Moving to Sweden to join family: which permit applies, rules from 1 October 2026

Who this article is for

This article is for people who want to move to Sweden to live with a partner or parent, for families with children, and for the sponsor already in Sweden. A sponsor is called an anknytningsperson: the person in Sweden whom the family member is joining.

It is not for everyone who touches Swedish immigration. Use these guides instead:

• You hold, or are applying for, a work permit yourself: start at Permits. If you want your family to join you, read on: the worker-family route is covered below.
• You are coming to study: start at Studying in Sweden.
• You are visiting for a few weeks: see Planning a Trip.
• You are the family member of an EU citizen: read the EU family member residence card guide.

Prerequisites before any step applies

Check four things first. Each one decides which route you are on.

• Citizenship of the person moving. The partner and child routes below are for citizens of a country outside the EU/EES, per Migrationsverket (as of 7 October 2026).
• Status of the sponsor. Swedish or Nordic citizenship, permanent residence, or a time-limited permit valid for at least one year with well-founded prospects of permanent residence.
• Age and relationship. For a partner permit both partners must be over 21, and you must be married, registered partners, or sambo, or plan to become one of these. Exceptions exist only on special grounds, for example shared children. A sambo is an unmarried partner who lives with you in the same household.
• Where you are when you apply. In most cases you apply from outside Sweden and wait there.

How the system is built

Sweden does not have one family permit. It has three layers, and which one applies is decided by the sponsor, not by you.

Layer 1: anknytning (connection) to someone settled in Sweden. This covers partners and children of Swedish citizens, Nordic citizens and people with a permanent or longer time-limited permit. It is the route Migrationsverket calls "Bo med partner" (live with a partner) and "Barn som ska bo med förälder" (child who will live with a parent). The statute is chapter 5 of utlänningslagen: 5 kap. 3 § covers a sponsor who is a Swedish or Nordic citizen or has permanent right of residence, and 5 kap. 3 a § covers a sponsor with a permanent or time-limited permit. Section 5 kap. 3 j § makes the permit conditional on the sponsor being able to support both people and having a home of sufficient size and standard. Source: the Riksdagen text of the law.

Layer 2: medföljande familj (accompanying family). This covers families of people who hold a work permit, an entrepreneur permit, or a study permit. The family member can apply afterwards (i efterhand). The rules are separate, and the fee is different. The legal basis is utlänningsförordningen (2006:97): 4 kap. 4 a § for the families of work-permit holders, 4 a kap. 6 § for the families of students.

Layer 3: EU/EES rules. Family of an EU/EES citizen are covered by EU rules and pay no application fee, per Migrationsverket. Swedish citizens do not count as EU citizens here, because the Swedish citizen route is Layer 1.

Which sponsor leads to which permit

Sources for the table: the worker-family page covers the work-permit, entrepreneur, researcher, ICT and EU Blue Card rows. Migrationsverket pages "Bo med partner", "Barn som ska bo med förälder", "Familj till arbetstagare eller egen företagare som ansöker i efterhand" and "Familj som vill ansöka i efterhand" (studera), all read on 7 October 2026.

If the sponsor has a time-limited permit

From 1 October 2026 a sponsor with a time-limited permit must have lived in Sweden with a permit for two years when the family applies, per Migrationsverket. There are exceptions, including refugees whose relationship was established before they arrived. This is a new condition. The rule is in 5 kap. 3 i § utlänningslagen and covers only the partner and child route. It does not apply to work-permit holders, researchers, doctoral students, EU Blue Card or ICT permit holders, whose families are on the medföljande familj route: "För personer med arbetstillstånd, forskare, doktorander, personer med EU-blåkort och ICT-tillstånd, ensamkommande barn och deras föräldrar gäller inte kravet om två års vistelsetid" (Migrationsverket, 1 October 2026).

