YES. As a rule, you have the same right to visitation as your co-parent, whether or not your are the biological parent.  

YES. But it can be amended according to the interest of the child.  

YES. If you are the only two active parents, and you de-facto have been a parent of the child for a while, you could for example be granted 7-7 visitation rights, even if you are not the legal parent.  

NO. Unless visitation is granted for another reason, for example if you gave the child away in a second-parent adoption.

NO. Unless you are also a social parent in a two-parent family.

MAYBE. You may have a right to limited visitation with the child, if you were the legal parent of the child at birth, and the parent(s) later adopted the child through second-parent adoption.  

MAYBE. The contract is only legal, if you are the legal parent, if the agreement was made after the birth of the child, and while you did not live together. The agreement can be amended by Familieretshuset, if circumstances have changed significantly since the contract was signed.  

The relevant Danish law regulating visitation is Forældreansvarsloven §4, supplemented by several international conventions. These regulations say that decisions regarding who gets to spend time with a child (visitation) is decided by what is in the interest of the child.  

This means that if the adults don’t agree about who, when or how much visitation the child should have with each adult, then Familieretshuset or the courts will make the decision, based on what’s best for the child. 

As a general rule the child always has visitation rights with their two legal parents. The law assumes that it is best for the child to have contact to both legal parents, and that there must be good reasons to prevent a legal parent spending time with the child: For example violence or severe distress when spending time with the parent. On the other hand, there is no duty for the legal parent to spend time with the child, if the parent doesn’t want to.  

When the extent of visitation is determined, Familieretshuset or the courts lean heavily onto how well the child knows the parent, that they do not live with. If the child has lived equally among the parents in the first years of their life, and the parents cooperate well, it will often be decided to split the time equally between each parent.  

If the parents have never lived together, and shortly after birth begin disagreeing about how much the child should spend time with each parent, it can mean a whole lot, with who the child in fact lives with. It can factor in how much visitation is decided to be for the best of the child. In this case, you can’t expect that it will be decided that the child should live half of the time with each parent.  

There is a difference between being a legal parent and having custody over a child in Denmark. You can have the right to visitation, even if you don’t have custody, if you are one of the legal parents. As a general rule, the two parents that the child has right to visitation with, are the two legal parents. If you have custody over the child, but are not a legal parent, the custody does not give you the right to visitation with the child.  

It is possible in some situations, that visitation is granted to other than the legal parents. Read more below.  

In almost any case, the general rule is that the child has the right to visitation with both legal parents, this also applies to situations where the co-mother (Danish: medmor) is not the one who gave birth to the child. It requires that you live up to demands and have been registered as co-mother when the child was born. In this case, you are completely equal to other parents. It doesn’t matter if you are genetically or biologically related to the child or not, the deciding factor is whether you are a legal parent and if you have had a relation to the child to a degree, that it is in the best interest of the child to continue spending time with you.  

Are you not a legal parent, there are some instances where you can have a right to visitation. Read more about it under the other bullets in this guide.  

As a known donor, the child can in some instances have the right to visitation with you, even if there are two legal parents. This is the only situation in which a child can have the right to visitation with three adults.  

If the known donor, at the time of birth of the child, is registered as a parent, and the intended parent / co-parent afterwards goes through a step-child-adoption (Danish: stedbarnsadoption) of the child, then there can be made a decision to delegate visitation rights with the known donor, as long as the donor and the child have had contact before the adoption and it is deemed to be in the interest of the child.  

This is because, that if a child is adopted, there can according to Forældreansvarsloven § 20 a, stk. 1, following a request from the original parents of the child, be ruled visitation rights or other types of contact with the original parents (namely only in the case that the child before the adoption had visitation or contact with the person requesting visitation). This rule also applies to voluntary adoptions including step-child-adoptions.  

Visitation always has to be in the interest of the child and is not a ‘right’ for the parent, so it depends on what Familieretshuset or the courts deem is best for the child. You must be aware that this will be a verdict based on the situation as a whole, so you can’t rely on being granted visitation on this background.  

If the rules regarding co-mothering or co-fathering (Danish: medmoderskab eller medfaderskab) apply to you (or other rules that make it so the parent, that didn’t give birth or donate sperm have been ruled as the legal parent at the birth of the child) then the donor cannot be granted visitation, even if you apply for it. It is only in the case that the donor at birth was registered as father or mother, and the other intended parent afterwards became a parent through step-child adoption, that the donor can apply for limited visitation with the child.  

