Unemployed in Sweden: What to Do From Day One to Claim A-kassa

This article is for anyone who has worked in Sweden and has now become unemployed, including EU and EEA movers who also worked in another EU country. It follows the steps in the order you meet them. It is not for someone who has not yet worked in Sweden: a partner on a family permit who has not started a job, or a student on a study permit. Nothing is paid without work income behind it. If that is you, start with finding work in Sweden, partner and family permits or studying in Sweden.

A-kassa (arbetslöshetskassa, an unemployment insurance fund; the word covers both the insurance and the fund) is one statutory insurance, run by the funds under Lag (2024:506) om arbetslöshetsförsäkring. Here you only need the claim. All rules below are as of October 2026, per the sources named at each rule.

Prerequisites before step one

The steps apply only if the basic conditions are met. Check them first.

• Work income in Sweden. The income condition looks at the ramtid, the twelve months before the month you apply for (Lag 2024:506, 3 kap. 12 §). As of October 2026 the main condition is SEK 120,000 in total and SEK 11,000 in at least four of the twelve months, per Arbetsförmedlingen, which says the new rules apply from 1 October 2025. The details are in the SEK 120,000 income requirement.
• Age. Lag (2024:506), 2 kap. 2 §, requires that "sökanden har fyllt 20 år" (the applicant has turned 20).
• Able and available. 2 kap. 1 § requires that you are "arbetsför och oförhindrad att ta ett arbete" (fit for work and free to take a job), registered as a job seeker with Arbetsförmedlingen, and otherwise available to the labour market, per Lag (2024:506).
• Membership. Not required to be paid, but it sets the payout level, per 5 kap. 4–6 §§ of Lag (2024:506). Stay a member after the job ends. The level is 80, 60 or 50 percent by membership time, and the two higher levels need you to still be a member in the month you apply for (5 kap. 4–5 §§). The full conditions are in the a-kassa guide. See joining an a-kassa as a foreign worker and income-related a-kassa versus Alfa-kassan.

None of the rules cited here makes a permit type or a personnummer a condition of the claim itself. Your a-kassa will, though, need to identify you and pay you, so ask it what it requires.

Registration with Arbetsförmedlingen on day one

Arbetsförmedlingen instructs: "Börja med att skriva in dig på Arbetsförmedlingen första dagen du är arbetslös och ange att du vill söka ersättning från a-kassan" (start by registering with Arbetsförmedlingen on your first day of unemployment and state that you want a-kassa), per Arbetsförmedlingen. Registration is also a legal condition: 2 kap. 1 § requires you to be "anmäld som arbetssökande hos Arbetsförmedlingen" (registered as a job seeker), per Lag (2024:506).

Application to your a-kassa

Arbetsförmedlingen does not pay. Its instruction is: "Logga in på din a-kassas webbplats och ansök om ersättning" (log in to your a-kassa's website and apply), per Arbetsförmedlingen. The law says the same: "En ansökan om arbetslöshetsersättning ska göras hos arbetslöshetskassan. Ansökan ska innehålla de uppgifter som behövs i ärendet" (the application is made to the fund and must contain the information needed), per 10 kap. 2 § of Lag (2024:506). Not a member of any fund? Apply to Alfa-kassan, which handles claims from people outside the other funds, at the 50 percent level. Sveriges a-kassor: "Om du inte önskar bli medlem i en a-kassa ska du kontakta Alfa-kassan" (if you do not wish to become a member of an a-kassa, contact Alfa-kassan), per Sveriges a-kassor.

What to send depends on the fund, because the application tells you which information it needs. Three things are named by official sources:

• An employer certificate. Arbetsförmedlingen says: "Din tidigare arbetsgivare behöver fylla i ett arbetsgivarintyg" (your former employer needs to fill in an employer certificate), per Arbetsförmedlingen.
• Work and pay records. Sveriges a-kassor, the funds' joint body, advises: "Spara gärna lönespecifikationer och andra handlingar från dina tidigare arbetsgivare för att underlätta handläggningen av ditt ärende" (keep payslips and other documents from former employers to ease the handling), per Sveriges a-kassor.
• Foreign work documents. Alfa-kassan, one fund, asks for the employment contract and payslips for work abroad, per Alfa-kassan. Other funds may ask for different documents, so check your own fund's page.

Work from another EU/EEA country

Under EU coordination rules, periods of work in another member state can be added to your Swedish record. Sveriges a-kassor says: "Du som omfattas av svensk arbetslöshetsförsäkring kan ha möjlighet att tillgodoräkna dig perioder som anställd eller egenföretagare från det land där du tidigare har arbetat" (if you are covered by Swedish unemployment insurance you may be able to count periods as employed or self-employed from the country where you worked before), per Sveriges a-kassor.

IAF, the unemployment insurance inspectorate, describes the opposite direction: "Om du tidigare har arbetat i Sverige och vill räkna med det arbetet när du söker arbetslöshetsersättning inom EU/EES, Schweiz eller Storbritannien och Nordirland kan du behöva ett Intyg U1" (if you worked in Sweden and want it counted when claiming elsewhere in the EU/EEA, Switzerland or the UK, you may need an intyg U1), per IAF. For foreign work counted in Sweden, you need the foreign country's U1, and the condition below applies.

