You want to apply Citizenship for stateless children born in Sweden

You want to file a notification of citizenship for a child born in Sweden who has been stateless since birth.

  • Important to know
  • File a notification

The notification must be made by the child’s parent(s)/legal guardian(s). If the child has more than one parent/legal guardian, all their parents/legal guardians must approve the notification.

Children who have reached the age of 12 must give their consent to become a Swedish citizen.

For a child to become a Swedish citizen by notification, these requirements must be met:

The child must be born in Sweden

The child must have been stateless since birth
It is not enough for the child’s citizenship status to be unknown.

The child must live in Sweden

The child must have one of the following:

  • a permanent residence permit
  • right of residence, a residence card or residence status.

Some children can file a notification of Swedish citizenship without having a permanent residence permit. This exemption applies if the child has one of the following temporary residence permits:

  • a long-term resident status in Sweden
  • as a refugee or person in need of subsidiary protection
  • on the grounds of exceptionally distressing circumstances
  • on the grounds of certain persistent impediments to enforcement of expulsion
  • as a family member of a person who has a residence permit for one of the reasons mentioned above.

To be eligible for the exemption, the child must have well-founded prospects of being granted a long-term residence permit. If the child has been resident in Sweden for at least ten years and meets the other requirements for Swedish citizenship, the requirement for well-founded prospects of being granted a long-term residence permit does not apply.

Nor does the requirement for a permanent residence permit apply if the child has lived in Sweden for five years without interruption or for a total of ten years.

Assessment of well-founded prospects

Well-founded prospects of being granted a long-term residence permit means that a person is considered to have a good chance of having their residence permit extended in the future. The Swedish Migration Agency always makes an individual assessment in each case.

It is not possible to say exactly how long you will need to wait for a decision. There are many things that affect the waiting time, for example whether your application is complete to begin with or whether we need to request more information, or whether we need to check with other authorities when investigating your case.

Here we show statistics on how long it has taken for people who have applied for the same permit as you. The statistics are based on cases decided in the last 12 months.

75% of recently decided cases have been decided within:7 months

Citizenship notification fee for stateless children: SEK 175

You will not receive a refund if your notification is rejected.

The following people pay no fee for the processing of their notification:

  • stateless people who have received a refugee status declaration
  • stateless refugees who have received travel documents from the Swedish Migration Agency.

If the child to whom the notification relates has their own children who live in Sweden, then under certain conditions, they can automatically become a Swedish citizen. For information on what conditions must be met, see the page Automatic citizenship for children.

News

2026-06-05

New rules for Swedish citizenship from 6 June 2026

New rules for Swedish citizenship will come into force on 6 June 2026. This will affect you if you have applied, are planning to apply, or want to make a notification for Swedish citizenship.

2026-05-06

New rules for Swedish citizenship from 6 June 2026

New rules for Swedish citizenship will come into force on 6 June 2026. This will affect you if you have applied, are planning to apply, or want to make a notification for Swedish citizenship.

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.