Citizenship

Since 6 June 2026, stricter rules apply to becoming a Swedish citizen. As an adult you usually need to have lived here for eight years, be able to support yourself, show knowledge of Swedish and of Swedish society, and have lived an orderly life. Choose who it's for to see the rules and the steps. Migrationsverket (the Swedish Migration Agency) examines your application and decides.

• The new rules also apply if you applied before 6 June 2026 and haven't had a decision yet.
• You don't get the fee back if you're refused. Only apply once you meet all the requirements.

1. Check that you have the right permit

   You need a permanent residence permit, a right of residence or a residence card (for EU/EEA citizens and their families), or residence status (for British citizens and their families).

   Since 12 July 2026, permanent residence permits are as a rule no longer granted. So you can also apply with one of these temporary permits:

   • long-term resident status in Sweden
   • as a refugee or a person in need of subsidiary protection
   • on the grounds of exceptionally distressing circumstances
   • on the grounds of certain lasting impediments to enforcing an expulsion
   • as a family member of someone with one of these permits

   You must then have good prospects of having your permit extended in future (well-founded prospects). Migrationsverket assesses this in each case. If you have lived here for at least ten years, that condition doesn't apply.

   Your permit must be valid when you apply. You can't apply for citizenship while you wait for a decision on an extension.

   Born in Sweden and stateless?

   Were you born in Sweden, stateless since birth, and are you 18 but not yet 21? Then you can file a notification (anmälan) instead, if among other things you have lived here for five years in a row or ten years in total. It costs SEK 475.

   Migrationsverket: requirements for adults Migrationsverket: stateless, aged 18–21 The Permit timeline tool
2. Work out your residence time

   Your residence time (hemvisttid) is the time you have lived in Sweden intending to stay here. The main rule is at least eight years in a row. For some people a different period applies:

   • 7 years if you have a refugee status declaration. Your decision says whether you got one. Having been selected as a quota refugee isn't enough.
   • 7 years if you're married to, in a registered partnership with or living with (sambo) a Swedish citizen and you have lived together for the past five years. If your partner used to be a citizen of another country or stateless, they must have been a Swedish citizen for at least five years.
   • 7 years if you're under 21 when you apply.
   • 5 years if you're stateless.
   • 2 years if you used to be a Swedish citizen.
   • 10 years if you can't prove your identity.

   From which date is your time counted?

   Did you have a settlement-based permit (bosättningsgrundande) when you came to Sweden? Choose the day you arrived. Otherwise, choose the day you submitted your application for a residence permit to settle here. Your decision says whether the permit was settlement-based.

   You must meet the requirements before you apply. Migrationsverket decides how your time is counted.

   Which time doesn't count?

   • Time with a permit that isn't settlement-based, for example for a visit, studies or as an au pair. Doctoral students can sometimes count their time on a study permit, if it's clear they intended to stay after their studies.
   • Time abroad: short trips don't matter. But if you have been abroad for more than six weeks in a year, all the time abroad is subtracted.
   • If you move to another country and settle there, your residence time ends. It starts again when you move back.
   • Time before a decision to leave Sweden that has become final (laga kraft). The time then usually starts when you get a settlement-based permit.
   • Time you lived here under a false identity. If you have been here under a false identity, or absconded from an expulsion decision, eight years apply even if you're married to or living with a Swedish citizen.
   • Time working at another country's embassy or consulate in Sweden.
   • EU/EEA citizens and their families only count time when they met the conditions for a right of residence.

   Migrationsverket: residence time
3. Have your identity document ready

   You must be able to prove your identity with an original identity document, for example a passport or ID card from your home country. It must be issued by an authority in your home country and have your photo, and you must have applied for it or collected it yourself. It may have expired.

   Don't send it with your application. Migrationsverket will contact you if they need it. If you have a refugee status declaration, Migrationsverket won't ask you to contact your home country's authorities.

   If you can't prove your identity, you can only get an exception once you have lived in Sweden for at least ten years without a break, with the same identity the whole time.

   If you have no identity document

   • Sometimes a family member who is a Swedish citizen can confirm your identity: your spouse, a parent, an adult child or an adult sibling. Among other things, you must have given Migrationsverket the same information about yourselves and have lived together for a long time before coming here.
   • If you have several documents that aren't enough on their own, Migrationsverket assesses whether they're enough together.
   • Special requirements apply to documents from Afghanistan, Iraq, Somalia and Eritrea, and to stateless Palestinians.

