Folkbokföring explained: personnummer to bank account

Folkbokföring is the Swedish population register: the record in which Skatteverket, the Swedish Tax Agency, registers where each resident lives and under which identity number. A registered person receives a personnummer, the personal identity number. The Skatteverket id-kort, the agency's ID card, requires that registration.

This article is for anyone who has moved, or is about to move, to Sweden to live for a year or more, whatever the citizenship. It is not for visitors, who should start at planning a trip. Stays under one year are covered only in the samordningsnummer section below. Skatteverket advises Swedish citizens to get the national ID card from Polisen, the police authority, instead.

Prerequisites before any step applies

Three things decide which route you take, so settle them first. Your citizenship decides whether you need a permit. Your plan decides whether the one-year test is met. Your address decides where Skatteverket can reach you.

• Non-EU/EEA citizens need a valid residence permit card from Migrationsverket, the Migration Agency, before Skatteverket will register them. The route to that card starts in the permits section.
• EU/EEA citizens show a right of residence instead of a permit: work, study or enough own assets.
• Everyone who registers gives a full address of the home where they live and sleep, with their name on the door or mailbox. As of October 2026, Skatteverket does not register a c/o address.

What folkbokföring is and who runs it

Folkbokföringslagen (1991:481), the population registration act, defines the system. Under 1 §, folkbokföring means fixing a person's residence and registering the details the law lists, and Skatteverket is responsible for it. As of October 2026, 18 § of the same act says every registered person receives a personnummer as an identity designation.

The register holds more than an address. Skatteverket lists the personnummer, any samordningsnummer, name, date and place of birth, address, citizenship, civil status, family links, and any right of residence. When a detail changes, the earlier value is kept.

What folkbokföring triggers

Registration is the trigger for most of what follows. Skatteverket states that many rights and duties depend on being registered, and on where, including housing allowance, where you pay tax and where you vote.

The data moves through Navet, Skatteverket's system for passing register data to authorities, so you do not notify each one of a move. Banks and other firms that are SPAR customers can read register data from SPAR, the state personal address register. Skatteverket states that knowingly failing to report a move, or reporting wrong or incomplete details, is a crime. Under folkbokföringslagen 42 §, folkbokföringsbrott, the register offence, carries a fine or up to six months in prison. Only grovt folkbokföringsbrott, the aggravated offence (committed systematically, on a large scale or otherwise grave), carries up to two years. Minor cases are not punished, and from 1 December 2026 the act says the same of a minor delay in reporting a move.

The one-year test

The test sits in 3 § of folkbokföringslagen. A person counts as resident if they can be expected to spend their nightly rest in Sweden regularly for at least one year. Skatteverket applies it in practice: if you plan to live here for a year or more, you should in most cases be registered. If you plan to stay less than a year, you should not be.

What decides the outcome is your documented plan, not the day you land. Skatteverket suggests showing a residence permit decision, an employment contract or a study certificate. The route differs by citizenship:

• EU/EEA citizens move to work, to study or to live on their own assets.
• Non-EU/EEA citizens show a valid residence permit card.
• Nordic citizens need a plan to stay at least one year.

You apply through the Skatteverket service Flytta till Sverige, at the earliest 14 days before you move, and then attend an identity check at a service office. As of October 2026, Skatteverket reports about five weeks until a case officer picks up the case. The one-year test guide goes deeper, and the office visit is covered in what to bring to the personnummer appointment.

Personnummer and samordningsnummer: two numbers, two statuses

A personnummer comes with registration and stays yours for life, even if you move abroad. As of October 2026, per Skatteverket, a samordningsnummer, the coordination number, is an identity designation for someone who is not, and has never been, registered. Both numbers have ten digits, and the second-to-last digit shows legal sex (personnummer, samordningsnummer): odd for men, even for women. The first six digits follow the birth date, and in a samordningsnummer the birth day is raised by 60.

To apply for a samordningsnummer yourself, you must show a need for one and a connection to Sweden, and you must book an identity check. As of October 2026, Skatteverket reports up to six weeks before a case officer picks up an individual application. Workers staying under a year should also notify Skatteverket of preliminary tax (preliminär A-skatt) or apply for SINK, the special income tax for people living abroad.

Skatteverket records every samordningsnummer with one of three identity levels: verified, probable or uncertain. A holder who applies alone must prove identity to be assigned a number, at a booked service-office visit.

The chain: personnummer, id-kort, BankID, bank account

Each gate checks something different. The id-kort follows from the personnummer in law. The bank account does not depend on BankID or on the id-kort in any rule cited here, so steps 3 and 4 are separate gates.

