BankID

BankID is the e-ID you use to log in to banks, authorities and most services in Sweden. To get one you need a Swedish personnummer (personal identity number), to be a customer of a bank that issues BankID, and an ID document the bank accepts. How you get there depends on whether you have a personnummer yet.

1. Get Skatteverket's ID card

   It gives you a Swedish ID document to show at the bank. You can apply if you're registered in Sweden (folkbokförd) with a Swedish personnummer, are at least 13 (under 18 you need your guardians' consent), and can prove who you are.

   • Pay the SEK 400 fee before you go. It can't be paid at the service centre, so bring a receipt or bank statement.
   • Book a time at a service centre (servicekontor) that issues ID cards. Not all of them do.
   • Prove who you are with an approved ID document, your residence permit card or an attestor (intygsgivare).

   From a country outside the EU/EEA? Your passport doesn't count as an approved ID document for the ID card. Bring your residence permit card: Skatteverket checks it with Migrationsverket.

   Who can be your attestor?

   Someone who knows you well, comes with you to the service centre and can prove their own identity:

   • your spouse or registered partner, or your partner if you've lived together for at least six months
   • your parent, your child or grandchild over 18, your sibling over 18, or your grandparent
   • with a certificate of your relationship: your guardian or trustee (god man, förvaltare), a foster parent, an employer you've had for at least a year, or an official at a municipality or agency who knows you through their work, such as a social worker

   The card is ready in about two weeks. You get a text or a letter, and collect it yourself within two months, with the receipt from your application. It's valid for five years, only in Sweden, and Skatteverket sends no reminder before it expires.

   Skatteverket: apply for an ID card Book a service centre
2. Become a bank customer

   If you live in Sweden or elsewhere in the EEA, you have the right to a payment account with basic functions. The bank must answer within 10 banking days of a complete application.

   A bank may still say no, for example if it can't confirm who you are. Then you must get the decision in writing, free of charge, saying where you can complain: first to the bank's complaints officer (klagomålsansvarig), then to the National Board for Consumer Disputes (ARN).

   Konsumenternas: the right to an account (in Swedish)
3. Order BankID from the bank

   You order BankID from your bank, usually in its online bank. Mobile BankID uses the BankID Security Application.

   There's no legal right to BankID. The bank decides, including the age limit (usually 13 or 18). With Skatteverket's ID card you have a Swedish ID document to show.

   Banks that issue BankID

   • Danske Bank, Handelsbanken, ICA Banken, Länsförsäkringar Bank, Nordea
   • SEB, Skandiabanken, Sparbanken Syd, Swedbank and the savings banks, Ålandsbanken

   Changing phones later? Don't delete BankID on the old phone until the new one works: you can use the old one to activate the new one.

   BankID: get BankID
4. Check that it works

   Log in with BankID, for example at 1177 or in Skatteverket's e-services. If it works, you're done.

1. Notify your move to Sweden

   If you plan to live here for at least a year, you should in most cases be registered (folkbokförd). That gives you a personnummer.

   • Use the e-service Flytta till Sverige (Moving to Sweden), in English, Arabic, Ukrainian or Swedish. Without an e-ID, Skatteverket points you to the Freja app.
   • Send it at the earliest 14 days before you move. Every person needs their own notification, each child too.
   • Upload your passport (every page with information) and your residence permit card if you have one.

   Skatteverket: moving to Sweden
2. Go to the identity check

   Book a time at a service centre through the link in your receipt. Everyone in the family who's moving goes, with all their original ID documents and their residence permit card if they have one.

   Book a service centre
3. Wait for the decision

   As of October 2026 it takes about five weeks before a move to Sweden reaches a case officer. The decision comes by letter, so make sure your name is on your mailbox.

   Once you have your personnummer: choose I have a personnummer above and go on with the ID card.

4. Meanwhile
   • Bank account: not having a personnummer is not in itself a reason for a bank to refuse you a payment account.
   • BankID: you can't get it without a personnummer today.
   • Staying less than a year? Then you shouldn't be registered. If you need a number and have a connection to Sweden, you can apply for a samordningsnummer (coordination number). It can take up to six weeks before a case officer starts on it (October 2026).

   Skatteverket: coordination numbers