How I Moved to Copenhagen: My Unconventional Story

I’ve been living in Copenhagen since September 2020, and this move was over three years in the making. I’m often asked whether I found a job here, and the answer is no—I decided to work for myself, which involved additional steps (and even more advance planning).

Since I’ve never really explained how I moved to Copenhagen, I’ll shed some light on that today. My aim here is to give you some inspiration if you’re thinking of alternative ways to move abroad. 

If you’ve already read some of my articles (or plan to), this article will also help you get to know me a bit better and show you why I’m a trustworthy resource about Nordic travel and living. 

A Useful Preface…

While you can take inspiration from my story and apply it to your own situation, you may need to change the steps involved. The most important thing to mention is that I have an EU passport, which makes moving to Denmark infinitely easier. I obtained an Italian passport in 2023, as my father is from Italy, and I also moved to Copenhagen before Brexit on my British passport (which was an EU passport at the time). 

Nonetheless, I do think that anything is possible if you want it enough. So, even if you don’t have an EU/EEA/Swiss passport, I do think that you can at least get some additional ideas from reading this guide. 

I also need to state that the decision to move was entirely my own and with my own financial backing. I do not have wealthy parents; in fact, we sometimes struggled for money. 

That being said, I do acknowledge that growing up in the UK gave me advantages that others may not have (i.e. being a native English speaker). Still, though, I hope that this article helps you if you live somewhere else. 

With that out of the way, let’s get into the main part of this piece. 

The Early Days

Before visiting Copenhagen in 2016, I had lived in London for almost my entire life (except for studying in Southampton for three years). We did travel extensively, but most of the time, my trips were to see my family in New York City (my mother is originally from NYC). Since I spent most of my early years in London and the Big Apple, I didn’t know anything other than chaos, noise, and fast-paced living. 

My life was a bit all over the place when I booked that first trip to Denmark, to be honest. I had recently graduated from university and was working at my first job as a Content Marketer in London. After three months, I was burnt out and stressed.

I knew that I needed a break, but I wanted to go somewhere unconventional. Back then, Copenhagen was not the hip destination that it is now. So, I went onto LastMinute.com and booked my flight and hotel.   

The Trip That Changed Everything

On a crisp autumn morning in October 2016, I boarded my EasyJet flight to Copenhagen. The Danish capital was like nothing I had ever experienced before, and I instantly fell in love. I was shocked at how friendly everyone was, and the fresh air was… well… a breath of fresh air. 

The bicycles also added to the special atmosphere, even though I made one of the most common Copenhagen tourist mistakes of walking into the cycling lanes. I wandered along Nyhavn and instantly thought the place was magical. And then, I wandered up to the Little Mermaid and had the typical “is that it?” moment that everyone has. 

Most importantly, Copenhagen opened my eyes. I realized that you could actually enjoy your life and that not every city is a rat race. I would not have had this experience if I hadn’t experienced that weekend, and I am eternally grateful that I did. 

Making the Decision to Move 

Before visiting Copenhagen, I was on the predictable life trajectory of “graduate, get a job, etc.”—and I thought that this was what I wanted. The only difference is that I saw myself moving to NYC and becoming a Marketing Director or something along those lines. But after leaving Copenhagen, I kept thinking of the Danish capital. 

I still remember thinking: “There has to be more to life than this” on my first commute home after the trip. I actually enjoyed my first job in London and loved the people I worked with, but I was not fulfilled. However, I also struggled with the idea of being perceived as a failure because I no longer wanted to live in a big city. This, as it goes, was just my own internal dialog; success was whatever I defined it as.  

I was certain that I wanted to move abroad after visiting the Netherlands for the first time in August 2017. Copenhagen and Amsterdam were my two main options, but I became obsessed with the Nordic region after visiting Copenhagen again later that year and also taking a weekend trip to Stockholm. 

At this point, I only had an American passport. So, since the UK was still in the EU, I decided to get a British passport so that I could move around Europe more easily (I grew up in the UK, but neither of my parents are British, so I didn’t have the passport at that point). 

Of course, living somewhere is very different from visiting. I was wisely told to visit Copenhagen in the winter, and after doing so, I was even more certain that I wanted to move to Scandinavia at the very least. I literally could not think of anything else that I wanted more, and I aligned my entire life to make my dream come true. 

Were There Any Critics?

You’ll always have critics regardless of what you do, and not everyone was keen on me moving abroad. Some people warned me about Scandinavia being expensive; others said that they thought I could “do better” or should “aim higher”. I ignored some of these comments and pushed back against others. 

