Sweden · Employment
Swedish Work Permit (Arbetstillstånd)
Reformed 1 June 2026. The salary requirement rose to 90% of the Swedish median salary. With the median set at SEK 38,300 as of 16 June 2026, the floor is SEK 34,470 a month. This is a moving target. It resets whenever Statistics Sweden publishes a new median.
Sweden has raised its salary floor twice in three years. It went to 80% of median in November 2023, and it rises to 90% from June 2026. Because the floor is pegged to a published median, it can move again without any new legislation. A package that clears the bar today can fail at extension, even if nothing on your side has changed.
Qualifying routes
90% of the median salary, recalculated whenever the median changes.
Named exemptions: IT and technical roles, healthcare staff, agriculture and forestry, food processing, and employees of tech or life-science start-ups under 5 years old with under 100 employees.
The facts
- Minimum
- 34.5k SEK
- Total landed cost
- SEK 2,200 application fee. The binding constraint is the salary floor, not the fee.
- Route type
- By employment
- Timeline
- 1–12 months (Certified employers move much faster. Standard cases have historically been slow.)
- Physical presence
- Genuine employment and residence in Sweden.
- Family
- Spouse or cohabiting partner with full work rightsChildren under 21
- Permanent residency
- 4 years of work permit within the last 7.
- Citizenship
- 8 years from 6 June 2026.
- Language test
- See the citizenship entry. Phased in from August 2026.
- Dual citizenship
- Permitted
- Requirements
- a job offer meeting the salary floor and collective agreement termscomprehensive health insurance for stays of a year or lessemployer advertising and vetting requirements
- The floor is a moving target, pegged to the published median. It can rise without any new legislation, so build headroom into any package.
- There is a transitional rule. Permits granted before 1 June 2026 can still use the old 80% rule (SEK 29,680) for extensions filed between 1 June and 1 December 2026. From 2 December 2026, everyone must meet the new bar.
- From 1 June 2026, several other changes take effect. Comprehensive health insurance becomes mandatory for stays of a year or less. ICT and seasonal salaries must match collective agreements. And employers are now vetted for misconduct.
- Forest berry pickers and personal assistants are now excluded from standard work permits entirely.
- A proposal to raise the floor to 100% of median was floated but never enacted. Do not plan around it, but do not assume 90% is the end of the road either.