Partner Permits: Moving to Sweden for Love

Sweden lets real couples live together, but it tests the relationship, the sponsor’s finances and the home first. The rules were tightened on 1 October 2026, so most advice online is out of date. Here is how the system works now.

When you need this

You are not an EU or EEA citizen, and your spouse, fiancé(e) or partner lives in Sweden. Perhaps you met a Swede abroad and are planning the move together, or your partner holds a Swedish work or study permit and you want to join them. You might be in Sweden on a visit right now and wonder whether you can simply apply here. Or your first two-year permit is running out and you need to know what an extension involves under the new rules.

Two tracks: residence permit or EU residence card

The first question is not about love or money. It is about your partner’s passport.

If your partner is, say, a German or Polish citizen working in Sweden, you share their EU right of residence. You apply for a free residence card if you stay more than three months, you can do it from inside Sweden, and you may work while you wait. EU citizens themselves need no permit at all: three months on a passport or ID card, and after that a right of residence through work, studies, a business or sufficient funds. Our guide to EU citizens’ right of residence covers that side.

A Swedish partner does not count as an “EU citizen” here, which surprises many couples. The exception is a Swede who lived in another EU/EEA country or Switzerland with a right of residence for at least three months, with you living together there immediately before moving to Sweden. Then the EU track opens. Time in the UK before 31 December 2020 counts too.

Who can sponsor you

The person in Sweden is called the anknytningsperson, the reference person or sponsor. Under Sweden’s Aliens Act, Utlänningslagen, they must live in Sweden and be one of the following:

• A Swedish or Nordic citizen, or someone with a permanent right of residence. A permit may be granted.
• Someone with a permanent residence permit, or a temporary permit of at least one year with well-founded prospects of permanent residence. A permit shall be granted unless a refusal ground applies.

Sponsors with temporary or subsidiary protection fall outside the “shall” rule, though a permit can still be granted. You need not be married. Spouses, registered partners and cohabiting partners (sambo) all qualify. Couples who plan to marry or move in together can too, if the relationship appears serious. When the sponsor holds a permit rather than Swedish citizenship, a planned relationship must also have been established in the home country, with particular difficulty living together there because the relationship was not accepted.

Migrationsverket, the Swedish Migration Agency, also says both partners must be over 21, with exceptions on special grounds such as children together. For partners of permit holders, the law makes “under 21” a refusal ground.

What changed on 1 October 2026

Lag (2026:1686) rewrote the family-immigration chapter of the Aliens Act. Three changes matter for couples:

There are transitional rules. Extending a permit that was granted before 1 October 2026 still uses the old, lower amounts if you file by 1 October 2027. From 2 October 2027 the higher amounts apply to everyone. The two-year rule does not apply to applications received before 1 October 2026, or to extending a permit granted under the old rules. Refugee sponsors are exempt from it when the relationship existed before they came to Sweden.

Stricter good-conduct (vandel) requirements also apply to permits to live with someone since 13 July 2026. If you read a guide that quotes the old couple’s amount for new applications, or says the test applies only once, it predates the reform.

The maintenance requirement

The försörjningskrav is the core of most partner cases. There is no fixed salary. Instead, the sponsor’s income after tax, minus rent, must leave a set monthly amount to cover food, clothes, hygiene, phone and insurance for the household. The 2026 amounts are listed in Practical information below: one figure for a couple, a lower one for a single adult, and an extra amount per child that depends on age.

What counts, and what doesn’t:

• Counts: salary, income from your own business, sickness benefit, or savings or taxable assets enough to support everyone for at least two years.
• Doesn’t count: subsidised employment, unemployment insurance, activity grants and other unemployment-related benefits.
• Whose income: on a first application, the sponsor’s alone. At extension, the partner’s income in the same household can normally be added.

Housing must be available for at least a year from the application. For two adults, a kitchen or kitchenette plus one room is enough, and there is no square-metre rule. A sublet needs the approval of the landlord, the housing cooperative or the rent tribunal. Lodging with someone, or living with your parents, does not count.

Who is exempt? A sponsor who is a Swedish, EU/EEA or Swiss citizen, when the relationship is well established, typically after living together abroad for a long time. That exemption falls away if a child who is not the sponsor’s own moves too. Sponsors under 18, and cases with special reasons such as illness or disability that permanently reduces the ability to work, are also exempt.

Apply from abroad, then the interview

Non-EU partners must normally have the permit before entering Sweden. Arriving on a visa or visa-free to apply on the spot usually fails: the application can be rejected, followed by a refusal-of-entry or expulsion decision and a Schengen re-entry ban. A visitor’s residence permit cannot be used to settle either. The law makes an exception when you have strong ties to someone here and it would be unreasonable to make you travel. Migrationsverket’s examples include having children who are Swedish or EU citizens, expecting a child, or very serious illness. Even then, you pay for any healthcare yourself while you wait.

