Stricter requirements for permanent residence permit under the Upper Secondary School Act
The Swedish Migration Agency is changing its assessment of what is required to obtain a permanent residence permit under the Upper Secondary School Act following a landmark ruling from the Migration Court of Appeal.
If you apply for a permanent residence permit in accordance with the Upper Secondary School Act you must show that you can support yourself as an employee or self-employed person. The application must be submitted no later than before the temporary residence permit expires, but previously the Swedish Migration Agency has assessed that it is sufficient that the requirement for self-sufficiency must be met when the application is examined. In other words, it has been possible to submit your application for a permanent residence permit before you have actually started your employment, as long as you can show that you meet the requirements for sufficient income from an ongoing employment when the Swedish Migration Agency examines the application.
The Migration Court of Appeal makes a stricter assessment
Recently, however, the Migration Court of Appeal made a different assessment in a ruling, namely that the employment must begin before the temporary residence permit expires. The Swedish Migration Agency will therefore in the future require that all conditions for permanent residence permits according to the Upper Secondary School Act must be met both when you apply (before the last day for your temporary residence permit) and when the Swedish Migration Agency examines your application. This applies regardless of whether you are supporting yourself as an employee or self-employed.
Requirements if you are an employee
It is therefore no longer possible to obtain a permanent residence permit if, at the time of application, you only have an offer of employment, or an agreement on an employment that you will start after the last day of your temporary residence permit.
In order to meet the law's requirements for "long-term maintenance", the Swedish Migration Agency requires that you have a permanent employment or a fixed-term employment of at least two years. In practice, this will mean that you may be rejected if you had an agreement for two years of employment at the time of application, but at the time of the examination less than two years of employment remain.
In order to meet the requirement for a long-term maintenance without having a permanent employment, you can supplement your application with documents showing that your fixed-term employment has been extended during the waiting period.
Requirements for self-employed people
The requirements for obtaining a permanent residence permit for people who are self-employed must also be met both when you apply (before the last day of your temporary residence permit) and when the Swedish Migration Agency examines your application. Thus, it is not possible to obtain a permanent residence permit if you applied with a plan for a business activity on which you could not support yourself no later than on the last day of the temporary residence permit.
The new requirements apply immediately
The new assessment applies to all applications for permanent residence permits under the Upper Secondary School Act, and also affects you who submitted your application before the Migration Court of Appeal issued its ruling.