If the sponsor is a refugee

Per Migrationsverket, the maintenance and housing requirement does not apply if the sponsor has refugee status, the family applies within three months of the sponsor receiving the permit, you lived together just before the sponsor moved to Sweden, and you have no way to reunite in a country outside the EU. A sponsor with subsidiary protection (alternativt skyddsbehövande) is not covered by this exemption, and 5 kap. 3 a § utlänningslagen sets extra limits on family reunification for them. The fee exemption is wider: spouse, sambo, registered partner and children under 18 of a protection holder pay no application fee, per the partner page.

The fees: set by route, paid per person

Each family member who applies pays an application fee when the application is made, and the fee is not refunded if the application is refused. The partner and child route (anknytning) charges a different fee from the worker, entrepreneur and student family route (medföljande familj), so pick the fee by the route your sponsor puts you on. Family of a refugee or of a holder of subsidiary protection, and family of an EU/EES citizen, pay no fee. Migrationsverket publishes the current amounts on each route's page: Bo med partner for the partner and child route, the worker-family page for families of workers and entrepreneurs, and the student-family page for families of students.

Försörjningskrav and bostadskrav: the two requirements on the sponsor

Short answer: if your sponsor is a Swedish citizen or holds a permit under the partner route, read both tables below. If your sponsor is a worker, entrepreneur or student, jump to the last subsection. If your sponsor is a refugee and you apply within three months, the exemption above may apply.

The försörjningskrav is the rule that the sponsor must be able to support themselves, the household and the applying family members. The bostadskrav, which applies only on the partner and child route, is the rule that the sponsor has a home of sufficient size and standard, available for at least one year ahead.

The amount the sponsor must have left each month

The test is not a salary figure. It is the sum left after tax and after rent is paid. For 2026, Migrationsverket publishes these amounts for the partner and child route, which apply to first applications and to permits granted from 1 October 2026:

The child amounts are reduced by any child benefit and large-family supplement, per Migrationsverket. The amounts are set each year from the normal amount used for wage garnishment; these are the 2026 figures.

A lower scale applies during a transition. The permit being extended must have been granted before 1 October 2026, and the extension application must be registered by 1 October 2027. The amounts are then SEK 6,243 for a single adult and SEK 10,314 for a couple. From 2 October 2027 the higher amounts apply to every application.

What counts as income

Per Migrationsverket, Försörjningskrav för anknytningspersoner: wages, income from your own business and sickness benefit count. A fortune large enough to live on for at least two years also counts. Income from subsidised employment, unemployment insurance and activity support does not count.

The housing test

Per the same Migrationsverket page, the sponsor must show a home for at least one year ahead. For two adults without children, a kitchen or kitchenette and at least one room is enough. Two children can share a bedroom, so two adults and two children meet the test in a two-room flat with a kitchen. There is no square-metre requirement. Subletting is allowed if the landlord, the housing association or the rent tribunal has approved it, per the Bo med partner page. Being a lodger with someone else or living at home with your own parents does not count as an acceptable home.

Who is exempt

Per Migrationsverket, the requirement does not apply if the sponsor is under 18, unless the other parent is the one applying. It also does not apply to a Swedish, EU/EES or Swiss citizen whose marriage or sambo relationship is well established, for example after living together for a longer time. Refugees applying within three months are exempt, as described above, and so are sponsors with special grounds such as long-term reduced work capacity. If your family member has a child who will move to Sweden with them and you are not the child's other parent or guardian, the maintenance requirement does apply.

The maintenance requirement applies to a work-permit holder who sponsors family

Migrationsverket states that a family member of a worker or entrepreneur "omfattas av ett försörjningskrav". The sponsor must be able to support themselves, the household and the applying family members. From 1 October 2026 the requirement is also tested when the family applies to extend, and the family members' own income can count then, per Migrationsverket's news of 1 October 2026.

