Residence Permits

You must apply for a residence permit before you enter Sweden. You must submit your application to a Swedish Embassy or a Swedish Consulate in the country you are residing or to a Swedish Embassy close to you.

A temporary residence permit gives you the right to enter and stay in Sweden during the period specified on the permit. However, it does not give you the right to work unless the residence permit is combined with a work permit. Both temporary and permanent residence permits allow you to stay in other Schengen States for a period of not more than three months.

Attention!

Starting from 20 of May 2011 changes has been made in the procedure of issuing a residence permit.
Applicant with a positive decision receives a Residence Card. We have a special form (power of attorney) for those who can not receive a Residence Card themselfs.
The Residence Card will be issued by the Migration Board in Sweden and delivered at the Swedish Embassy in Moscow.
Applicants must call to the Embassy and check if the card is ready.

Residence permit cards - introduction in May of this year
All EU countries will introduce a residence permit card by 20 May this year. The cards will replace the current stickers and keep the same safety standard as passports.

The purpose of residence cards, so-called UT-card, is that they will be safer than today's stickers. The cards will therefore have a chip with the holder's biometrics in the form of a photo and of two fingerprints.
 
UT-cards will have the same format as an ordinary credit card. They will be issued for all forms of residence. Each card will carry the title RESIDENCE
on the language of the country that issued the card. The cards are valid for five years.
 
The same rules are valid throughout the EU

EU countries have jointly decided that UT-cards are introduced and the rules of the cards are same throughout the EU.
 
At the boarder control both passport and the UT-card will be checked. The photographs and fingerprints will not be stored in any database but in a chip of the card.
 
Old stickers will be replaced gradually and must be replaced by 1 May 2015. Until this date stickers are valid until the end of their validity.

From the 17th of January 2011 the application fees for residence and work permits have been changed (see Application fees residence/work permits) .

A new service is available for those who have applied for residence permit for studies or work permit in Sweden. Now  you can check your application status  by entering your dossier number on the site of the Migration Board of Sweden. This service only includes cases decided upon in the last 14 days and it is updated once a day.

Residence permits may be granted for the purpose of:

• family ties in Sweden
• studies in Sweden (residence permits and visas for students)
• self-employment
• residence permits for visiting researchers
  

Application fees residence/work permits


For further information please contact the Embassy or Consulate. You may also contact: The Migration Board

Last update 17.01.2011