Look for work or start a business
Residency route facts
Identity
| Official name (local) | Söka arbete eller starta företag as of 2025-02-25[2] Page name on Migrationsverket's Swedish site. |
|---|---|
| Official name (English) | Look for work or start a business as of 2025-02-19[1] Page name on Migrationsverket's English site. |
| Legal basis | Utlanningslag (2005:716) 5 kap. 9 § (Lag 2022:303) as of 2026-08-22[3][4] 'Ett tidsbegransat uppehallstillstand far beviljas en utlanning som onskar vistas har i landet for att soka arbete eller undersoka forutsattningarna for att starta naringsverksamhet, om han eller hon 1. har slutfort studier som motsvarar en examen pa avancerad niva, 2. har tillrackliga medel for sitt uppehalle under tillstandstiden och for att tacka kostnaderna for sin aterresa, och 3. har en heltackande sjukforsakring som galler i Sverige. Ett uppehallstillstand enligt forsta stycket far inte beviljas for langre tid an nio manader.' Amendment search against the SFSR register: 5 kap. 9 § has not been amended since 2022:303; the six 2025-2026 acts touching 5 kap. reach 1, 1 a, 1 b, 2 a, 2 b, 2 d, 3, 3 a, 3 d, 3 g, 5, 6, 7, 8, 11, 15, 15 c, 17, 17 a, 18, 18 a and 20 §§, not 9 §. |
| Instrument type | residence permit as of 2026-08-22[4] 'Ett tidsbegransat uppehallstillstand' – a time-limited residence permit. |
Who can apply
| Nationals not served by this route | EU, EEA as of 2025-02-19[1] 'If you are a citizen of a country outside the EU/EEA, you will in most cases need a permit to work in Sweden.' |
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| Criminal-record condition | Not established from a qualifying source |
Permit terms
| Initial duration | up to 9 months as of 2026-08-22[1][4] 5 kap. 9 § andra stycket: 'far inte beviljas for langre tid an nio manader', and never longer than the passport. |
|---|---|
| Renewable | Not established from a qualifying source[1][4] |
| Maximum total duration | up to 9 months as of 2026-08-22[4] |
| Work rights | none as of 2026-08-22[1][4] The permit is to look for work or investigate starting a business, not to do either: 'If you get a job in Sweden during the permit period, you can apply for a work permit from within the country. You are not allowed to start working before you have applied for the new permit.' Once the work-permit application is filed the holder may work for that employer while it is processed. The business branch is more generous – having applied for a self-employed permit, the holder may run the business while it is processed. |
Permanent residence and citizenship
| Counts toward permanent residence | No as of 2026-08-22[4] Not among the permit types Utlanningslag 5 kap. 5 § counts. It is a bridge to permits that are. |
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Requirements
| Job offer required | No as of 2026-08-22[1][4] The route exists precisely for people who have none. |
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| Labour-market test | No as of 2026-08-22[4] None. |
| Qualification requirement | degree as of 2026-08-22[1][4] 5 kap. 9 § forsta stycket 1: studies completed corresponding to a second-cycle (advanced-level) qualification. Migrationsverket spells out what counts: a 60-credit master's, a 120-credit master's, a professional degree of 60-330 credits, or a postgraduate/PhD-level degree. |
| Employer sponsorship | No as of 2025-02-19[1] |
| Own means requirement | SEK 13,000 per month as of 2025-02-19[1][4] |
| Job-search route | Yes as of 2026-08-22[1][4] This is the G9 case: the route is itself a job-search instrument, not a work route that also allows job search. |
Process
| Where to apply from | from abroad only as of 2025-02-19[1] Stated twice on the page – as a substantive requirement ('You must currently be located outside of Sweden') and as the general rule ('If you are applying for a residence permit for the first time, you must do so from outside Sweden'). No in-country exception is offered. The route works in the other direction: from inside Sweden it opens switches to se-employee, se-self-employed and se-eu-blue-card. |
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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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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.
Profile benefits
- A 30-minute call with our consultant, who reads your profile first.
- An offer for legal support built around your case, covering the whole process.
Verification
| Sources cited | 4 |
|---|---|
| of which official (tier 1) | 4 |
| Oldest as-of date | 2025-02-19 |
| Newest as-of date | 2026-08-22 |
| Reviewed on | 2026-08-22 |
| Schema version | 1.1 |
Sources
- [1] Look for work or start a business
Swedish Migration Agency (Migrationsverket) · official portal · Tier 1 · Published 2025-02-19 · Accessed 2026-08-22 - [2] Soka jobb (Swedish-language job-search hub)
Swedish Migration Agency (Migrationsverket) · official portal · Tier 1 · Published 2025-02-25 · Accessed 2026-08-22 - [3] SFSR amendment register for Utlanningslag (2005:716)
Regeringskansliet · gazette · Tier 1 · Accessed 2026-08-22 - [4] Utlanningslag (2005:716), consolidated text, amended up to and including SFS 2026:1451
Sveriges riksdag / Regeringskansliet · statute · Tier 1 · Accessed 2026-08-22