Maintenance requirement for reference persons

This information is aimed at people who live in Sweden and have a family member who wants to apply for a residence permit to live with them, or who wants to apply for an extension of their residence permit so that they can continue living with them. As a reference person, you must be able to support your family members in order for them to be granted a residence permit or an extension of their residence permit.

If you live in Sweden and a family member who is not an EU/EEA citizen wants to apply for a residence permit to live with you, you must meet a maintenance requirement. The same applies if you are currently the reference person of a family member who wants to apply for an extension of their residence permit.

The first time your family member applies for a residence permit to live with you in Sweden, you, as the reference person, must meet the maintenance requirement.

What the maintenance requirement means

You who live in Sweden must

  • be able to financially support yourself, other people in your household, and the family members who are applying for a residence permit
  • have a home of sufficient size and standard for you to live in.

Who is subject to the maintenance requirement?

As a general rule, the maintenance requirement applies if you have family members who are applying for a residence permit to live with you in Sweden for the first time.
For a first-time application, you, as the reference person, must be solely responsible for supporting the household.

Your financial maintenance

You need to show that you have regular income sufficient for your financial maintenance. Income includes, for example

  • salary/wages from work
  • income from your own business (if you are self-employed)
  • sickness benefit.

You may also fulfil the maintenance requirement (be considered able to support yourself) if you have enough money/taxable assets to support yourself, other persons in your household and the family members who are applying for a residence permit, for at least two years.

The following are not counted as income:

  • income from subsidised employment
  • unemployment insurance benefits
  • activity grants
  • other benefits related to unemployment.

Your income

The amount of income you must have depends on how large your family is and how high your housing costs are.

Your income after tax must be high enough so that after you pay your monthly rent, you still have a certain amount of money left over that can cover the costs of food, clothing, personal hygiene, telephony, and insurance for everyone in the household.

The amount you must have left

In 2026, the amount you must have left over after tax and the rent is paid is:

  • SEK 8,116 for a single adult
  • SEK 13,408 for cohabiting spouses or cohabiting partners
  • SEK 4,337 for children 0–6 years of age
  • SEK 5,205 for children 7–10 years of age
  • SEK 6,074 for children 11–14 years of age
  • SEK 6,941 for children 15 years of age or older.

The amounts applicable to children are reduced by any child allowance and large family supplement.

Your housing

You must be able to show that you have housing for at least one year from the date of the application that is large enough to accommodate all of you.

For two adults without children, a home is considered large enough if it has a kitchen or kitchenette and at least one room. If children will be living in the home, it must have more rooms. Two children can share a bedroom. This means that the housing requirement is met if a family of two adults and two children has a flat consisting of two rooms and a kitchen. There are no requirements for how many square metres a home must be, but the rooms must be intended for accommodation.

It is possible to sublet your housing, but the rental must be approved by the landlord, tenant-owner association or rental board. Lodging with someone else or living at home with your parents does not count as having acceptable housing.

Exemptions from the maintenance requirement

You are not required to be able to support yourself and have housing in these cases:

  • You are under 18 years old. (If you are living in Sweden with a parent or legal guardian and the person applying for a residence permit is your other parent or legal guardian, this exception does not apply. In that case, the parent/legal guardian who is already in Sweden must meet the maintenance requirement.)
  • You are a Swedish citizen, citizen of the EU/EEA or Switzerland and you are married or cohabiting partners and the relationship is well established – you have, for example, lived together for a long time. (However, if your family member has any children who will be moving to Sweden with them, and you are not the child’s other parent or legal guardian, the maintenance requirement applies.)
  • You have a residence permit with status as a refugee and your family member applies within three months of the date on which you were granted a residence permit in Sweden, you lived together just before you moved to Sweden, and you have no possibility of being reunited in a country outside the EU.
  • There are special grounds for an exemption, for example because illness or a disability has permanently reduced your ability to work.

If you live in Sweden, you must meet a maintenance requirement if your family member, who is a citizen of a country outside the EU/EEA, wants to apply for an extension of their residence permit to continue living with you.

What the maintenance requirement means

If you live in Sweden, you must

  • be able to financially support yourself, other people in your household, and the family members who are applying for extensions of their residence permits
  • have a home of sufficient size and standard for you to live in.

Who is subject to the maintenance requirement?

As a general rule, the maintenance requirement applies if you have family members who are applying for extensions of their residence permits to continue living with you in Sweden.

