Employees
Residency route facts
Identity
| Official name (local) | Anställd as of 2025-02-25[4] Page name on Migrationsverket's Swedish site; the page title is 'Ansok om arbetstillstand i Sverige'. |
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| Official name (English) | Employees as of 2025-02-25[1] Page name on Migrationsverket's English site; page title 'Apply for a work permit in Sweden'. |
| Legal basis | Utlanningslag (2005:716) 5 kap. 10 § och 6 kap. 2 § forsta stycket (Lag 2026:295) as of 2026-08-22[6][8] Two provisions, because Sweden splits the title: 6 kap. 2 § grants the arbetstillstand (work permit) and 5 kap. 10 § the accompanying tidsbegransat uppehallstillstand for arbete. Amendment search run separately against the SFSR register at rkrattsbaser.gov.se: the last acts touching 6 kap. are 2026:295 (in force 2026-06-01, which rewrote 2 § and added 2 c §) and, before it, 2022:1847 and 2022:303. Nothing later than 2026:295 amends 6 kap. |
| Instrument type | residence permit as of 2026-08-22[8] The work permit itself is an arbetstillstand, but it is issued together with a tidsbegransat uppehallstillstand under 5 kap. 10 §; what the holder lives on is a residence permit. |
Who can apply
| Nationals not served by this route | EU, EEA as of 2025-02-25[1] EU/EEA citizens with right of residence need no permit. Swiss citizens and holders of EU long-term resident status in another member state are also outside this route but by their own national routes rather than by a bloc, which this field cannot express. |
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| Criminal-record condition | Not established from a qualifying source |
Permit terms
| Initial duration | up to 2 years as of 2026-08-22[1][8] Utlanningslag 6 kap. 2 a §: 'Ett arbetstillstand enligt 2 § forsta stycket far inte ges for langre tid an tva ar. Det far heller inte avse langre tid an anstallningstiden.' A ceiling, and also bounded by the contract and the passport. |
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| How the initial term is set | matches the contract |
| Renewable | Yes as of 2026-08-22[1][8] Utlanningslag 6 kap. 4 a §: the permit period may be extended if the employment meets 6 kap. 2 § forsta stycket. |
| Renewal duration | up to 2 years as of 2026-08-22[8] The two-year ceiling in 6 kap. 2 a § governs each grant. |
| Work rights | employment only as of 2026-08-22[1][8] |
Permanent residence and citizenship
| Counts toward permanent residence | Yes as of 2026-08-22[8] Utlanningslag 5 kap. 5 § forsta stycket 1 (Lag 2026:1142): a permanent permit may be granted to someone who has held 'uppehallstillstand for arbete' for a combined four years in the last seven. 5 kap. 7 § adds two conditions – self-support and no doubt as to expected vandel – and the fifth paragraph excludes time held on a work permit granted after a refused asylum claim. |
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| Years to permanent residence on this route | 4 as of 2026-08-22[8] Equals the country default; recorded because the seven-year window is route-relevant. |
Requirements
| Job offer required | Yes as of 2026-08-22[1][8] Utlanningslag 6 kap. 2 §: the permit may be given to an alien 'som har ett anstallningsavtal'. Migrationsverket requires the contract to be signed by both parties and forbids combining two jobs to meet the conditions. |
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| Salary threshold |
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| Labour-market test | No as of 2026-08-22[1][7][8] |
| Qualification requirement | none as of 2026-08-22[1][8] Utlanningslag 6 kap. 2 § forsta stycket sets no qualification condition at all – the conditions are an employment contract, the salary floor, collective-agreement-level terms and health insurance. Migrationsverket's requirement list is closed on its face and contains no degree, licence or experience test. 'none' is therefore a positive finding, not an absence of research; regulated professions still need their own Swedish authorisation, which is professional law rather than a permit condition. |
| Employer sponsorship | Yes as of 2025-02-25[1] The employer starts the application in the e-service and supplies the terms of employment; the applicant only completes their half after the employer has filed. The employer must also have taken out health, life, industrial-injury and occupational-pension insurance by the time work starts. 6 kap. 2 c § lets the permit be refused for the employer's own conduct. |