To be honest, though, the majority of my friends and family were very supportive. Some joined me on trips, and all of them gave me encouragement throughout the entire process.

I acknowledge that I had (and still have) a good support network, as plenty of people do not have this. And while this sounds harsh, I think that you should cut off every single person who dismisses your dreams or tries to put you down. If that isn’t possible, you should severely limit contact with them. Even the most stoic person will be influenced in these scenarios, and at the very best, you’re needlessly swimming upstream. 

Starting Off With the Conventional Route 

To begin with, I started applying for any and every content writing/copywriting job in Mainland Europe. I got to the third round of interviews for a job in Amsterdam in 2018 that I really wanted, but they ultimately decided not to hire me. After that setback, I decided to get another job as a Content Manager in London. My thinking was that I could save some money and then try again in a year or so. 

After changing my job in London, I started learning Norwegian as I wanted a baseline to learn the other Scandinavian languages. However, I became increasingly frustrated with my day-to-day life. My new commute was, at best, an hour each way, but the trains were almost always delayed.

To say I was “down bad” would be an understatement. I came home after work and cried at least a few times each week, and I was so depressed that I had to physically force myself to get out of bed in the morning. However, one of my greatest traits is that I am very resilient and even when things aren’t going well, I remain optimistic that they will improve.

A Change of Approach 

December 2018 opened my mind to new possibilities. First, I visited Iceland with my mom. I’ve already spoken about the statue at Tjörnin in Reykjavík that felt like a physical depiction of my life at that point in a different article, and at that stage, I started to realize that I couldn’t care less about having an ordinary career. I thought about moving to Iceland and getting a job in the tourism industry. 

Later that month, I visited Stockholm for New Year’s and had an amazing time. I met so many amazing people, and to this day, it’s still one of my favorite trips. Afterward, I decided that freelance writing was the best way to make my dreams come true—and I set myself a deadline of quitting my job in July 2019. 

Enter 2019… 

My mental health worsened in the first three months of 2019, but things were looking rosier by the spring. I was saving a minimum of £1,000 each month to build some runway for my leap into self-employment (my after-tax monthly salary was around £2,200 at this point). I also knew that I would be starting a new chapter in my life soon, and I could see light at the end of the tunnel. 

After handing in my notice two months earlier, I officially left my second job in London on July 19th, 2019. I was terrified on the train home because I had no idea what to expect, but at the same time, I also felt like a massive weight had been lifted off my shoulders. After a two-week holiday in Italy and Portugal, I started my freelance business and moved to Stockholm. 

I’d love to tell you that everything was sunshine and rainbows from that point on, but the opposite was true. Although I had 7+ years of experience as a writer at this point, I really struggled with the business side of freelancing. In my first three months, I made around $300. Settling into a new country at the same time was also difficult, and to be honest, I felt incredibly lonely at this point. I realized that while being in a positive environment is important, the saying “wherever you go, there you are” is also true.

In late 2019, I went on a one-month trip around the Baltic region (while also visiting Helsinki). I hit rock bottom in Lithuania and realized that I needed to do some introspective work before anything else could happen. So, I took the L and called off the idea of moving to Scandinavia… for now. Instead, I moved back to London with three key goals: 

• Start doing some inner work to begin your emotional healing, and find out where your thoughts and actions come from. 
• Go on a massive self-improvement arc where I take my fitness and diet more seriously, while also doing good habits like cold showers, journaling, and meditation. 
• Build your freelance business to a point where you can at least cover your living costs. 

Locking In and Getting Things Done 

After moving back to London, I started grinding straight away. I was making insane progress in the gym, and while I didn’t enjoy being in the UK, I was happy with my daily schedule. I was making around $2,500 per month from freelance writing at this point, and with only my groceries as an expense, I built a pretty big “moving abroad” runway. 

I also had time for trips to Tromsø and Stavanger in January and February, which made me think that maybe I wanted to move to Norway instead of Copenhagen. 

And then, March 2020 happened. 

As Boris Johnson announced that gyms would close and we’d only be outside for an hour each day, I decided to go full-on monk mode. I worked relentlessly for the next five months, though I was still struggling with the confidence of reaching out to new clients for my business. I had been learning Norwegian every day for 40 minutes, and I was getting pretty good. I was basically ready to move when the border opened. 