   Migrationsverket: proving your identity Documents from certain countries
4. Check that you can support yourself

   If you're 18–67, you need a lasting income from your own job or your own business. It must be at least three income base amounts a year before tax. For 2026 that is SEK 250,200, or at least SEK 20,850 a month.

   These don't count:

   • your partner's income, savings, property or other capital
   • subsidised jobs, such as new start jobs (nystartsjobb), introduction jobs (etableringsjobb) and special employment support
   • unemployment benefit (a-kassa), activity support, development allowance and introduction benefit
   • temporary jobs that don't last

   You must not have received social assistance (försörjningsstöd) for more than six months in total over the past three years.

   Who doesn't have to meet it?

   • You're entitled to an income-based old-age pension, a guarantee pension or income support for the elderly.
   • You study full time with passing results at a Swedish university or university college, towards a degree. Or full time towards a higher vocational education qualification (yrkeshögskola). In both cases you must not have received social assistance for more than six months over the past three years.
   • You're at upper secondary school (gymnasium).
   • It can't reasonably be required, for example because you have a disability.

   Migrationsverket: the maintenance requirement
5. Check that you have lived an orderly life

   Migrationsverket gets information from Kronofogden (the Swedish Enforcement Authority), the police and the Security Service, and checks the Schengen Information System (SIS). If you have committed a crime or have debts, you may have to wait.

   • Debts: unpaid tax, fines, fees or maintenance payments can lead to a refusal, and so can debts to companies that have gone to Kronofogden. Once a debt is paid, usually two years must pass.
   • Crimes: the waiting time is called a qualifying period (karenstid) and depends on the sentence. Examples from Migrationsverket's guidelines: 30 day-fines, at least 2 years. A suspended sentence, at least 4 years. One month in prison, at least 7 years.
   • Crimes you were convicted of in another country, and debts there that you don't pay, can also count.

   Any prison sentence must be served and any fines paid before you can become a citizen. If you have committed crimes more than once, the waiting time can be longer.

   Migrationsverket: all qualifying periods
6. Collect proof of your knowledge

   If you're 16–66, you need knowledge of Swedish and of Swedish society. For Swedish, the level is B1 for reading and listening, and A2 for speaking and writing.

   Swedish: you show it with a pass grade in Swedish or Swedish as a second language from year 9, upper secondary school, folk high school or municipal adult education (komvux). A pass in the highest course of sfi (Swedish for immigrants) or a pass on the Tisus test also works. For now, another test showing Swedish at a functional level is accepted too, for example Swedex.

   Swedish society: you show it with a pass grade in social studies (samhällskunskap) or basic social science subjects from year 9, upper secondary school, folk high school at upper secondary level or komvux. Without that, you need to take the citizenship test on Swedish society (step 8).

   There is no citizenship test in Swedish yet. UHR has proposed introducing it in autumn 2029, but the government decides.

   Exceptions and other ways

   • If you're 67 or older, the knowledge requirement doesn't apply.
   • If a disability or other reasons stop you from meeting the requirements, you can be exempted.
   • A pass grade in Swedish from compulsory or upper secondary school in another Nordic country also counts. With a pass grade in Danish or Norwegian from there, you don't need to show knowledge of Swedish.

   Migrationsverket: knowledge requirements The Swedish test may be postponed
7. Apply and pay the fee

   Apply in Migrationsverket's e-service. You need an e-ID, a valid email address and a Visa or Mastercard card. The fee is SEK 2,900.

   Can't use the e-service? Fill in the form Ansökan om svenskt medborgarskap för vuxna (316011, in Swedish) and send it to Migrationsverket, Medborgarskapsenheten, 601 70 Norrköping. Migrationsverket then emails or writes to you about how to pay.

   You don't get the fee back if you're refused. Stateless people with a refugee status declaration, and stateless refugees with travel documents from Migrationsverket, pay no fee.

   Are you an EU/EEA citizen? Attach documents showing you have had a right of residence, for example employment certificates, study transcripts or tax returns for your business. If you're the family member of an EU/EEA citizen, you show your relative's right of residence.

   Migrationsverket: apply for citizenship How to get BankID
8. Take the test on society if you get a letter If you have no grades

   The citizenship test on Swedish society is run by UHR (Universitets- och högskolerådet, the Swedish Council for Higher Education), a government agency. Migrationsverket decides who takes the test. If you need to take it, you get a referral letter (anvisningsbrev) from Migrationsverket after you have applied. Only with that letter can you register with UHR.