| Job-search route | No as of 2025-02-25[1] |
Process
| Where to apply from | from abroad only as of 2026-08-22[1][8] Utlanningslag 6 kap. 4 §: the permit must be applied for and granted before entry, with exceptions in 5 kap. 18 § andra-fjarde styckena. Migrationsverket lists seven in-country exceptions, every one of which is a switch by someone already lawfully present (previous business permit, existing work permit changing employer, studies with two completed semesters, post-study or post-research job-search permit, employer-visit route, 5 kap. 9 § job-search permit, temporary protection). The enum records the first-time rule. |
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| Observed processing time | Recorded at the source, but not reducible to a single value[1] |
| Fees |
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| Quota |
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Physical presence
| none stated | to keep the permit as of 2026-08-22[1][8] Neither 6 kap. nor the route page states a day count, a maximum absence or a reporting obligation for keeping the permit. The presence-shaped condition sits one permit further on: 5 kap. 5 § counts four years of permit-holding within seven, which is recorded on leads_to_pr and pr_years_override. |
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Family inclusion
| Family members may be included | Yes as of 2025-02-25[1] |
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| Eligible relations | spouse, registered partner, unmarried partner, minor child, adult dependent child as of 2025-02-25[1][7] Migrationsverket: 'Family members are considered to include spouses, registered partners, cohabiting partners, and children under the age of 21.' Unmarried children aged 21 or over can be granted a permit if they are shown to depend on the principal or the principal's partner for their maintenance. adult_dependent_child is listed to carry the 18-20 band and the over-21 dependency case, which the relations vocabulary has no separate value for. Statutory basis: Utlanningsforordning (2006:97) 4 kap. 4 a §, which frames eligibility as spouse or cohabitant plus a descendant who is dependent or under 21. |
| Family may apply at the same time | Yes as of 2025-02-25[1] Family may apply at the same time as the principal and can be included in the principal's own e-service application; anyone who decides later applies separately (route se-family-accompanying-worker). |
| Family members' work rights | full as of 2025-02-25[1] |
| Additional means per family member |
Your next step
Read the requirements above considering your own situation: the income multiple, the absence limits, who you can bring. Check the country record for the reference figure those amounts are calculated from, and for anything that has changed recently.
The next step is your own case. That assessment is legal work. Create profile for our assistance in this.
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Verification
| Sources cited | 8 |
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| of which official (tier 1) | 8 |
| Oldest as-of date | 2025-02-25 |
| Newest as-of date | 2026-08-22 |
| Reviewed on | 2026-08-22 |
| Schema version | 1.1 |
Sources
- [1] Employees – apply for a work permit in Sweden
Swedish Migration Agency (Migrationsverket) · official portal · Tier 1 · Published 2025-02-25 · Accessed 2026-08-22 - [2] Maintenance requirement for the person in Sweden
Swedish Migration Agency (Migrationsverket) · official guidance · Tier 1 · Published 2026-03-18 · Accessed 2026-08-22 - [3] New median salary affects the salary requirement for work permits
Swedish Migration Agency (Migrationsverket) · official guidance · Tier 1 · Published 2026-06-16 · Accessed 2026-08-22 - [4] Anstalld eller egen foretagare (Swedish-language work hub)
Swedish Migration Agency (Migrationsverket) · official portal · Tier 1 · Published 2025-02-25 · Accessed 2026-08-22 - [5] Medianloner i Sverige
Statistiska centralbyran (SCB) · official portal · Tier 1 · Published 2026-06-16 · Accessed 2026-08-22 - [6] SFSR amendment register for Utlanningslag (2005:716)
Regeringskansliet · gazette · Tier 1 · Accessed 2026-08-22 - [7] Utlanningsforordning (2006:97), consolidated text
Sveriges riksdag · statute · Tier 1 · Accessed 2026-08-22 - [8] Utlanningslag (2005:716), consolidated text, amended up to and including SFS 2026:1451
Sveriges riksdag / Regeringskansliet · statute · Tier 1 · Accessed 2026-08-22