Become a certi­fied operator

An employer can be certified by the Swedish Migration Agency, which provides faster processing. If the employer submits a complete application online, the Swedish Migration Agency will make a decision within 20 working days.

The certification applies to the first and renewal application for a work permit and application from former students who have had a residence permit in Sweden and are applying for a work permit. Even family members who apply at the same time as the employee are included in the certification. Persons applying for a work permit when they are in Sweden to visit employers, for example, are not covered by the certification.

Requi­re­ments for certi­fi­ca­tion

The certification does not mean that the Swedish Migration Agency revokes or changes the conditions for granting a work permit. The basic requirements for support, and for wage- and employment conditions that are in line with collective agreements, still apply. The same applies to right of trade unions to be given an opportunity to comment on the terms of employment in each individual case.

To become a certified operator, the work permit requirements must be met. In addition, the company must

  • be registered as an employer
  • have the funds to hire
  • have a recurring need to recruit workers from a country outside the EU with at least ten applications a year
  • have at least ten applications for work permits in the past 18 months (recently started businesses that have existed less than one year can be certified even though the company has not applied for work permits before)
  • take responsibility for submitting web applications that are complete
  • have fulfilled the requirements for residence permits and work permits if the employer has previously recruited labour from a non-EU country.

In order for you to get a work permit decision as a certified employer, the application for a work permit must be complete.

Read more about the requirements for work permits

Decisions for complete applications for a work permit will be made within ten working days for the first application and 20 working days for a renewal application.

An operator may be deregistered from the certification if the conditions for the certification or work permits are not met.

Express inte­rest for certi­fi­ca­tion

You register interest in becoming certified through the Swedish Migration Agency’s e-service. Log in with electronic ID to register interest.

The registration of interest must include

  • company name, organisation number, address, phone number and email address
  • email address and phone number for a contact person
  • specification of industry or type of business (including SNI code External link, opens in new window.)
  • information on possible collective agreements
  • details of the recurring needs during the year to employ people from non-EU countries, and an explanation of the reasons for this.

With your express of interest, you should also enclose

  • a registration certificate for the company
  • an annual financial statement or annual accounts
  • the balance sheet and income statement report for the current year.

Read more about higher requirements for work permits in certain industries

If your company is newly registered, you should also enclose

  • an opening balance sheet or a profit-and-loss statement replacing the annual financial statement or annual accounts
  • a brief description of your business.

If your company is conducting a business requiring a permit and you are going to employ people in occupations that require this permit, personal assistants for example, you also have to attach a certificate of a permit for the business.

Read more about permit certificates and required registration on the website of the Health and Social Care Inspectorate (IVO) (in Swedish) External link, opens in new window.

If you as an employer receive grants for short-term work from the Swedish Agency for Economic and Regional Growth (Tillväxtverket), you may need to append Tillväxtverket's decision email as support in your registration. When you make your registration in the e-service, you will find out exactly which documents you need to append.

Read more about short-term work on the website of the Swedish Agency for Economic and Regional Growth (in Swedish) External link, opens in new window.

New certification takes place every three months, in March, June, September and December. Registration of interest in becoming a certified employer must be submitted no later than the last day of the month before. In order to have time to send in any supplements, the Swedish Migration Agency recommends that you send in your registration earlier than this. Registrations that are received after these dates must wait until the next new certification takes place. For example, if you send in your registration on 1 March, you must wait until June before you receive notice of whether your company has been certified or not.

Notice of certification is sent to the same email address that you use in the registration.

Requi­re­ments for using the e-service

In order to use the e-service, you need

  • an e-identification
  • an email.

The certified operator can also be a company that represents other companies in the application process. In these cases, it is the certified operator who makes an application for a work permit.

If the certified operator wants to register new companies that he or she represents, this is done through the Swedish Migration Agency’s e-service. Notice of registrations of new subsidiaries is provided within 20 working days.

Even you who represent a relocation company, send information about new companies through the Swedish Migration Agency’s e-service.

An employer cannot itself be certified at the same time as there is a certified representative who handles all the applications for the employer.

Once an operator has been certified, you as an employer can start applying for work permits for your employees.

The certification applies as long as the operator meets the certification requirements and therefore does not need to be renewed. It does not cost anything to submit a registration of interest or to become certified. Note that the Swedish Migration Agency makes checks when applications are submitted and for specific follow-ups. The Swedish Migration Agency can deregister a company if you as an employer no longer meet the requirements for being certified. If the Swedish Migration Agency, in connection with a check or follow-up, finds that you do not fulfil the terms of certification, the Swedish Migration Agency will contact you. Your company risks being deregistered from the certification.

Read more about the terms of certification under the heading Requirements for certification

An operator that has been deregistered cannot be certified again for a certain period of time. As a general rule, a new certification can be approved no earlier than twelve months after the deregistration.

If you have questions about certification, please email norrkoping-arbetstillstandsenheten-certifiering-fragor@migrationsverket.se.

Read more about employing someone from a non-EU country

Contact person at the Swedish Migra­tion Agency

All certified employers are given a contact person at the Swedish Migration Agency in connection with the employer being certified. Questions to the contact person shall only concern general questions regarding certification. For questions regarding the individual work permit case, you must contact the case officer in charge.

A notice that a company will not be included in the certification cannot be appealed.

You can submit a expression of interest at any time to become a certified employer. Ongoing work permit applications that have been received by the Swedish Migration Agency before being certified will not be processed in the certification system.

The Swedish Migration Agency works with continuous feedback and convenes experience meetings with the certified operators. Experience meetings will aim at having an exchange about the certification system and information dissemination. Experience meetings should not be a forum to discuss the individual case.

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