Higher education
Residency route facts
Identity
| Official name (local) | Studier vid högre utbildning as of 2025-02-25[4] Page name on Migrationsverket's Swedish site. |
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| Official name (English) | Higher education as of 2025-06-04[3] Page name on Migrationsverket's English site; the page title is 'Residence permit for studies in Sweden'. |
| Legal basis | Utlanningslag (2005:716) 5 b kap. 3 § (Lag 2019:1208) as of 2026-08-22[6][8] 'En utlanning som har antagits till en utbildning pa heltid vid en laroanstalt for hogre utbildning i Sverige ska, om utlanningen har betalat de avgifter som tas ut for studierna vid laroanstalten … beviljas ett uppehallstillstand for studier inom hogre utbildning.' The permit must run at least one year or the shorter study period, and at least two years where a Union or multilateral mobility programme or an inter-institution agreement applies. Amendment search against the SFSR register: 3 § itself is unamended since 2019:1208, but the rules governing it moved on 11 June 2026 through Lag 2026:457, which rewrote 5 b kap. 18 § and 22 § (study progress and over-working as grounds to refuse extension or revoke) and added 29 § and 30 § (enabling powers over what counts as acceptable progress, and an address-notification duty). |
| Instrument type | residence permit as of 2026-08-22[8] Exempt from the work-permit requirement under Utlanningsforordning (2006:97) 5 kap. 2 § forsta stycket 6 a, so no separate arbetstillstand. |
Who can apply
| Nationals not served by this route | EU, EEA as of 2026-08-22[3][8] 5 b kap. 10 § 1. |
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| Criminal-record condition | Not established from a qualifying source[8] |
Permit terms
| Initial duration | 12 to 24 months as of 2025-06-04[3][8] 'You can be granted a residence permit for a maximum of one or two years, depending on which higher education institution you will be studying at, but not for longer than your studies will last.' Migrationsverket publishes the list of 34 institutions whose students get two years; everyone else gets one. Mobility-programme studies of at least two years also get two. The statutory floor is the same shape – 5 b kap. 3 § andra-tredje styckena set at least one year, at least two under a mobility programme. Where the permit covers the whole programme, two weeks are added to allow completion and departure. |
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| How the initial term is set | matches the course |
| Renewable | Yes as of 2026-08-22[3][8] 5 b kap. 17 §: extendable on application. |
| Work rights | hours capped as of 2026-08-21[2][3][8] New on 11 June 2026 and the single most consequential change on this route: a first- or second-cycle student may work at most 15 hours a week during semesters, where before there was no limit. Four carve-outs let the student work without limit – work that is part of the education (an internship), student representation, administration or research at the institution, artistic research there, and the months of June, July and August. A fifth applies after completion: someone who has finished a programme of at least two semesters with a certificate may work without limit for the rest of the permit, provided they are not applying for a new first- or second-cycle study permit. The cap applies to permits granted on or after 11 June 2026. |
Permanent residence and citizenship
| Counts toward permanent residence | No as of 2026-08-22[8] Utlanningslag 5 kap. 5 § forsta stycket 2 counts 'utbildning pa forskarniva' – doctoral level – and not first- or second-cycle study. Time on this permit does not count toward a permanent permit. The route to one runs through se-job-search-after-studies and then a work permit, which does count. |
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Requirements
| Enrolment status required | admitted as of 2026-08-22[3][8] 5 b kap. 3 §: 'antagits till en utbildning pa heltid'. Migrationsverket adds that admission is final only once any tuition fee is paid, and the institution notifies the authority when it is. Full-time means 30 credits a semester at a university or university college, or an average of at least 20 teaching hours a week elsewhere; distance learning does not qualify. The route also covers higher vocational education and post-secondary folk high school courses. |
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| Means requirement | 0.18 × price base amount (a annual figure), assessed monthly as of 2025-09-18[3][5] '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 | 15 as of 2026-08-21[2][3][8] Fifteen hours a week during semesters, for permits granted on or after 11 June 2026. See work_rights for the five carve-outs. Exceeding it can cost the permit (5 b kap. 22 §) or the extension (18 §). |
| Post-study route exists | Yes as of 2026-08-22[3][8] se-job-search-after-studies, under 5 b kap. 8 §. |
| Post-study permit duration | up to 1 year as of 2026-08-22[8] 5 b kap. 8 § forsta stycket: one year after completed studies for a first- or second-cycle completer. Doctoral completers get between one year and eighteen months under the third paragraph. |
| Post-study income requirement | 0.18 × price base amount (a annual figure), assessed monthly as of 2025-09-18[1][5] The post-study job-search permit carries the same 18-per-cent-of-price-base-amount monthly maintenance figure as the study permit. |
Process
| Where to apply from | from abroad only as of 2026-08-22[3][8] Utlanningslag 5 b kap. 15 § forsta stycket: applied for and granted before entry, and no application may be approved after entry. Migrationsverket restates it – 'If you are applying for a residence permit for the first time, you must do so while you are outside Sweden' – and publishes an interactive guide to the in-country exceptions, which all rest on holding another valid Swedish permit. |
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| Statutory processing time | 90 days as of 2026-08-22[7] Utlanningsforordning (2006:97) 4 a kap. 1 § (Forordning 2026:459): an application must be decided at the latest '1. 60 dagar fran det att ansokan lamnades in, om ansokan avser uppehallstillstand enligt 5 b kap. 1 eller 2 § eller utbildning pa forskarniva enligt 3 § utlanningslagen (2005:716), eller 2. 90 dagar … om ansokan avser uppehallstillstand enligt 5 b kap. 3-8 eller 19 § utlanningslagen.' The clock may be extended where the application needs completing, and the applicant must be told. This is a real statutory deadline and it is not the same thing as Migrationsverket's own service commitments or its published percentiles. |
| Observed processing time | Recorded at the source, but not reducible to a single value[3] |
| Fees |
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| Quota |
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Physical presence
| periodic reporting | 1 year · to keep the permit as of 2026-08-21[2][8] Not a day count. The continuity obligation on this permit is academic rather than physical: credits must accumulate at 37.5 in the first year and 45 a year thereafter, tested when an extension is sought, and from 11 June 2026 the holder must also notify Migrationsverket of their address in Sweden. The interval is recorded as one year because that is the period the credit requirement is measured over. Nothing in 5 b kap. or on the page states a maximum absence. |
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Family inclusion
| Family members may be included | Yes as of 2025-06-04[3] |
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| Eligible relations | spouse, registered partner, unmarried partner, minor child as of 2025-06-04[3] 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 2025-06-04[3] Family may apply at the same time; anyone applying later uses se-family-accompanying-student. |
| Family members' work rights | Not established from a qualifying source[3] |
| Additional means per family member |
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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.
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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] Look for work after completing your studies in Sweden
Swedish Migration Agency (Migrationsverket) · official portal · Tier 1 · Published 2025-02-18 · Accessed 2026-08-22 - [2] New rules for residence permits for studies in higher education
Swedish Migration Agency (Migrationsverket) · official guidance · Tier 1 · Published 2026-08-21 · Accessed 2026-08-22 - [3] Higher education – residence permit for studies in Sweden
Swedish Migration Agency (Migrationsverket) · official portal · Tier 1 · Published 2025-06-04 · Accessed 2026-08-22 - [4] Studera (Swedish-language study hub)
Swedish Migration Agency (Migrationsverket) · official portal · Tier 1 · Published 2025-02-25 · Accessed 2026-08-22 - [5] Prisbasbeloppet for ar 2026
Statistiska centralbyran (SCB) · official portal · Tier 1 · Published 2025-07-14 · 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