Apply for a work permit after visiting an employer
Residency route facts
Identity
| Official name (local) | Ansöka om arbetstillstånd efter besök hos arbetsgivare as of 2025-02-25[3] Page name on Migrationsverket's Swedish site. |
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| Official name (English) | Apply for a work permit after visiting an employer as of 2025-01-30[4] Page name on Migrationsverket's English site. |
| Legal basis | Utlanningslag (2005:716) 6 kap. 2 § forsta stycket och 5 kap. 18 § (Lag 2026:1142) as of 2026-08-22[6][8] The same work permit as se-employee; what makes it a separate route is the in-country application, which rests on the exceptions in 5 kap. 18 § andra stycket that 6 kap. 4 § applies correspondingly to work permits. |
| 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[4] 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[4][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[4][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[4][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[4][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 | Yes as of 2025-01-30[4] Unlike every other Swedish work route, this one is gated on labour-market conditions: the occupation must appear on the published list of occupations experiencing a labour shortage, and the employer must show an urgent need for the applicant's skills. The test is a shortage test, not a resident-labour-availability test, and it governs only whether the application may be made from inside Sweden – the underlying permit is the ordinary 6 kap. 2 § one. |
| Qualification requirement | none as of 2026-08-22[4][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[4] 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[4] |
Process
| Where to apply from | in-country only as of 2025-01-30[4] This route exists only as an in-country application: the applicant must already be in Sweden, must have come for the purpose of meeting an employer (not as a tourist or to visit family), must apply within the visa-free 90 days or the entry visa's validity, the occupation must be on the Swedish Public Employment Service's labour-shortage list, and the employer must have an urgent need for the skills such that the business cannot function if the applicant has to travel home to apply. Someone who does not meet all of these leaves and uses se-employee instead. Work may not begin before the permit is granted. |
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| Observed processing time | Not established from a qualifying source[4] '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 2026-08-22[4][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[4] |
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| Eligible relations | spouse, registered partner, unmarried partner, minor child, adult dependent child as of 2025-02-25[4][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[4] 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[4] |
| 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.
Profile benefits
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Verification
| Sources cited | 8 |
|---|---|
| of which official (tier 1) | 8 |
| Oldest as-of date | 2025-01-30 |
| Newest as-of date | 2026-08-22 |
| Reviewed on | 2026-08-22 |
| Schema version | 1.1 |
Sources
- [1] Maintenance requirement for the person in Sweden
Swedish Migration Agency (Migrationsverket) · official guidance · Tier 1 · Published 2026-03-18 · Accessed 2026-08-22 - [2] 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 - [3] Anstalld eller egen foretagare (Swedish-language work hub)
Swedish Migration Agency (Migrationsverket) · official portal · Tier 1 · Published 2025-02-25 · Accessed 2026-08-22 - [4] Apply for a work permit after visiting an employer
Swedish Migration Agency (Migrationsverket) · official portal · Tier 1 · Published 2025-01-30 · 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