed personally. The Danish income taxation is on a progressive scale, ranging from around 10 percent to around 60 percent but again with quite good possibilities for deductions. As a rule of thumb, most people end up paying little more than 40 percent of their total income, even if it exceeds USD 100,000. I don't think the combined federal tax, state tax in California and social security is much lower than that.

As an American citizen, the US would tax him on his world wide income although he is no longer resident in the US. But there are different possibilities for tax deductions such as the foreign earned income exclusion for the first USD 95,100 made abroad. Also, there is a double taxation treaty between the US and Denmark which may take care of any taxes exceeding the USD 95,100.

Anyways, he would have to talk to both a Danish and an American CPA about that. It would be very expensive. In my experience, tax planning is for large corporations, not for the rest of us.

As I mentioned, I can't say anything about Denmark, but I spent 5 years with this setup in France.

In France during that time, I wasn't a resident (and not allowed to work for a French company, or get any benefits of residency); I was a long-stay visitor. It's a status designed for people who's lives, income, and often main residences, etc. are based elsewhere who just have a reason to stay in X country for more than the normal tourist visa (but they'll be going back someday, probably).

If he gets sponsored by a Danish company, he'll surely need to pay Danish taxes then. Though it's possible he'd get a discount; I know the Netherlands gives US immigrants (my brother among them) a significant tax reduction -- to US-similar rates -- to make immigration there more enticing.

If he does need to pay Danish taxes at some point, quite right, there's a treaty to avoid double-taxation -- whatever he pays in Danish taxes would be basically subtracted from what he owes in US taxes.

In France as a long-stay visitor, I was required to submit French tax returns (where I owed nothing, and it's pretty simple -- the middle-aged ladies in the tax office are really nice to me) and US tax returns (where I have a US accountant to help me out; he's not hugely expensive, actually, even though we have bank accounts in 3 countries and own residences in two; I think we paid about $1K last year).

Danish taxes are probably closer to the French system (fairly simple) than to the US system (horrendously complex unless you just have W-4 income), so he may never need a Danish accountant.

It would be nice if tax planning were just for large corporations, not individuals; unfortunately, depending on how interesting you make your life, sometimes it's unavoidable. :)

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!

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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

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...

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

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.

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.

Marry the girl?

Danish immigration law is more complicated than that!

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.

We care more about scaring away muslism than keeping qualified workers.

I didn't know cartoon industry had so many lobbyists in Danish government :)

Or fake at least.

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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

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

http://www.westart.dk/

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

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

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

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

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

Podio is in Denmark. Send them a line.

This is your best option, apply to everything

http://it-jobbanken.dk

> 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.

I sincerely don't think anything wrong with that. He has worked for Yahoo & Facebook and can find a lot cooler companies in SV than in Denmark but love is something more important than that.

I would consider that remark biased. Sweden and the swedes is okay, but a bit envious of Denmark. Anyways, you could try to post your story on amino.dk It's a startup site though, but that could lead to a fast employment. I hope you found a nice girl, and welcome to Denmark.

I guess he was referring to Silicon Valley (SV) - not Sweden.

He he, well then I would say he is spot on :-) Sperry about the harsh remark Sweden.

> Sweden and the swedes is okay, but a bit envious of Denmark.

Really? In what way? I have never ever heard anyone in Sweden talk about Denmark that way.

>I personally wouldn't hire someone who's primary purpose or staying with the company is a girl.

You've got your head up in the clouds man. You actually think you'll find an employee who is loyal to your company above all other things in the world, even his soulmate? I can't help but laugh at this attitude.

Take a look through human history and find me some literature about the epic struggle of a man to satisfy his boss, above all other things, including his family and wife.

I think it is a very honorable thing to be committed to a woman (or man, or robot) and if it were me doing the hiring I'd not discriminate against someone who's actually being honest about his priorities rather than blowing a plume of smoke up my arse.

>and if it were me doing the hiring

Ie. you are not

This is more about motivation and a financial commitment (for an employer), than love and honesty.

I'd rather hire someone that have a genuine interest in my company, customers, products and technology. Not very romantic, I know ;)

You must be a sad person then :(

It's not a binary decision; he should indeed find a company that honestly interests him, or he will be unhappy there (regardless of how happy his private life is; work takes up a large chunk of your waking hours!).

And that doesn't rule out explaining what brings him to the country.

You've never been burned.

Hiring foreign employees is a lot different than hiring locals. Depending upon the country, sponsoring a visa can cost a lot of money and, more importantly, a lot of time. That lost time takes many forms. You'll have reams of paperwork. You may have interviews with immigration departments. You may need to find and/or furnish an apartment. You may need to spend weeks holding the new hire's hand after he arrives, teaching him how to deposit his checks in his new land, buy groceries, etc. And you may need to set your plan in motion months ahead of time to keep the organization running smoothly.

So when you invest all that time into bringing someone on board, and then they just quit shortly after arriving ("LOL broke up with gf seeyaltr"), it hurts. It hurts bad, for months, while you scramble to find someone else. And it's not the kind of mistake you make twice.

Without understanding exactly how it works in Denmark, I can nonetheless understand an employer's reluctance to subsidize a foreigner's love life.

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).

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

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

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

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

I've dreamed to work for LEGO.

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

marry her

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

Good luck!

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

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