Contract or specialisation education
Residency route facts
Identity
| Official name (local) | Studier vid uppdrags- eller specialiseringsutbildning as of 2025-02-25[2] Page name on Migrationsverket's Swedish site. |
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| Official name (English) | Contract or specialisation education as of 2025-02-25[1] Page name on Migrationsverket's English site. |
| Legal basis | Utlanningsforordning (2006:97) 4 kap. 5 § as of 2026-08-22[1][4] Unusually for this record the basis is in the ordinance, not the act: 'Uppehallstillstand ska, om inte nagot annat foljer av 5 a eller 5 b §, beviljas en utlanning som pa heltid ska delta i 1. en uppdragsutbildning enligt forordningen (2002:760) om uppdragsutbildning vid universitet och hogskolor, eller 2. en specialiseringsutbildning for lakare eller tandlakare som forutsatter ett sadant sarskilt forordnande som avses i 4 kap. 4 § patientsakerhetslagen (2010:659).' The permit runs at least one year or the shorter study period. Migrationsverket names both underlying instruments on the page but cites no section for the permit itself. |
| Instrument type | residence permit as of 2026-08-22[4] |
Who can apply
| Nationals not served by this route | EU, EEA as of 2025-02-25[1] 'If you are a citizen of a country outside the EU/EEA, you will in most cases need a residence permit to study in Sweden.' |
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| Criminal-record condition | Not established from a qualifying source |
Permit terms
| Initial duration | up to 4 years as of 2025-02-25[1] 'You can be granted a residence permit for a maximum of four years, but not for longer than your studies are supposed to last.' The ordinance sets the floor instead – at least one year or the shorter study period. Two weeks are added where the permit covers the whole programme. |
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| How the initial term is set | matches the course |
| Renewable | Yes as of 2025-02-25[1] 'Your residence permit can be extended.' |
| Work rights | none as of 2025-02-25[1] Migrationsverket answers this directly and it is the sharpest single fact on the route: 'Can I work with this residence permit? No. A residence permit for contract or specialisation education does not give you the right to work in Sweden.' That makes it the only study route in this record with no work rights at all – notable because one of its two branches is specialisation training for doctors and dentists, which is clinical work by nature. The permit covers the training; paid employment alongside it does not come with it. |
Permanent residence and citizenship
| Counts toward permanent residence | No as of 2026-08-22[5] Not among the permit types Utlanningslag 5 kap. 5 § counts. Recorded false rather than unknown because 5 kap. 5 § is an exhaustive enumeration and a 4 kap. 5 § ordinance permit is not in it. |
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Requirements
| Enrolment status required | admitted as of 2026-08-22[1][4] Final admission to full-time study; distance learning does not qualify. |
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| Means requirement | 0.18 × price base amount (a annual figure), assessed monthly as of 2025-09-18[1][3] 'The maintenance requirement is at least SEK 10,656 per month, if you applied in 2026' – exactly 18 per cent of the 2026 price base amount of SEK 59,200, which is why it is stored as a relative_amount against se-prisbasbelopp and not pre-multiplied (research-rules 6.4). The whole family of figures on this page is whole percentages of the same index: free food reduces the monthly amount by SEK 2,960 (5 per cent), free housing by SEK 4,736 (8 per cent), an accompanying partner adds SEK 4,440 (7.5 per cent) and each accompanying child SEK 2,664 (4.5 per cent). The means may be personal bank assets, a scholarship, a sponsor, a student grant or loan from the country of origin, or income from employment, and may be combined; credit, funds, shares, microfinance-bank assets and locked deposits do not count, and private individuals are not accepted as sponsors. The 2025 figure was SEK 10,584 – 18 per cent of the 2025 price base amount. |
| Work-hours cap | 0 as of 2025-02-25[1] |
| Post-study route exists | No as of 2026-08-22[5] 5 b kap. 8 § gives the post-study job-search permit to holders of a 5 b kap. 3 § permit – study within higher education – and this permit is granted under Utlanningsforordning 4 kap. 5 § instead. Migrationsverket's own guide lists 'Contract or specialisation education' among the permits a person can switch FROM when applying for other study permits, but not into the post-study route. |
Process
| Where to apply from | from abroad only as of 2025-02-25[1] 'If you are applying for a residence permit for the first time, you must do so while you are outside Sweden, otherwise your application may be rejected.' Migrationsverket publishes the same interactive guide to in-country exceptions as on the other study routes. |
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| Observed processing time | Not established from a qualifying source[1] 'The number of decided cases is too small for us to show the waiting time.' |
| Fees |
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| Quota |
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Physical presence
| none stated | to keep the permit as of 2025-02-25[1] None stated. |
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Family inclusion
| Family members may be included | Yes as of 2025-02-25[1] 'If any of your family members also want to apply for a residence permit, they can do so at the same time as you.' Utlanningsforordning 4 kap. 5 c § is the provision. |
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| Eligible relations | spouse, registered partner, unmarried partner, minor child as of 2025-02-25[1] Migrationsverket: 'Family members are considered to include spouses, registered partners, cohabiting partners, and children under the age of 18.' Narrower than the under-21 rule that applies to ordinary work permits – recorded as stated, not harmonised. |
| Family may apply at the same time | Yes as of 2025-02-25[1] |
| Family members' work rights | Not established from a qualifying source[1] Not stated. |
| 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.
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Verification
| Sources cited | 5 |
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| of which official (tier 1) | 5 |
| 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] Contract or specialisation education
Swedish Migration Agency (Migrationsverket) · official portal · Tier 1 · Published 2025-02-25 · Accessed 2026-08-22 - [2] Studera (Swedish-language study hub)
Swedish Migration Agency (Migrationsverket) · official portal · Tier 1 · Published 2025-02-25 · Accessed 2026-08-22 - [3] Prisbasbeloppet for ar 2026
Statistiska centralbyran (SCB) · official portal · Tier 1 · Published 2025-07-14 · Accessed 2026-08-22 - [4] Utlanningsforordning (2006:97), consolidated text
Sveriges riksdag · statute · Tier 1 · Accessed 2026-08-22 - [5] Utlanningslag (2005:716), consolidated text, amended up to and including SFS 2026:1451
Sveriges riksdag / Regeringskansliet · statute · Tier 1 · Accessed 2026-08-22