For the Danish community in Washington, this is the practical link to the administration back home — documents, identity, civil status, and help when something goes badly wrong far from home.
The contact details, the services usually available and the appointment process are set out below, along with the things worth knowing before you make the trip into Washington.
📞 Quick Contact
- Address: 3200 Whitehaven ST NW, Washington
- Phone: (202) 234-4300
- Official website: http://www.usa.um.dk
- Type of office: Embassy
🛂 Consular services at a glance
What follows is the usual range for a embassy of this size. The office itself is the authority on what it actually does:
- Passports: handled here in most cases, though a lost or stolen book follows a separate route that usually begins with a police report.
- Civil status: a marriage celebrated in the United States does not exist back home until it is registered. The same goes for a birth and a death.
- Powers of attorney: authorising someone to act for you back in Denmark — selling property, dealing with a bank, handling an estate.
- Assistance: the part of consular work nobody plans for. An arrest, a hospital, a death in the family, documents gone.
- Visas: applications from people travelling to Denmark, where the category is not handled through an online system.
- Documents: certification of papers so they have legal effect abroad — either an apostille or the older legalisation chain, depending on the country.
📅 Before you book
Appointments are the norm rather than the exception. Plan around the availability at the Washington office rather than around your own calendar.
Check the official site for how this post takes bookings — online system, email or telephone all exist across the network. Whatever the method, it is free.
Ask about payment when you book. Cash or a money order for the exact amount is common across consular networks, and cards are the exception rather than the rule.
🤝 Before you make the trip
Jurisdiction decides everything and distance decides nothing. A file submitted to the wrong post is returned, however close that post happens to be.
Check that names and dates match across every document you bring. Mismatches stop files more often than missing papers do.
Where a document has to be produced back home, the appointment is the start of the timetable rather than the end of it.
Common questions before you go
What if I lose my passport days before a flight?
That does not go through the ordinary appointment queue. Call and say it is an emergency: for imminent travel most networks issue a travel document valid for a single journey.
How do I know which office is mine?
By the consular district assigned to it, not by distance. It is the first thing worth asking on the phone.
Does this office handle passports?
It usually does, by appointment and with personal attendance for biometrics. Ask whether the booklet is collected at the counter or posted out.
What is the address in Washington?
It is 3200 Whitehaven ST NW. Many posts share a building with unrelated offices, so find the specific door before you turn up.
Do I need a visa to visit Denmark?
That depends on your nationality and the length of the trip. Where Denmark does require one, it is increasingly applied for online rather than at a counter.