   • The first test was held in August 2026. Registration is now closed. UHR will announce this autumn when the next test is. Where it will be hasn't been published yet.
   • You create an account with BankID or Freja eID, or with your personnummer and the code in the letter.
   • The test is only in Swedish, on paper. Each question has four answer options, and one of them is right.
   • Bring a valid Swedish ID that shows your personnummer: Skatteverket's ID card, a Swedish driving licence or a Swedish SIS-marked ID card. A foreign passport and e-ID aren't accepted.
   • If you have a disability, you can apply for adjustments, for example more time. You usually need a certificate.
   • Your result goes to Migrationsverket automatically. If you fail, you may get to show your knowledge again. Ask Migrationsverket.

   From 2027 the test costs SEK 2,000, under the ordinance on citizenship tests. Stateless people with refugee status or a travel document from a Swedish authority don't pay. UHR hasn't published the fee for the next test yet.

   UHR has free study material on Swedish society, as a PDF and as audio files.

   Practise for the test with Bli Svensk, our own app. It isn't from UHR.

   UHR: the citizenship test (in Swedish) UHR: study material (in Swedish) How to get Skatteverket's ID card
9. Go to the identity check and wait for a decision

   You must visit Migrationsverket so they can check your identity. You get a letter when it's time to book. Only book once you have the letter. You can book in Malmö, Gothenburg, Norrköping, Sundbyberg, Sundsvall or Boden.

   If you have a residence permit, the law lets Migrationsverket photograph you and take your fingerprints to check your identity. You must then hand over your residence permit card for the check.

   The wait can be long. On 9 October 2026 Migrationsverket showed that 75 percent of adult applications had been decided within 53 months, counting decisions made in the past 12 months. If you take the test, you wait longer, because Migrationsverket waits for the result.

   If more than six months have passed since you applied, you can ask Migrationsverket in writing, once, to decide your case (form 301011, in Swedish). If they can't decide it within four weeks, your request is refused, but your case continues.

   Once you have a decision

   • The decision is sent to your registered address. If you become a citizen, you get a citizenship certificate, and Migrationsverket tells Skatteverket (the Swedish Tax Agency).
   • Your residence permit card is blocked automatically.
   • You don't have to have a Swedish passport. If you want one, you apply to the police.
   • The municipality where you're registered invites new citizens to a citizenship ceremony.
   • If you're refused, you can appeal. The decision says how and by when.

   Migrationsverket: waiting times Waiting for a decision

1. Check whether your child is already a Swedish citizen

   A child born after 1 April 2015 becomes a Swedish citizen at birth if a parent is a Swedish citizen. This also applies if a parent who has died was a Swedish citizen. It doesn't matter in which country the child is born.

   A child under 12 adopted by a Swedish citizen also becomes a citizen, if the adoption was decided in Sweden or another Nordic country, or is valid in Sweden.

   If you become a Swedish citizen by application, your child doesn't become one automatically. Since 6 June 2026 children can't be included in a parent's application, so your child needs an application of their own.

   If a parent becomes a citizen by notification, for example as a Nordic citizen, children under 18 who live in Sweden can become citizens at the same time.

   Migrationsverket: automatic citizenship
2. File a notification instead If it applies to you

   A stateless child born in Sweden. The guardians can file a notification (anmälan) if the child has been stateless since birth and lives here. An unknown citizenship isn't enough. The child needs a permanent residence permit, a right of residence, a residence card, residence status or certain temporary permits. That condition doesn't apply if the child has lived here for five years in a row or ten years in total. The notification costs SEK 175.

   A child born abroad before 1 April 2015 with a Swedish father. Such a child didn't always become a Swedish citizen automatically. The father can file a notification if the child is under 18, the father was a Swedish citizen when the child was born and paternity is established. If the child is 15 or older, there are more requirements. The notification costs SEK 475.

   Migrationsverket: stateless children Migrationsverket: children with a Swedish father
3. Check your child's residence permit

   Your child needs a permanent residence permit, residence status, a right of residence or a residence card. Children who are citizens of Denmark, Finland, Iceland or Norway don't need a permanent residence permit.

   Your child can also apply with a temporary permit: as a long-term resident, as a refugee or person in need of protection, on the grounds of exceptionally distressing circumstances or certain lasting impediments to enforcement, or as the family member of someone with such a permit. The child must then have good prospects of having the permit extended, unless they have lived here for at least ten years.

   Migrationsverket: citizenship for children
4. Work out your child's residence time
   • 3 years if the child is under 15. That is the main rule.
   • 2 years if the child is stateless and under 15.
   • 5 years if the child is 15 or older.
   • 2 years if the child is a Nordic citizen, whatever their age.

