Frequently asked ques­tions about moving to some­one in Sweden

On the application, you enter information about yourself and the person in Sweden you want to move to. You must also send in various documents. Besides the address, phone number and email address for the family member in Sweden, you also need his or her Swedish personal identity number.

You also indicate what Swedish embassy or consulate-general you want to visit to hold your interview.

Swedish embassies and consulates-general External link, opens in new window.

If you have completed an online application, you can essentially always count on the case being complete since it cannot be sent in otherwise. We may nonetheless need more information from you depending on what comes forth in the administration process. If we need more information from you we will contact you.

You can find all the information about this on My Page

It is always good for you to send in new information to the Swedish Migration Agency. You can send it in the post or submit it to an office if you are in Sweden, or submit it to the embassy or consulate-general where you turned in your application.

Contact information to the Swedish Migration Agency

The decision must be issued before you travel to Sweden. While you are waiting on a decision, you can apply for an entry visa to temporarily visit Sweden. It is the embassy in the country you live in that reviews your application for an entry visa and an individual assessment is always done.

A prerequisite for being granted an entry visa is that the embassy deems that your intention is to leave Sweden when your visa expires. If you are granted an entry visa to visit, it is important that you return home when it expires and wait there for a decision in your residence permit case. A residence permit cannot normally be granted if you are in Sweden. You can only apply for a visa at a Swedish embassy or consulate-general in the country that you are in. Other Member States that represent Sweden cannot grant applications for an entry visa during the time that you are waiting. If you have a visa exemption and are waiting on a decision for a residence permit, you can also visit Sweden temporarily.

The Swedish Migration Agency recommends for several reasons that you do not apply for a residence permit for a visit that concerns stays over 90 days in Sweden:

• You cannot be granted two residence permits at the same time. The Swedish Migration Agency decides in the case that is most advantageous for you.
• If you apply for a residence permit for a visit while you are in Sweden, you are at risk of a rejection of your application for a residence permit to move to someone.
• If you are outside Sweden, you must wait until a decision is made in the application that is most advantageous for you. This may mean that the dates that you apply for a residence permit for a visit may have passed when the decision is made.

If you have been photographed and submitted your fingerprints at an embassy or consulate-general, you will receive the card from them. Ask the embassy or consulate-general if they are sending it to you or if you have to collect it. Once you received the decision on a residence permit, it can take up to four weeks before you can collect it at the embassy or consulate-general.

If you have been photographed and submitted your fingerprints at the Swedish Migration Agency, your card will be sent to your home address within a week.

The residence permit card is sent to your officially registered address if you are in Sweden. If you move you should contact the Swedish Tax Agency to change your registered address.

If you are outside Sweden, the residence permit card is sent to the embassy where you were photographed and left your fingerprints. If you would rather we send it to your relative in Sweden, you must notify the Migration Agency.

If you travel abroad in connection with your permit expiring and you have applied for an extension, it can be difficult for you to return to Sweden before you have been granted your new permit. You may then need to wait for your new decision outside Sweden.

If you have to travel back to Sweden before before receiving a decision for urgent reasons, it is possible to apply for a national entry visa. With such a visa, you can travel back to Sweden and wait there for your decision on extension. You apply for an entry visa at a Swedish embassy or consulate-general in the country where you are located, provided that the authority issues entry visas. Such an application requires that there are special grounds for issuing an entry visa, for example sudden illness, death in the family or important job-related assignments. A decision on a national entry visa cannot be appealed.

Yes, by submitting a complete application. It is also important that you check that the family member you will move to in Sweden meets the requirements on financial support and housing.

Read more about the maintenance requirement

Processing times can vary. Two cases submitted at the same time can have different decision dates. The reason is that the processing of a case is made up of several parts before a decision can be taken. Different parts can take different amounts of time. One reason why one case can take longer than another is if the Swedish Migration Agency needs to request supplementary information in the case.