The amount is lower than on the partner route, and the two pages do not conflict: they apply two different rules. For a work-permit, EU Blue Card or ICT sponsor, utlänningsförordningen 4 kap. 4 c § requires the normal amount: for 2026, SEK 6,243 for a single adult, SEK 10,314 for a couple, and SEK 3,336 / 4,004 / 4,672 / 5,339 per child aged 0–6 / 7–10 / 11–14 / 15 or older (worker-family page). For the partner and child route, 4 kap. 4 d § requires 1.30 times that amount, which gives the table above. Both scales are set each year. There is no housing-size test on the worker route: 5 kap. 3 j § utlänningslagen applies only to the partner and child route.

Other sponsor types have different tests, per the worker-family and student pages. An entrepreneur must show funds of SEK 200,000 for the sponsor, SEK 100,000 for an accompanying spouse and SEK 50,000 for each accompanying child. A researcher's or a student's family must show SEK 4,440 per month for an adult and SEK 2,664 per month for each child. A student's family under one year of stay also needs comprehensive health insurance.

Processing and where to wait

Migrationsverket publishes waiting times as the time within which 75% of recently decided cases were decided, based on the last 12 months. As of 7 October 2026:

For worker and entrepreneur families, the table shows that a complete file is decided far faster than an incomplete one. If your partner is a Swedish citizen, a faster track exists: "Om ni uppfyller särskilda krav kan du få beslut inom 90 dagar". The conditions are that you have lived together abroad continuously for at least 12 months (24 months if you have no shared children) and that the application is complete, with all required documents translated, per Bo med partner. If a decision runs far beyond these figures, see the guide to forcing a Migrationsverket decision.

Wait outside Sweden

A non-EU citizen should in nearly all cases have applied for and received the permit before travelling to Sweden. Otherwise the application can be refused and a re-entry ban (återreseförbud) can follow, which bars entry to any Schengen country while it lasts, per Migrationsverket. While you wait, Migrationsverket sends the sponsor in Sweden a questionnaire. The sponsor must answer within 14 days, per Migrationsverket.

If you apply from inside Sweden you have no right to care and must pay any healthcare costs yourself, per the Bo med partner page.

Exceptions to applying from outside Sweden

The rule in 5 kap. 18 § utlänningslagen is that the permit must be granted before entry, with exceptions where the connection to the person in Sweden is strong and applying from abroad would be unreasonable. Migrationsverket's Bo med partner page names two: you have a child who is a citizen of Sweden or another EU/EES country, or you have a very serious illness. Each case is assessed on its own.

Rights on arrival

Work and study. A permit for living with someone in Sweden carries the right to work and study, per Migrationsverket.

Folkbokföring and personnummer. If you plan to stay at least one year, you register in folkbokföring, the Swedish population register. Skatteverket, the tax agency that runs the population register, decides this. You show your uppehållstillståndskort (residence permit card), and family moving with you must visit a service office in person for an identity check. On first registration you receive a personnummer. See the personnummer guide.

Healthcare. With a permit but without folkbokföring you pay the full cost of care yourself, per 1177. The details are in healthcare in Sweden.

SFI. Svenska för invandrare, Swedish for immigrants, is run by the municipality where you are registered, which decides whether you get a place. Contact the municipality to begin, per Arbetsförmedlingen, the public employment service.

Costs. Budget the first months with the family of four cost guide.

If the relationship ends

Rules differ by stage.

• The permit ends with the relationship: if you hold a permit to live with a partner and the relationship ends, Migrationsverket says you should return to your home country. It can revoke the permit, because the ground for it no longer exists.
• Extension in special cases: a further permit is possible if the relationship ended because you or your child were subjected to violence or another serious violation. The relationship must have been serious from the start and not entirely brief, and the violations must appear likely to have occurred.
• Other grounds: a permit may also follow from serious or difficult circumstances that make you particularly vulnerable, or from a child in Sweden who has the right to live here.

Permanent residence is covered in from sambo to permanent residence. The partner route in detail is in the sambo visa requirements. If a decision goes against you, see how to appeal a rejected decision.