Sweden: Citizenship Eligibility Restrictions Forthcoming

• Increased qualifying period for citizenship. Starting June 6, 2026, to qualify for citizenship, foreign nationals must have lived in Sweden for eight years (up from five).  

• Limited exceptions will continue to apply to Nordic nationals, among limited others. 

• This will decrease the pool of applicants eligible for citizenship.  

• Importantly, since applications will be assessed under the law in force at the time of the decision, not the law in force at the time the application was submitted, applicants who applied after five years of residence but who do not receive a decision before June 6, 2026, will in many cases no longer meet the residence requirement once the new law applies.  

• In practice, this means such applicants may need to remain in Sweden until they reach eight years of residence before their application can be approved. The additional waiting time depends on how much residence time the applicant has accumulated when the new law takes effect, and when the Migration Agency is in a position to finalize the case. 

• Self-sufficiency requirement. Starting June 6, 2026, citizenship applicants will need to prove that they can support themselves financially, which is assessed against a minimum level tied to three income base amounts per year. Dependence on social assistance weighs against meeting the requirement. 

• No transitional rules apply, so cases pending as of June 6, 2026 will be subject to this rule. 

This will serve as an additional administrative hurdle to qualify for citizenship and will limit the pool of foreign nationals eligible for citizenship. 

• Language and civics test requirement. While the law enters into force on June 6, 2026, the legislation provides that formal testing will be introduced in stages: 

• • • a test of reading and listening comprehension in Swedish at a functional level will enter into force on October 1, 2027 or an earlier date decided by the government; and 

• • • tests covering other aspects of Swedish language proficiency will enter into force on a date to be decided by the government. 

• Since there is currently no language or civics test requirement for citizenship, this will decrease the pool of eligible citizenship applicants. 

• Applications will be processed and decided in accordance with the requirements that are legally in force at the time of decision. There is no provision in the law to delay decisions pending the introduction of future test components. 

• Because applications are decided under the law in force at the time of decision, applicants who need additional time to reach eight years of residence will be assessed against the new knowledge requirements that apply at the time their case is decided. Applicants can only be required to meet those knowledge requirements that are legally in force at that point in time. 

• Simplified citizenship process to be limited. Starting June 6, 2026, the ‘notification procedure’ (a simplified pathway to citizenship that allowed certain groups with strong ties to Sweden to obtain citizenship without meeting typical requirements) will be limited to a few categories. 

Most foreign nationals will instead need to apply through the standard process and meet stricter requirements such as longer residence, financial self-sufficiency and language and civics criteria. 

• Rules for children. Starting June 6, 2026, children should be able to acquire Swedish citizenship independently after their guardian submits their citizenship application.  

• There is currently no general standalone application route allowing children to acquire citizenship independently. 

Children will gain an explicit, independent procedural right to acquire citizenship through application, rather than only derivatively.