The process, step by step:

1. Register a foreign marriage with Skatteverket, the Swedish Tax Agency, if you married abroad.
2. Collect documents: passport copies, a marriage certificate or proof you are unmarried, and proof of living together, such as leases or bills with both names. Translate into Swedish or English, certified, and include the originals.
3. Apply in the e-service. You must be 18 or older, have an email address and pay with a Visa or Mastercard card. Name the embassy or consulate-general for your interview.
4. Your partner answers a questionnaire about income, housing and the relationship within 14 days, attaching the proof.
5. Attend the interview with your passport and original documents. It can be held by video link at some missions. Visa-required nationals may give fingerprints and a photo for the permit card at the same visit. Migrationsverket sometimes interviews the partner in Sweden as well.
6. Receive the decision by email if you used the e-service; it is also sent to the embassy.
7. Arrive and register with Skatteverket if you will stay a year or more. That is how you get a personnummer; see our guide to folkbokföring.

A Swedish citizen and partner who have lived together abroad continuously for at least 12 months can get a decision within 90 days, if the relationship has lasted two years (one with children together), they plan to move soon and the application is complete.

Two things lead to refusal on either track: a relationship entered only to obtain a permit, and knowingly false information. A permit is also refused if a permit-holding sponsor is married to someone else and lives with that person in Sweden.

After the permit: extensions and permanent residence

A first partner permit lasts at most two years, or the same period as a sponsor’s temporary permit, and never beyond your passport’s expiry. It gives you the right to work and study. To extend it, the relationship must continue, and since October 2026 the maintenance test is applied again. If the relationship ends, the permit can be revoked. If it ended because you were subjected to violence, a continued 13-month permit may be granted.

After at least three years on temporary permits, you may get permanent residence if you can support yourself and your conduct raises no doubt, under the law in force in October 2026. Longer-term, our guide to Swedish citizenship explains the next step. For the property and inheritance side of living together, read sambo law.

Practical information

Amounts are recalculated each year; check Migrationsverket’s maintenance page before applying.

FAQ

How much must my partner earn to bring me to Sweden?

There is no fixed salary. After tax and rent, your partner must have a set amount left each month: as of October 2026 SEK 13,408 for a couple, plus an amount per child. So the income needed depends on rent. On a first application only the sponsor’s income counts, and benefits such as unemployment pay are excluded.

What changed for partner permits in October 2026?

Three things, from 1 October 2026. The amount the partner in Sweden must have left after rent rose by about 30 percent. The maintenance test now applies at every extension, though your income can then count too. And a sponsor on a temporary permit must have lived in Sweden with a permit for two years before you apply.

Can I apply for a partner permit while visiting Sweden?

Usually not. Non-EU citizens must normally apply and be approved before entering. Exceptions exist when you have strong ties and cannot reasonably be expected to travel, for example with a Swedish child or a pregnancy. Applying from inside Sweden otherwise risks rejection, expulsion and a re-entry ban, and you pay any healthcare yourself.

Do we have to be married to get a residence permit in Sweden?

No. Married couples, registered partners and cohabiting partners (sambo) all qualify, and so can couples who plan to marry or move in together if the relationship appears serious. Expect to prove the relationship with documents and an interview at a Swedish embassy. Both partners should be over 21 unless there are special grounds.

Is my Swedish partner exempt from the maintenance requirement?

Only if the relationship is well established, typically because you have lived together abroad for a long time. Then neither income nor housing is tested, unless a child who is not your Swedish partner’s moves with you. Otherwise a Swedish sponsor must meet the same income and housing test as anyone else.

My partner is an EU citizen working in Sweden. Do I need a permit?

No residence permit. If your EU partner has a right of residence through work, study, a business or sufficient funds, you share it. If you are not an EU citizen and stay over three months, apply for a residence card: it is free, can be done from Sweden, and you may work while waiting.

How long is a partner permit valid, and what comes next?

Usually two years, or the same period as your partner’s temporary permit, and never longer than your passport. You then apply for an extension, which needs the relationship to continue and, since October 2026, the maintenance test again. After at least three years you may qualify for permanent residence under the law in force in October 2026.

Related guides

• Sambo law in Sweden — what cohabiting couples share once you live together
• Getting married in Sweden as a foreign couple — the hindersprövning, if you want to marry here first
• Work permits for non-EU citizens — the separate family route if your partner moves for a job
• Folkbokföring: registering where you live — the first step after you arrive
• Do you need a visa to visit Sweden? — the rules for visiting your partner before the move

Facts verified 2026-10-14. Sources: Sveriges riksdag (Utlänningslag 2005:716 as amended by Lag 2026:1686) and Migrationsverket — full register in this topic’s source file. This is general information, not legal advice. Found something outdated? Tell us and we’ll fix it.