When your family first applied, you, as the reference person, had to be solely responsible for supporting the household. When your family applies for extensions, we can normally also take into account the income of your family members, provided that you live in the same household, when assessing whether the maintenance requirement is met.

The maintenance requirement also applies if you have or intend to apply for a permanent residence permit and you have family members who intend to apply for an extended residence permit to continue living with you in Sweden, and you have or have had any of the following:

  • a work permit as an employee
  • a residence permit as a self-employed person
  • a residence permit as a doctoral student.

Your financial maintenance

You need to show that you have regular income sufficient for your financial maintenance.

Income includes, for example

  • salary/wages from work
  • income from your own business (if you are self-employed)
  • sickness benefits.

You can also meet the maintenance requirement if you have sufficient assets for all of you to live on for at least two years.

The Swedish Migration Agency does not normally include income from subsidised employment, unemployment insurance benefits, activity grants or other benefits related to unemployment. However, we may include certain income of this kind in applications to extend residence permits that were granted before 1 October 2026, provided that the Swedish Migration Agency receives the extension application no later than 1 October 2027.

Your income

The amount of income you must have depends on how large your family is and how high your housing costs are.

Your income after tax must be high enough so that after you pay your monthly rent, you still have a certain amount of money left over that can cover the costs of food, clothing, personal hygiene, telephony, and insurance for everyone in the household.

The amount you must have left

If the family member applying for an extension was granted their residence permit before 1 October 2026 and the application for an extension was registered with the Swedish Migration Agency no later than 1 October 2027, the amount you must have left in 2026 after tax and after paying your rent is:

  • SEK 6,243 for a single adult
  • SEK 10,314 for cohabiting spouses or cohabiting partners
  • SEK 3,336 for children 0–6 years of age
  • SEK 4,004 for children 7–10 years of age
  • SEK 4,672 for children 11–14 years of age
  • SEK 5,339 for children 15 years of age or older.

The amounts applicable to children are reduced by any child allowance and large family supplement.

If the person applying for an extension was granted their residence permit after 1 October 2026 and/or the application for an extension was registered with the Swedish Migration Agency after 1 October 2027, the amount you must have left in 2026 after tax and after paying your rent is:

  • SEK 8,116 for a single adult
  • SEK 13,408 for cohabiting spouses or cohabiting partners
  • SEK 4,337 for children 0–6 years of age
  • SEK 5,205 for children 7–10 years of age
  • SEK 6,074 for children 11–14 years of age
  • SEK 6,941 for children 15 years of age or older.

The amounts applicable to children are reduced by any child allowance and large family supplement.

Your housing

You must be able to show that you have housing for at least one year from the date of the application that is large enough to accommodate all of you.

For two adults without children, a home is considered large enough if it has a kitchen or kitchenette and at least one room. If children will be living in the home, it must have more rooms. Two children can share a bedroom. This means that the housing requirement is met if a family of two adults and two children has a flat consisting of two rooms and a kitchen. There are no requirements for how many square metres a home must be, but the rooms must be intended for accommodation.

It is possible to sublet your housing, but the rental must be approved by the landlord, tenant-owner association or rental board. Lodging with someone else or living at home with your parents does not count as having acceptable housing.

Exemptions from the maintenance requirement for extensions

You are not required to be able to support yourself and have housing in these cases:

  • You are under 18 years old. (If you are living in Sweden with a parent or legal guardian and the person applying for a residence permit is your other parent or legal guardian, this exception does not apply. In that case, the parent/legal guardian who is already in Sweden must meet the maintenance requirement.)
  • You are a Swedish citizen, a citizen of an EU/EEA country or a Swiss citizen, and you are married or cohabiting partners and your relationship is well established – for example, you have lived together for a long time. (However, the maintenance requirement applies if your family member has a child who moved to Sweden with them and you are not the child’s other parent or legal guardian.)
  • You have a residence permit with status as a refugee and your family member applied for their first permit within three months of the date on which you were granted a residence permit in Sweden, you lived together just before you moved to Sweden and you have no possibility of being reunited in a country outside the EU.
  • There are special grounds for an exemption, for example because illness or a disability has permanently reduced your ability to work.
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The Swedish Migration Agency is responsible for considering applications from people who want to live in Sweden, seek protection or become Swedish citizens. Our work is based on Swedish laws and international conventions, with a focus on legal certainty and effective reception and return.