It depends on your passport. US, UK, EU, Canadian and Australian passports need no visa to leave the airport, and Indian passports need a Schengen visa. Copenhagen sends passengers flying to or from outside Europe's Schengen area through passport control, so plan on meeting it even if you're only changing planes.
No visa is needed to leave the airport with a US, UK, EU, Canadian or Australian passport, for up to 90 days in any 180. Indian passports need a Schengen short-stay visa, applied for before you fly. If you're only changing planes, plan on passport control at Copenhagen all the same, and nationals of 13 countries need an airport transit visa even to stay in the airport.
If you stay airside
At Copenhagen Airport (CPH), plan on meeting Danish passport control whichever way you connect. Denmark is one of the Schengen countries, which don’t check passports at their shared borders; Norway, Sweden, Germany and most of the EU are in, while the UK, Ireland and everywhere outside Europe are not. The airport says anyone flying to or from a country outside Schengen goes through passport control, and it describes no route that lets a connecting passenger skip it.
- From outside Schengen to a Schengen country (New York to Oslo): you enter the Schengen area at Copenhagen, so you pass passport control here and need permission to enter (below), even if you never leave the airport.
- From a Schengen country to outside Schengen (Paris to New York): you pass passport control on the way to your gate, at the main control near the C gates or the smaller one near the E gates.
- Between two flights outside Schengen (London to Bangkok): plan on passport control too. If your passport needs a visa to enter Denmark, ask your airline before you travel whether your connection needs one.
- Within Schengen (Oslo to Paris): no passport control at all.
SAS, the main airline here, says a change between a Schengen and a non-Schengen flight takes a little longer than other connections, because of the extra checks.
Airport transit visa
Nationals of 13 countries need a Danish airport transit visa even to change planes at Copenhagen: Afghanistan, Bangladesh, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Ghana, Iran, Iraq, Nigeria, Pakistan, Somalia, Sri Lanka and Syria. India isn’t on the list. Denmark’s list is shorter than some other Schengen countries’, so check Denmark’s, not another country’s.
You don’t need one if you hold a valid visa, long-term visa or residence permit from a Schengen country; a valid visa from Canada, Cyprus, Ireland, Japan or the US, when you’re flying to or from that country or on to another; or a residence permit from Andorra, Canada, Cyprus, Ireland, Japan, San Marino, the UK or the US that lets you return there. Family members of EU, EEA and Swiss citizens, holders of diplomatic passports and flight crew are exempt too.
If you want to leave the airport
Stepping out of the airport, even for an afternoon, counts as entering Denmark and the whole Schengen area, so your passport has to allow it.
| Passport | What you need to leave Copenhagen airport |
|---|---|
| United States | Nothing but your passport: visa-free stays of up to 90 days in any 180 |
| United Kingdom | Nothing but your passport: visa-free stays of up to 90 days in any 180 |
| EU, EEA and Swiss | Your passport or national ID card; adults with an electronic passport can use the self-service gates |
| Canada | Nothing but your passport: visa-free stays of up to 90 days in any 180 |
| Australia | Nothing but your passport: visa-free stays of up to 90 days in any 180 |
| India | A Schengen short-stay visa, from the embassy or visa centre before you travel. An airport transit visa won’t get you out of the terminal |
The 90 days count across the whole Schengen area, so a layover uses a day of them; for a few hours in Copenhagen that won’t matter unless you’ve spent most of the last six months in the Schengen area.
Passport validity
Denmark checks two dates in every visitor’s passport: it has to stay valid until at least 3 months after you leave the Schengen area, and it can’t be more than 10 years old. Check both before you fly: they apply to visa-free passports too. Keep your onward boarding pass to hand in case the officer asks about your trip.
The EES and ETIAS
Visitors from outside the EU, EEA and Switzerland are now registered under the EU’s Entry/Exit System (EES) when they arrive from outside Schengen. At Copenhagen you’re directed to a self-service kiosk before passport control, where you enter details such as the purpose of your visit and where you’re staying, then you see an officer. It can slow the queue. Schengen residence-permit holders and nationals of Andorra, Monaco, San Marino and the Vatican skip it.
You may also read about ETIAS, an online permit that Americans, Britons, Canadians, Australians and other visa-free visitors will one day need before flying to Europe. It isn’t running yet and you can’t apply, and the EU has promised several months’ notice of its start, so for now there’s nothing to do. A look at the EU’s ETIAS site before you fly will tell you if that’s changed.
If you’re on separate tickets
When your two flights are booked separately, the first airline usually can’t send your bags on to the second. You pick them up in the arrivals hall, which is past passport control, and take them back to check-in. That means entering Denmark, so a passport that needs a visa needs a Schengen visa here, even for a connection that never leaves the terminal. Leave yourself time to check in again and clear security, and passport control too if the second flight leaves Schengen.
At the border
Allow about an hour from landing to sitting on the metro. Copenhagen doesn’t publish queue times, but it shows the current wait at passport control in the CPH app and on screens in the airport, which helps on the way back. EU, EEA and Swiss adults with an electronic passport use the self-service gates; everyone else registers at an EES kiosk and then queues for a desk.
A long queue eats into your time in town, not into the time you must head back. If it’s taking much longer than an hour on a 4.5-hour layover, staying at the airport may be the better call.
Before you go landside
- Keep your passport and your onward boarding pass with you: the airport lets you stay overnight only if you can show one.
- Check that your bags are checked through to your final destination. If you’ve had to collect them, leave them in the lockers on the first floor of car park P7A, next to the metro, from DKK 50 an hour.
- Be back at the airport 90 minutes before departure: time for security and, if your next flight leaves Schengen, passport control. The airport’s 3-hour advice for flights outside Schengen is for passengers checking in; if you still need to check in or drop a bag, allow longer.
- Getting into town and back: getting into the city.