Permanent residence in Sweden

After five years of uninterrupted legal residence, with no absence longer than six months in a row or ten months in total, you can apply for EU long-term resident status if you work, run a business or otherwise support yourself and your family. Since 12 July 2026 the status comes with a five-year residence permit instead of PUT; existing PUT holders keep theirs. It gives rights close to those of EU citizens to move to another EU country and does not require a work permit.

Since the same date, refugees, people with subsidiary protection, their family members on that basis and people granted permits on exceptionally distressing circumstances can no longer be granted PUT, whenever they applied. Some of them can become Swedish citizens without PUT if they have well-founded prospects of a long-term permit.

You must have held a work permit and worked in Sweden for four of the past seven years, meeting the conditions of your permits throughout. You ask for permanent residence when you apply to extend your work permit; if it is refused you keep a temporary permit, if granted the temporary one is revoked. The decision looks at actual, sustainable income, not at future job prospects.

Your income must come from employment or your own company, and part-time jobs can be combined. In 2026 at least SEK 6,243 a month must remain after tax and your share of housing costs for a single adult. Pensions, unemployment insurance, grants, subsidised employment and the income of family members do not count, and parental or sickness benefit counts only in limited cases. You only need to support yourself, not your family.

For PUT as an employee, apply in the e-service no earlier than two months before your work permit expires and tick permanent residence; the fee is the normal extension fee of SEK 2,200. For long-term resident status, send the form and documents to Migrationsverket, Box 1430, 171 27 Solna; you are then told how to pay SEK 1,000. If your current permit expires soon, also apply to extend it.

Family members who have held a residence permit for at least three years can apply for PUT at the same time; those aged 18 or over must support themselves, and all must meet the good conduct requirement. Others extend their temporary permits, and since 1 October 2026 the maintenance requirement applies when family members extend to live with a work permit holder who has or is applying for PUT.

You must be expected to lead a well-behaved life. Migrationsverket checks convictions, suspicions of crime and breaches of rules in Sweden and abroad, and there is no fixed list of disqualifying offences; even less serious misconduct can be an obstacle. Stricter good conduct rules apply from 13 July 2026, and only children under 15 are exempt.