Marrying in Sweden as a foreigner: hindersprövning in 4 months

You have picked a date in November and a room at the kommun. Before anyone may marry you, Skatteverket has to certify that there is no legal impediment, and the certificate it sends back is good for exactly four months.

Hindersprövning: the certificate that comes first

Hindersprövning is Skatteverket's examination of whether Swedish law stops the two of you from marrying. The application is free, and you make it either in the e-service or on form SKV 7880.

Under Swedish law there are three impediments: either of you being under 18, the two of you being close relatives, and either of you already being married or a registered partner. In some situations your right to enter the marriage is examined under foreign law as well.

When the examination is finished you receive two documents: an intyg om hindersprövning and a vigselintyg form for the officiant to fill in. They arrive in your digital mailbox if you have one, otherwise by post.

The certificate is valid for four months and the period cannot be extended. If you have not married within four months, you apply again from the beginning.

When one of you is not registered in Sweden

The e-service only works if both of you are over 18, both are registered in the Swedish population register, both sign with an e-legitimation, and neither of you has protected personal data. Otherwise it is the paper form.

The partner who is not registered here submits documents from foreign authorities proving three things. Age, with a passport or an equivalent identity document showing the date of birth. That you are not close relatives, with a written assurance on honour, the wording of which is on the application form. And that they are not married, with a recent civil-status certificate from an authority in the country where they live, preferably issued within the past four months.

If they have been married before, they show that the earlier marriage is dissolved, with a divorce decision or a death certificate. The same applies to an earlier registered partnership.

When neither of you is a Swedish citizen or resident here, there is one more layer. You must also show that you may marry under the law of the country where you are a citizen or resident, with an äktenskapscertifikat or a certificate from that country's authority or embassy. If that law imposes conditions on you, a medical certificate or a guardian's permission for instance, collect those documents before the Swedish hindersprövning rather than after.

One shortcut is worth knowing. A hindersprövning carried out in Denmark, Finland, Iceland or Norway is valid in Sweden regardless of your citizenships, and a Swedish one is valid in the other Nordic countries. You hand the Nordic certificate straight to the officiant.

The ceremony, and who is allowed to perform it

Your officiant has to be authorised, meaning that a Swedish authority, either Kammarkollegiet or a länsstyrelse, has decided that this person may perform marriages. There are two routes.

A religious officiant belonging to a trossamfund, a priest for example: you contact the congregation. Or a borgerlig vigselförrättare, a civil officiant: you contact the kommun where you want to marry.

Give the officiant a copy of the documents from Skatteverket in good time. Kommuner often need a long margin to schedule, so the four months disappear faster than you expect.

After the ceremony the officiant fills in the vigselintyg and sends it to Skatteverket, which registers the marriage. Skatteverket's own figure for a marriage entered into in Sweden is about two weeks before the case reaches a handler.

A surname change is a separate application: the e-service Makes efternamn, or form SKV 7502.

Married abroad, or at a foreign embassy in Sweden

If you marry abroad under foreign law, nobody tells Skatteverket for you. You report it yourself by letter or at a servicekontor, giving your names, personnummer or dates of birth, telephone numbers or email addresses, the fact that you married, how and in which country, and the date. Attach a copy of the marriage certificate and of your passports.

The address is Skatteverket, Folkbokföringen, 205 30 Malmö. Skatteverket then examines whether the foreign marriage is valid in Sweden. The published figure for a marriage entered into abroad is about 14 weeks before the case gets a handler.

Marrying at a foreign embassy inside Sweden works only if the Swedish government has decided that the staff of that embassy may perform marriages here. If the embassy has no such permission, Skatteverket is blunt: the marriage does not apply in Sweden. Ask Regeringskansliet which embassies have it.

For documents going to authorities outside the EU you may be asked for an apostille or a legalisation. Skatteverket issues neither. An apostille comes from a notarius publicus, listed on the county administrative boards' website, and legalisation from the Ministry for Foreign Affairs.

What the wedding does not do

Marrying a person in Sweden does not give you the right to live here. The partner from outside the EU/EEA applies for a residence permit to move to their partner, and Migrationsverket runs its own examination.

Both of you must be over 21, with exceptions only on special grounds, for example if you have children together. The applicant must have a valid passport and, as a rule, be outside Sweden when applying. In the application you choose the embassy or consulate-general where you will be interviewed about your relationship.

The person in Sweden must hold Swedish or Nordic citizenship, a permanent residence permit, a permanent residence card, a permanent right of residence, permanent residence status, or a temporary permit as a refugee or person in need of subsidiary protection or on exceptionally distressing grounds. They must also meet the maintenance requirement, which a Swedish citizen in a well-established relationship does not, unless children who are not theirs are moving too.

After the application is submitted the person in Sweden gets a link to a questionnaire about income, housing and the relationship, to be answered within 14 days. The fee is 2 000 kr for an adult and 1 000 kr for a child under 18, and the permit is granted for at most two years.

If you are not married and have no children together, Migrationsverket asks for at least two years of living together for the relationship to count as well-established. That is one honest reason people marry before applying.

Sofia is registered in Gothenburg; Marco lives in Buenos Aires. They apply for hindersprövning on 7 September 2026 on the paper form, because Marco is not registered in Sweden and the e-service is closed to them.

Marco attaches his passport, the written assurance that they are not close relatives, and a civil-status certificate from the Argentine authorities dated 20 August 2026, well inside the four-month window Skatteverket prefers. Skatteverket's published waiting time when only one of you is registered here is about seven weeks.

The certificate arrives at the end of October 2026 and is valid until late February 2027. They book a civil ceremony with Gothenburg's kommun for 12 December, hand over the documents in November, and the officiant sends the vigselintyg afterwards. Marco's residence permit application is a separate file, filed from Argentina, with an interview at the embassy.

What we do not know yet

Skatteverket publishes how long it takes for a case to be assigned a handler, not how long the case then takes. Two, seven and eight weeks are queue figures, and a file that needs extra investigation sits longer than that.

Which foreign civil-status certificates are accepted is also not a published list. The page asks for a recent one, preferably from the past four months, and leaves the assessment open, so bring the freshest document your home authority will issue.