Inviting family to Sweden 2026: the visa, the forms, the money

Your mother wants to come for six weeks in the spring. She fills in her own application, but part of the file is yours: an invitation form, a copy of your ID document and, for a short visit, an extract from the Swedish population register that only you can order.

Which permit the visit needs

The length of the stay decides everything. Up to 90 days in any 180-day period is an entry visa, a Schengen visa, and only citizens of countries on the EU visa list need one.

More than 90 days is a different animal: a visitor's residence permit (besöksuppehållstillstånd), applied for by the visitor, not by you. It also covers extending a stay that is already running past 90 days.

One warning worth repeating. If your relative already has an application in progress for another permit, to work or to live with someone here, Migrationsverket advises against applying for a visitor's permit as well, because the ongoing application might be rejected.

What you do, from Sweden

There are two invitation forms and you send the one that matches the length of the visit. Invitation – Before application for Schengen visa (241011) for up to 90 days, and Invitation for visiting longer than 90 days (249011) for anything longer. For the long form you fill in one per person, even if they are one family.

With it goes a copy of your ID document. A residence permit card does not count as an ID document here, which surprises people every year.

If you will pay for the visit, add documents about your income and assets; the invitation form itself lists what those are. And for the 90-day route, order the special population-register extract called Inbjudan from Skatteverket. It does not need a stamp or a signature.

Then send everything to your relative. Migrationsverket puts it plainly: it is not enough to send an invitation, they must submit the application themselves and attach what you sent.

What your relative must show

For a Schengen visa the list is fixed:

• A passport valid for at least three months after the visa expires, issued within the past ten years, with at least two blank pages.
• The completed Schengen visa form (119031), and the ability to describe the purpose of the visit.
• Individual medical travel insurance covering at least 30 000 euros, valid in all Schengen countries, for emergency care, urgent hospital treatment and medical repatriation.
• 700 kr for each day of the visit to Sweden. You can cover this instead, and the amount can be lower for young children, prepaid meals and accommodation, or a stay with relatives.
• A round-trip ticket with the return inside 90 days, and evidence of the intention to leave by the last day of the visa.

The fee is 90 euros from age 12, 45 euros for ages 6 to 11 and nothing under 6, with no refund if the application is refused. Pupils, university and doctoral students with accompanying teachers, researchers travelling for research or conferences, and non-profit representatives aged 25 or younger pay no fee at all. Citizens of the twelve EU Visa Facilitation Agreement countries pay a lower fee or none.

The long visit, and how long a parent may stay

A visitor's residence permit is not open-ended, and the ceiling depends on who is visiting whom. A close relative — a sibling, a child or a grandchild of someone in Sweden — can be granted a permit limited so that the total time here is no more than six months, or up to nine months on special grounds.

A parent who can no longer work, a pensioner for instance, visiting their child in Sweden can be granted a total of one year. A friend or a partner gets a permit only in exceptional cases, and then for no more than six months in total.

The requirements mirror the visa: a passport valid at least three months past the end of the visit, 700 kr for each day, and individual medical travel insurance, which Migrationsverket recommends at 30 000 euros. Holders of a European Health Insurance Card, or a UK Global Health Insurance Card, are exempt from the insurance requirement and attach a copy of the card instead.

The fee is 1 500 kr for an adult and 750 kr for a child. On 31 August 2026 Migrationsverket's statistics showed 75 per cent of these cases decided within three months when the application came from outside Sweden, and four months when it came from inside.

Where the application actually goes

In many countries Sweden uses an external service provider, VFS Global, which receives the application while the Swedish authorities decide it. In others you go to a Swedish embassy or consulate-general, and in some Sweden is represented by another Schengen country whose embassy receives and processes the case.

That last arrangement is why document lists differ. Migrationsverket says the representing embassy may require other documents or forms, so check that embassy's own website before assembling anything. The directory of Swedish missions is at swedenabroad.se.

You may apply no more than six months before the trip, and a decision normally takes about 15 days, though the wait varies by country. A Schengen visa can be issued for multiple entries and for up to five years, with each stay still capped at 90 days in any 180.

Lina's mother lives in Manila and wants to visit for 42 days, arriving 4 April 2027. Lina fills in form 241011, orders the Inbjudan extract from Skatteverket, copies her passport page and adds three payslips because she will pay for the trip.

Her mother needs 42 × 700 kr, that is 29 400 kr, covered either by her own bank statement or by Lina's income documents. The insurance must cover 30 000 euros. The fee is 90 euros, paid at VFS Global with the application, and it is not refunded if the answer is no.

She applies on 6 January 2027, three months ahead and inside the six-month window. If the visit had been three months long instead of six weeks, the route would change entirely: a visitor's residence permit at 1 500 kr, and a wait of about three months.

What we do not know yet

Migrationsverket publishes no refusal rates by embassy or by relationship, so nobody can tell you the odds for a particular family. The 15-day figure for visas is a norm, not a promise, and the agency says openly that it varies by country.

The Entry/Exit System is also still bedding in. If your relative was registered in it before 10 April 2026 the EU's online calculator will not work for them, and stamps in the passport remain the only count that matters.