All applications have to be processed rapidly and simply in the light of the circumstances of the case. This means that similar cases have to be processed in a similar way with roughly the same processing time, irrespective of whether they are online applications or paper applications. But we do not process cases in order based on when they were received by the Swedish Migration Agency. Instead, it depends on what type of application it is and what it looks like; whether the application needs to be supplemented, whether an oral investigation needs to be carried out or whether the application needs to be investigated more for various reasons. The rules about processing cases in order are only used between cases that are similar, for instance cases in which an oral investigation is required.

No, the Swedish Migration Agency does not grant priority.

If you feel that the processing of your application is taking too long, you are able to send in a written request that the Swedish Migration Agency conclude your case. For you to be able to send in a request to the Swedish Migration Agency, six months must have passed since you sent in your application. Then the Swedish Migration Agency has to either conclude your case or refuse your request within four weeks.

To request that the Swedish Migration Agency conclude your case, you must do so in writing. Use the form Request to conclude a case, 271011, and send it to the Swedish Migration Agency.

You can only send in one request in each case.

Request to conclude a case, form 271011 Pdf, 1.1 MB, opens in new window.

The Swedish Migration Agency will contact you or your repre­sen­ta­tive and ask you to book an interview appointment at the embassy or consulate-general.

Bring your passport and the originals of the documents you sent in with your application. Children who are applying should also accompany you. During the interview, you will answer questions about your relationship to the person in Sweden. The passport and the original documents will be checked at the embassy or consulate-general.

If you are granted a residence permit, you get a residence permit card. The card contains your fingerprints and a photograph of you, among other information. The fingerprints and photo are only stored on the card’s chip.

If you need an entry visa to travel to Sweden, you need the residence permit card when you travel to Sweden. You will therefore be photographed and submit your fingerprints in connection with your interview. If you are granted a residence permit to settle in Sweden, your residence permit card will be sent to the embassy where you had your interview.

If you do not need an entry visa to travel to Sweden, you can travel without the residence permit card. You must submit what is needed for the residence permit card at the Swedish Migration Agency once you have come to Sweden.

The documentation from your interview is sent to the Swedish Migration Agency for processing. We will contact you if we need more information or documents from you. You do not need to contact the Swedish Migration Agency.

You must be able to support yourself and your family.

You can, for example, show this with a certificate of employment or some other document that shows how you support yourself.

Read more about the maintenance requirement

Read about what size your home and your income must be here

Yes, if you can present a tenancy agreement.

The Swedish Migration Agency will check that you are able to support yourself and your family members and that you have a home of a sufficient size and standard for all of you to live in when the application is received. You have to be able to use the home from when your family members come to Sweden. If you do not meet these requirements, your family will have their application for residence permits refused.

Some applications will need to be supplemented when they are going to be considered. If you have permanent employment and a long-term tenancy agreement when the application is made, you will not normally need to provide supplemental information.

You must have fulfilled the maintenance requirement (be able to support yourself) by the time the Swedish Migration Agency assesses the application for a residence permit. The maintenance requirement means that your income should be both sufficiently high and stable. As a general rule, your income is considered to be stable if it has remained at the same level for over one year from the date on which the Swedish Migration Agency assesses the application.

Yes, Swedish citizens, citizens of the EU/EEA and Swiss citizens are exempted from the maintenance requirement if you are married or live together. It is required that you have lived together for a long time, or that it is clear in other ways that the relationship is well established.

If you are currently in Sweden and are a refugee or a person in need of subsidiary protection, you may be exempt from the maintenance requirement if your family members apply for a residence permit within three months of the date on which you were granted your residence permit. This only applies if you do not have the possibility to reunite in a non-EU country to which your family has a special connection. In addition, in order to be exempt from the requirement that their applications be submitted within three months of each other, couples must have started their relationship before entering Sweden, or the relationship must be well-established.

Furthermore, parents of a child under the age of 18 who apply for a residence permit on the basis of their connection to the child do not need to prove that they can support themselves.

Quota refugees are exempted from the maintenance requirement if the family members apply for a residence permit within three months of the quota refugee having arrived in Sweden.

The maintenance requirement also does not apply if a decision to refuse the application for a residence permit would be contrary to a Swedish convention commitment.

No. There are no maintenance requirements for an application to extend a residence permit.