Important to know

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.

The requirement for a permanent residence permit does not apply if the child has lived in Sweden for five years without interruption or for a total of ten years. In such a case, the child may have a temporary residence permit on one of these grounds:

  • they are a refugee or person eligible for subsidiary protection
  • they are a family member of someone in Sweden
  • there are impediments to enforcement
  • there are exceptionally or particularly distressing circumstances.

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.

75% of applications receive a decision within:9 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.

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.