The condition. Sveriges a-kassor states: "Huvudregeln är att du ska arbeta i Sverige eller att ditt senaste arbete var i Sverige för att du ska omfattas av svensk arbetslöshetsförsäkring" (the main rule is that you work in Sweden or your latest work was in Sweden), per Sveriges a-kassor. EU rules say the same thing in legal form: aggregation applies only if you most recently completed periods under the law of the state where you claim, per Article 61.2 of Regulation 883/2004 on IAF's rule collection. If you came to Sweden and have not yet worked here, foreign work does not unlock a claim on its own. There are exceptions. Sveriges a-kassor: "Det finns dock särskilda regler för vissa grupper, till exempel gränsarbetare och personer som tidigare har varit arbetslöshetsförsäkrade i Sverige och efter arbete i ett annat nordiskt land återkommer till Sverige" (special rules apply to some groups, for example frontier workers, and people previously insured in Sweden who return after work in another Nordic country). If you live in Sweden but worked in another EU/EEA country, or you are returning after work in another Nordic country, ask your a-kassa for an EU specialist.

The document. The intyg U1 (PD U1, the portable document U1) states the insurance periods to include in your unemployment benefit. Your Europe, the EU's citizen portal, says it gives "Uppgift om de försäkringsperioder som ska ingå i beräkningen av dina arbetslöshetsförmåner" (information on the insurance periods to include when calculating your unemployment benefits). It comes from the labour-market or social-insurance authority or the a-kassa in the country where you last worked, per Your Europe. It does not come from Försäkringskassan.

Two routes, in practical order:

1. Ask the foreign authority or a-kassa for a U1 and send it with your application.
2. Do nothing and let the fund ask. Sveriges a-kassor says: "Den svenska a-kassan begär uppgifter från Arbetsmarknadsmyndigheten eller a-kassan i ditt tidigare arbetsland via det elektroniska EESSI-systemet, om du inte redan själv har begärt intyg U1" (the Swedish fund requests the data through the electronic EESSI system, if you have not already requested a U1 yourself), per Sveriges a-kassor.

No official page says how foreign income is converted into the SEK 120,000 and SEK 11,000 thresholds. That is a decision for your a-kassa. Ask it in your first message.

Karenstid: the two waiting days

Karenstid is the waiting period before payment starts. The law sets it: "En ersättningsperiod får inte påbörjas innan en karenstid om två dagar med arbetslöshet har förflutit" (a benefit period may not start before a waiting time of two days of unemployment has passed), per 4 kap. 3 § of Lag (2024:506). An ersättningsperiod is, per 4 kap. 1 §, the number of days you can receive benefit at most without meeting the income condition again.

Sveriges a-kassor puts it plainly: "När du påbörjar en ny ersättningsperiod får du alltid vänta två dagar innan a-kassan börjar betala ut din ersättning. De kallas för karensdagar. Ibland kan du få vänta fler dagar, till exempel om du har blivit arbetslös för att du har sagt upp dig själv" (a new benefit period always starts with two waiting days, called karensdagar; sometimes more, for example if you quit), per Sveriges a-kassor. One cause is the suspension rule: 7 kap. 4 § says you are suspended for "45 ersättningsdagar" (45 benefit days) if you left your job "utan giltig anledning" (without a valid reason), per Lag (2024:506).

Monthly application and first payment

Since 1 October 2025, per IAF: "Från den 1 oktober betalas arbetslöshetsersättningen ut en gång per månad" (from 1 October, unemployment benefit is paid once a month), per IAF. You report how much you worked for each month. The law says an application "ska avse en månad och göras senast tre månader efter utgången av den månad som ansökan avser" (covers one month and is made within three months after that month ends), per 10 kap. 3 § of Lag (2024:506).

When the first payment comes. No official page gives a fixed date, but IAF defines the sequence. Two separate things are needed: a granted ansökan om ersättning, which gives you an ersättningsperiod, and an approved monthly application (månadsansökan) for each month. IAF defines the wait to the first payment as "Antalet veckor från det att den första månadsansökan inkommer till a-kassan till den första utbetalningen" (the number of weeks from the first monthly application reaching the fund to the first payment), per IAF's PM on processing and waiting time, updated April 2026.

A timeline built only from these rules:

1. Day 1: you become unemployed, register with Arbetsförmedlingen and apply to the fund. Day one is the first day you are without work. If you are paid through a notice period, or get severance equal to salary, you are not paid a-kassa for that time (2 kap. 17 §); register anyway on your first day without work.
2. Karens: the two waiting days come before the benefit period starts (4 kap. 3 §). They can be counted from the day you registered with Arbetsförmedlingen at the earliest. Sveriges a-kassor: "A-kassan kan tidigast räkna av dina karensdagar från den dagen du skrev in dig som arbetslös" (the fund can count your waiting days from the day you registered as unemployed at the earliest). Only days you would otherwise have been paid for count, and they must fall within twelve months.
3. Month ends: you send the first månadsansökan for the month just ended, reporting how much you worked.
4. Weeks later: the first payment follows once the månadsansökan is approved. IAF's own worked example has a first månadsansökan on day 57 and the first payment on day 63, a one-week wait. Its other examples show four weeks, and in one of them the first decision itself takes eight weeks. These illustrate how IAF counts, not a promise.

Each fund has its own pay day and cut-off. Alfa-kassan, for one, asks you to send the form "senast måndagen samma vecka som vi betalar ut" (by the Monday of the week we pay), per Alfa-kassan. Your fund's page or customer service gives your date. The three-month limit is the legal cut-off. A fund's own pay-day cut-off can be earlier.

If a claim is refused

A refusal can be appealed. See appealing an a-kassa denial.

Overview: who does what, where