   The time is counted as for adults: from the day the child came here, if the child already had a settlement-based permit then. Otherwise from the day the application for a residence permit to settle here was submitted. Time on a visitor's permit doesn't count.

   If your child has been abroad for more than six weeks in a year, all the time abroad is subtracted.

   Migrationsverket: the child's residence time
5. Have your child's identity document ready

   Your child must be able to prove their identity with an original identity document, for example a passport from the home country with the child's photo. You and your child must have applied for it or collected it together. It may have expired. Don't send it with the application.

   If your child has no identity document, a parent or sibling who is a Swedish citizen can sometimes confirm the child's identity. The child can also get an exception after living in Sweden for at least seven years without a break, with the same identity.

   Your child must visit Migrationsverket for an identity check. As the guardian, you get a letter when it's time to book.

   Migrationsverket: the child's identity
6. Check the rules from 15 and 16 If your child is 15 or older

   From 15, the child must have lived an orderly and honest life. Migrationsverket gets information from the police and the Security Service. If the child has committed a crime, the same qualifying periods apply as for adults.

   From 16, the child must show knowledge of Swedish and of Swedish society, for example with pass grades in Swedish or Swedish as a second language and in social studies from the last year of compulsory school or from upper secondary school. If the child can't show knowledge of society with grades, they will be offered the citizenship test once Migrationsverket has started on the case.

   Children don't need to be able to support themselves.

   Migrationsverket: requirements for children
7. Apply for your child

   The child's guardians apply, in the e-service for children or on the form Ansökan om svenskt medborgarskap för barn under 18 år (317011, in Swedish). If the child has two guardians, both must approve and sign with an e-ID. A child aged 12 or older must also sign with an e-ID. If the child has no e-ID, use the form.

   If the child is 12 or older and has another citizenship, the child must agree to becoming a Swedish citizen.

   The fee is SEK 475, paid with a Visa or Mastercard card in the e-service. You don't get it back if the child is refused.

   Migrationsverket: apply for your child Migrationsverket: waiting times

1. Choose a notification or an application

   If you're a citizen of Denmark, Finland, Iceland or Norway, you have two routes:

   • A notification (anmälan) once you have lived in Sweden for five years. Fewer requirements apply, and you don't need to show knowledge of Swedish or of Swedish society.
   • An application (ansökan) once you have lived here for two years. The same requirements as for other adults then apply, for example supporting yourself and knowledge (step 6).

   Migrationsverket: Nordic citizens
2. Work out when you'll have lived here for five years

   For a notification, your residence time is as a rule counted from the day you were registered in the Swedish population register (folkbokförd).

   When were you folkbokförd in Sweden?

   Skatteverket (the Swedish Tax Agency) sends its decision on your registration in a letter. If you're unsure of the date, ask Skatteverket.

3. Check the requirements for a notification
   • You're a citizen of Denmark, Finland, Iceland or Norway.
   • You're 18 or older.
   • You have lived in Sweden for five years.
   • You haven't been sentenced to prison or another custodial sentence in the past five years.
4. Send the notification and pay

   Fill in the form Anmälan om svenskt medborgarskap för medborgare i Danmark, Finland, Island och Norge (306031, in Swedish). Send it to Migrationsverket, Medborgarskapsenheten, 601 70 Norrköping. Migrationsverket then emails or writes to you about how to pay the fee, SEK 475.

   You don't get the fee back if you're refused. On 9 October 2026 Migrationsverket showed that 75 percent of notifications had been decided within 5 months, counting decisions made in the past 12 months.

   Migrationsverket: notification and form
5. Check whether your children become citizens with you If you have children under 18

   Your children under 18 who live in Sweden become Swedish citizens at the same time as you, if:

   • you have sole custody of the child, or
   • you share custody and the other parent is a Swedish citizen, or
   • the other parent becomes a Swedish citizen at the same time as you.

   Otherwise you need to make a separate application for the child. Choose Child under 18 above for the steps.

6. Apply after two years instead If you haven't lived here for five years

   If you have lived in Sweden for at least two years, you can apply. You don't need a permanent residence permit. But the same requirements as for other adults apply: a proven identity, supporting yourself, knowledge of Swedish and of Swedish society, and an orderly life. The application costs SEK 2,900. Choose Adult above for the steps.

   With a pass grade in Danish or Norwegian from the last year of compulsory or upper secondary school in another Nordic country, you don't need to show knowledge of Swedish.

   Migrationsverket: requirements for adults