Sweden Work Visa 2026: Types, Cost, Processing Time, How to Apply

Who needs a Swedish work visa at all

EU, EEA and Swiss citizens need no permit. You can arrive, work and stay; registration with the Tax Agency for a personal number comes when you have a job and an address. Nordic citizens need nothing at all.

Ukrainians under the EU Temporary Protection Directive, which Sweden applies, may work immediately once registered with the Migration Agency. Protection runs until 4 March 2028.

Everyone else needs a work permit before travelling, and Sweden is the country on this site where the honest answer changed the most. Since 1 June 2026 a work permit requires a salary of at least 90 per cent of the Swedish median, which is SEK 34,470 a month. Cleaning, warehouse work, restaurant service, personal assistance and general construction labour do not pay that in Sweden. For those trades the permit route is closed, not slow. Skilled industrial work, qualified health care, some drivers and some construction specialists can still clear the line, and a short list of occupations is exempt at 75 per cent. Read this page before you read any job advert.

The permit types and what they cover

• Work permit (arbetstillstaand): the standard permit tied to a specific employer and occupation for the first two years. Granted for the length of the contract, up to two years, extendable. Requires a job offer that meets the salary floor and the terms of the Swedish collective agreement for the trade.
• EU Blue Card: for degree-level jobs with a salary well above the floor. Not for trades.
• Seasonal work permit: for seasonal jobs in farming, forestry and berry picking, up to six months. The salary floor applies here too in principle, which is why the berry industry now hires mostly from inside the EU and Thailand under specific agreements.
• ICT permit and researcher permits: not relevant to trades.

The salary rule in detail: from 1 November 2023 the floor was 80 per cent of the median (SEK 28,480). From 1 June 2026 it is 90 per cent, SEK 34,470 a month before tax. The government published a list of around twenty occupations exempt down to 75 per cent, including some health care, some technical and some teaching occupations; as of October 2026, check the exact list on the Migration Agency site. For everyone else the floor is the floor. A contract that says SEK 34,470 for a job that normally pays SEK 27,000 is also refused, because pay must match the collective agreement and be plausible for the role.

Who files what, and in which order

• 1. The employer advertises the job in Sweden and the EU for at least ten days, in practice through the Public Employment Service (Platsbanken), which feeds EURES. If the advert that found you was on Platsbanken, this step is already done.
• 2. The employer makes the offer of employment in the Migration Agency's online system, states pay and terms, and sends it to the trade union for an opinion on whether the terms follow the collective agreement. The union's opinion is not binding but a negative one is hard to overcome.
• 3. You apply online, attach passport and documents, pay the fee. If you need an entry visa you visit the Swedish embassy or a VFS centre for biometrics and to collect the residence permit card after approval.
• 4. The Migration Agency decides. Employers that are certified (large, with a clean record) get decisions in weeks; everyone else waits in the general queue.

Nothing can start from your side alone. The offer of employment is created by the employer inside the Migration Agency's system, and an agent cannot do that.

Official fees

As of October 2026, roughly; the fee page is updated yearly:

• Work permit, first application: around SEK 2,200.
• Seasonal work permit: around SEK 2,200.
• Extension: around SEK 2,200.
• Family members: separate fees per person.
• VFS or embassy service fee: in local currency.

Paid online with the application. Not refunded on refusal. Sweden charges no employer fee and no "union fee".

Processing time

The Migration Agency publishes current waiting times per category and they are wide:

• Certified employer, complete file: two to four weeks.
• Non-certified employer, complete file: three to six months is common, and the agency's own published figures have at times shown longer.
• Extensions: often as long as first applications, and you may work while you wait if you applied before the old permit expired.

A worked example: a certified engineering company in Vaesteraas offers an Indian CNC operator SEK 36,000 a month in May. It advertises on Platsbanken for ten days, creates the offer of employment on 20 May, the IF Metall union returns its opinion on 27 May, the operator applies online on 28 May and gives biometrics in New Delhi on 3 June. Decision on 24 June, permit card collected in July, start in August. The same job at a non-certified subcontractor, filed the same week, would still be waiting in October.

What slips: the employer. The agency checks that the employer has had employees before, has paid their taxes and insurance, and can pay the salary. A small restaurant or a new construction company is checked harder and waits longer.

Documents and legalisation

Before the documents, one point about the exemption list, because it is where most hope and most confusion sit. The 75 per cent list is written by occupation code, not by job title. "Nurse" on the list means a registered nurse with a Swedish licence, not a care assistant. "Technician" means the specific technical occupation named, not every job in a factory. If an employer tells you your job is exempt, ask for the occupation code on the offer of employment and look it up on the Migration Agency page yourself. The agency applies the code, not the employer's description.

Passport with a long validity, the employer's offer of employment, the union opinion, proof of qualification where the trade needs it (nurses: Socialstyrelsen licence; electricians: Elsaekerhetsverket authorisation; drivers: licence exchange), and for the Blue Card a degree. Translations into Swedish or English by an authorised translator. Sweden does not generally require apostilles for the work permit itself, but the embassy may ask for legalised civil documents for family members. Police clearance is not required for the permit.

Reality check

• Cleaning, warehouse, restaurant service, general construction, personal assistance: below SEK 34,470. Not slow, not difficult, closed. Adverts for these jobs on Swedish portals are written for EU workers.
• A contract above the floor for a below-floor job is refused and flags the employer.
• Certified employer or not is the difference between three weeks and six months, and you can ask the employer which it is.
• The permit is tied to the employer for two years: changing jobs means a new application.
• Swedish is not required for the permit, but most trade jobs expect it and permanent residence rules are tightening.
• Family: can come with you if the income supports them, with their own fees.
• The advert rule is ten days, not a formality: an employer who skipped Platsbanken is refused and the whole sequence starts again.
• Older adverts lie: a Swedish job post from before June 2026 that says "work permit possible" was written under the old floor. Read the pay line, not the promise.

Where this leaves you

Sweden is for qualified industrial, technical and health care workers with an employer who pays the Swedish wage. For the trades below the floor, this site will not pretend otherwise. If your trade fits, read the page for your country, for example working in Sweden from India or from Pakistan, the trade pages welder jobs in Sweden and nursing jobs in Sweden, and the Sweden work permit processing time page.

Whatever route fits you, the Workuro profile is free: employers search the register and contact you, and nobody is ever charged to be listed, so create a free profile and let the employers who can actually sponsor you find you.