This special rule for visitation only applies to donors who were the legal parent at birth, and later gave the child away through adoption (step-child-adoption or other types of adoption).

There can be given the right to visitation between the child and a social parent, if you are only two parents. If you are three or more parents, there is no way to be granted visitation beyond the two legal parents, unless one of them was at some point the legal parent of the child.  

If you are only two parents, there can be a right to visitation between the child and you as a social parent. This also applies to situations where there actually is another legal parent, but the child has no contact with this parent, or very rarely has contact with this legal parent. For example, if the other legal parent is a known donor, that doesn’t in other ways play a major role in the child’s life. In this case, the child can be granted visitation with you, even if you are a not a legal parent, according to Forældreansvarsloven § 20.  

If the social parent has had the same relationship, as if it had been the child’s actual parent, it is likely that it will be granted as much visitation as if the social parent was the biological or the legal parent, for example in a 7-7 system. For other relatives, that can’t be seen as social parents, the visitation would be more limited.  

When the amount of visitation is granted, the authorities look at the interest of the child, and the child’s relationship to the social parent. Because of this, it is a factor, how long the social parent has in fact acted as the child’s parent, and how much time the social parent has spent with the child, prior to the application.  

Beyond this, Familieretshuset will consider the same factors, that they do in other visitation cases to serve the interests of the child, namely the home-life of the social parent and the ability to parent (Danish: Forældreevne). They will use the same rules for making visitation agreements, upholding these agreements and so forth. As opposed to visitation with legal parents, the social parent or relative will have to pay for the child’s transport to their place.  

If there is more than one relevant relative beyond the legal parent, that the child should have visitation rights with, it can also weigh in on how much visitation is granted.  

If there are already two active, legal parents, you can’t apply for visitation like this. If you were at some point the legal parent of the child, for example, as a donor, you can apply for visitation on this background (see the questions and answers above).  

It is possible to make a binding agreement about visitation and where the child should live, where you agree to where and how much the child should see each of you and where it should live. It requires a few things  

• You can’t live together, when you make the agreement 

• That the agreement is signed after the birth of the child

• That part of the agreement says that it can serve as a foundation for a verdict according to Retsplejelovens § 478 (Danish: aftalen kan tjene som grundlag for fuldbyrdelse i henhold til retsplejelovens § 478) 

It is important that you check that the three points above are done correctly, otherwise the agreement is not binding and can’t be used in court. If you do it correctly, and the agreement otherwise lives up to a formal contract, your agreement will be binding until significant things change, unless there is a reason for the authorities to presume that the agreement is not in the best interest of the child. Significant changes could be that one of you moves far away, or that custody over the child or the child’s home changes. In this case, the agreement will no longer be valid, and you should make a new one, possibly with help from Familieretshuset.  

When making the agreement, it is a benefit to use this form from Familieretshuset. You fill out the form by writing, when the parent, who is not the parent where the child has their address (Danish: bopælsforælder), should have visitation. The other parent ir together with the child the rest of the time. It is not possible to make a binding agreement that the child should have visitation with more than two parents.  

It is a benefit to add to this form, or to your own agreement, that you both sign and have witnesses sign, that they have seen you sign it. It is not a requirement to sign before witnesses, but it can be a benefit if you later end up in a dispute and need proof. If you disagree, and need to bring the agreement before the courts, it can safeguard you from the other parent denying their signature.  

If you use witnesses, you need to find two people who are not close relatives and also don’t have an interest in who gets visitation. This means you have to find someone who is not in your family. The witnesses must be 18 years old. They must sign that you are both over 18, sane, that you are the people you claim to be, and that they have seen you sign the agreement on the date that you sign. The witnesses should give their addresses and contact details, so they can be contacted, if the validity of the contract is disputed.  

Under all circumstances both parents need to remember to keep each copy of the agreement, and it is a good idea to keep a digital file that you can find online.  

Be aware that even a valid and binding agreement about visitation can be changed in some situations, even against your will. It can be changed if:  

• Familieretshuset finds that the agreement is not in the interest of the child, for example because of their age, or 

• The parents make a new agreement, that you make into a binding agreement, and is valid as per above 

• Familieretshuset finds that there has been significant changes in your situation, that make it necessary to make a new agreement, for example a change in the where the child lives.  

• If it becomes obvious that someone was forced or threatened to sign the agreement