Step 1: personnummer. It follows registration. Read the full explainer on the personnummer.

Step 2: id-kort. Skatteverket issues it to someone who is registered, has a personnummer, is at least 13 (lag 2015:899) and can prove who they are. Under 18, you also need your vårdnadshavare (guardians) to consent. As of October 2026, per Skatteverket, an application fee applies, paid before the visit (see Skatteverket's application page for the current amount), and the card takes about two weeks. It is valid for five years and carries an e-legitimation, an electronic ID, for Skatteverket's e-services. The act on identity cards (2015:899) says the same: the card goes to a person who has turned 13 and is registered. Guides: the id-kort explained and the id-kort for foreign citizens.

Step 3: BankID. Skatteverket describes the e-legitimation on the id-kort as for its own e-services. BankID is a separate electronic ID, and its eligibility rules and accepted documents are set by BankID, not by Skatteverket or the register. They are covered in the guides BankID explained and the id-card gate for foreigners.

Step 4: bank account. As of October 2026, the rule text of Finansinspektionen (FFFS 2017:11, consolidated 12 March 2024) says a bank must check a person's identity with a Swedish driving licence, Swedish passport or Swedish-issued identity card. If the person lacks a Swedish document, the bank checks a passport or another identity document with a photograph and citizenship. This is part of kundkännedom, customer due diligence. In its guidance to money transmitters, Finansinspektionen describes it as being well aware of who your customers are.

Per Finansinspektionen, as of October 2026, consumers resident in Sweden or elsewhere in the EEA have a right to a basic payment account. A bank may still refuse if identity cannot be proven or the money-laundering risk is too high. Guides: kundkännedom explained and opening an account without a personnummer.

Which passports Skatteverket accepts, and when an intygsgivare is needed

As of October 2026, to prove who you are for an id-kort, Skatteverket accepts a valid:

• Swedish passport with a burgundy cover, Swedish national id-card, Swedish driving licence, SIS-marked id-card issued by a bank, company or authority, Skatteverket id-kort (when renewing), or Swedish tjänstekort (service card) without SIS marking issued by a state authority;
• passport issued by Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway or Switzerland from 1 September 2006;
• EU passport meeting the security rules of Regulation 2252/2004, issued from 1 September 2006;
• national id-card for EU citizens issued from 2 August 2021 under Regulation 2019/1157.

A passport from a country outside the EU/EEA and Switzerland is not on that list. If you hold one, there are three other routes:

1. The residence permit card. Skatteverket checks the card with Migrationsverket. Lag (2015:899) 3 § also says a person with a permit has proven identity if the application matches the permit record. That does not apply if special reasons speak against it.
2. An intygsgivare, a person who knows you well, comes with you to the service office and vouches for you. They must prove their own identity.
3. A combined assessment of other documents, which Skatteverket approves only in some cases.

Per Skatteverket, close family counts as intygsgivare without further papers: spouse or registered partner, adult child or grandchild, parent or guardian, adult sibling, grandparent, and a cohabiting partner after six months together. Four more kinds of person can act as intygsgivare, but only with a decision or certificate showing the relationship. They are a god man or förvaltare (a court-appointed trustee or administrator), a foster parent, an employer of at least one year, and an official with a professional tie to you.

Routes by situation

• EU/EEA citizen with a job or studies. Register through Flytta till Sverige and attend the identity check; for EU/EEA citizens a passport or a national identity card is an example of an identity document. A passport that meets the list above also works for the id-kort.
• EU/EEA citizen with no income. Register on your own assets. Skatteverket asks you to show enough money to support yourself, and your family, for at least a year, for example a bank statement or a pension certificate. You may also rely on another person's means with a letter and proof of their funds.
• Non-EU/EEA citizen. Get the residence permit first. Skatteverket requires a valid permit card at registration. It also asks you to show your intent to live here for at least a year, for example with a permit decision, an employment contract or a study certificate.
• Non-EU/EEA citizen with no income. Skatteverket's page for this group sets no separate income test; it asks for the permit card. Whether a permit can be granted without income is for Migrationsverket to decide, so check there before you apply.
• Staying under a year. Do not register. Apply for a samordningsnummer if you can show a need and a link to Sweden.

If you have no e-legitimation to log in to Flytta till Sverige, Skatteverket says you can download the Freja app. You can also get help with the service at a service office. After your first personnummer arrives, you can apply for the id-kort.