Norway, however, didn’t open its borders for a long time. So, I was left with a dilemma: 

• Endure a winter lockdown in London (which I had a feeling would happen)
• Find an alternative 

I chose the second option, but it happened quite randomly. I was practicing Norwegian on the Visit Denmark website (they have a Norwegian-language page), and I noticed guidelines for which country’s residents could visit at this time based on cases per 1,000 people. The UK was one of those. 

In that immediate moment, I decided that I was going to actually try and move to Copenhagen. I had enough money saved to take the risk. At this point, my British passport would no longer be an EU one in five months. I figured that trying and potentially failing again—but knowing that I could succeed—was better than waiting for something to maybe happen. 

The Process of Moving to Copenhagen

Finding an Apartment 

I booked a one-way flight from London to Copenhagen for September and started frantically looking for an apartment in Copenhagen. My thinking was that I could stay for 2-3 months in temporary accommodation if needed, and hopefully, I would find a place to live in the meantime. Besides Copenhagen, I was also open to living briefly in Odense, Aalborg, or another Danish city if needed.

Luckily, I didn’t need to implement Plan B. I randomly saw someone mention LifeX on Reddit one day, and after having an interview with one of their team members, I signed the contract for an apartment in Østerbro. 

My lease didn’t start until October, but I didn’t want to risk the UK being put on the orange list—so instead, I stayed in Airbnbs in Copenhagen for a month (and also had a lovely week-long visit to Aarhus). 

Funnily enough, I had actually planned to visit Bergen the week after countrywide restrictions were announced in Britain. Norwegian gave me a voucher that I could use for future flights, and as a result, I used this to pay for my flight to Denmark. 

Registering as a Resident 

October quickly rolled around, and I was already loving my new life in Copenhagen. After moving into my new apartment and meeting my roommates, I went to register as a resident the following day. I had to show that I had self-sufficient funds with a bank statement within the last 30 days; my printed version was outdated, but I could luckily access my mobile banking and show my proof of funds. 

I then went to apply for my yellow CPR card and NemID (which has since become MitID). Before setting up my business when moving to Copenhagen, I needed to first register as a person with self-sufficient funds; this would have been different if my company was already established in Denmark. 

Setting Up a Business

Once I had all the essentials, I registered my freelance business in Denmark in November 2020. I then closed the UK version as I no longer needed it. At this point, the move actually felt real. 

Setting up a business literally took a few minutes. I had to go to the Virk website and register everything; I used my home address to begin with. Once I had set everything up, I was ready to start paying taxes in Denmark. I had to declare my UK earnings when closing my business over there, but I am now fully set up in Denmark. 

Changing My Residency Status 

After setting up my business, I applied to change my residency status to self-employed. This took two months, which I assume was due to the Christmas season and also because of the global situation at that time. I gave them copies of my recent invoices, along with financial projections put together by an accountant. 

In late 2021, I had to prove that I had been living in Denmark before Brexit to retain my residency based on EU rules. This took around three months, and I received a card proving this. Since then, I have obtained an Italian passport. 

My First 6 Months in Copenhagen 

After paying my apartment deposit, I had around $12,000 in savings. This was good, as it goes, as some of my freelance contracts ended just before moving to Copenhagen. I decided to spend the next six months going monk mode again, and building a solid base of retainer clients. This worked; in March 2021, I made $5,749. 

Since then, I’ve consistently earned over $5,000 per month from freelance writing (and more than $6,000/mo in most cases). The only exception was from November 2023 to July 2024, which was largely because I was focusing on other things. Freelance writing is still the main way that I make money, and I work largely with English-speaking clients in the US and Canada. 

This blog has started making money at the time of writing in January 2025, but I did not have this when I first moved to Denmark. I did try and start another one about Copenhagen, but I felt like I needed some more lived experience (and also wanted to focus on settling into my Danish life). 

So… Do I Regret Moving to Copenhagen?

Absolutely not; moving to Copenhagen was the best decision I’ve ever made. People say that the grass isn’t always greener, but in my opinion, living here is just as good as it’s cracked up to be. 

There are pros and cons to living in Denmark, just like everywhere else. However, I truly feel at home here and am happy with the life I’ve built. The best question to ask is what problems you’re willing to suffer through, because they exist regardless. I wasn’t happy to deal with the downsides of living my previous life, but I can tolerate the drawbacks of living in Copenhagen. The fact that the pros vastly outweigh these is just a bonus. 

The struggles along the way make this path even more rewarding, and if you’re planning to move abroad, I strongly recommend going for it. Even if it’s not for you, you’ll at least know after trying.