Work permit in Sweden 2026: the basics, and how renewal works

The offer is signed and the salary line says 33 500 kr a month. In May 2026 that was enough for a Swedish work permit. For an application that reaches Migrationsverket today it is not, and the gap is 970 kr. This is what the agency checks, what it costs, and how the extension keeps you working.

What Migrationsverket actually checks

A work permit (arbetstillstånd) belongs to a job, not to you. Your employer opens the offer in Migrationsverket’s e-service and fills in the terms; you complete the application and pay the fee.

Four things decide the case. The post was advertised in Sweden and the EU for at least ten days. Pay and other terms match the collective agreement, or what is normal in the industry. The employer holds health, life, occupational injury and pension insurance for you from your first day. And the salary reaches the floor.

If your contract runs for a year or less there is one more item: comprehensive private health insurance covering the whole stay. With a longer contract you are registered with Skatteverket instead and use public healthcare.

The salary floor, and the lower level

The floor follows the median salary published by Statistics Sweden (SCB). Ninety per cent of it is 34 470 kr a month before tax for applications received from 16 June 2026. SCB updates the median in June, so a contract that clears the line in the spring can fall under it after the update.

The government can exempt certain occupations, and for those the floor is 75 per cent of the median, 28 725 kr a month. Whether your occupation is on that list is the whole question, and the list is not something to guess at. Check Migrationsverket’s salary-requirement page, and until it says otherwise, plan for the full 34 470 kr.

The figure is the salary itself. If part of your pay is variable, a commission or a bonus that is not guaranteed in the contract, ask Migrationsverket what counts before the application is filed rather than after.

How long a permit lasts

A first permit is granted for at most two years. It is never longer than the employment contract, and never longer than the passport. That last point costs people a year: renew the passport, then apply, or the permit ends the day the passport does.

For the first 24 months the permit is tied to both the employer and the occupation. After that it follows the occupation. Moving to a new employer still means a new application in either case; there is a separate article on that.

Your partner and children apply at the same time and get permits for the same period. They may work once they hold their own permits.

Fees, and what a complete application means

The fee is 2 200 kr for an employee, 1 500 kr for an adult family member and 750 kr per child. It is paid online when the application is submitted and is not refunded if the answer is no.

Processing time depends on the queue and on whether the file is complete. Migrationsverket publishes a rolling figure for each case type; read it on the day you apply rather than trusting a forum post from last year.

Complete does the heavy lifting here. A missing insurance certificate, an unsigned page of the contract, an advertisement reference nobody wrote down: each one turns into a supplementary question, and the case waits while the letter travels in both directions.

Renewal: the timeline that keeps you working

One rule carries the rest. File the extension before the current permit expires, and you keep the right to live and work in Sweden until the decision arrives. File one day late and that right is gone; you stop working, and in the worst case you wait abroad.

The extension also looks backwards. Migrationsverket compares your payslips with what the first application promised: the salary that applied at the time, paid every month, with the insurances in place. Keep every payslip and the annual statement from Skatteverket in one folder, because payroll providers change and records get lost.

There is a transition. If your permit was granted under the earlier rules and you apply to extend on or before 1 December 2026, the earlier, lower salary level still applies to that extension. From 2 December 2026 the 90 per cent floor applies to extensions as well.

Check when your permit category allows an extension application. Do not assume you can submit months early solely to enter the salary transition. Ask your employer to check the salary and insurance conditions before the permitted application window.

What we do not know yet

The main salary requirement is 90% of the current median. Exempt occupations and applicant groups are now published by Migrationsverket; check your occupation code and route against that current list. Do not treat an earlier proposal as the final list.

Neither is something to plan around. Check Migrationsverket’s salary-requirement page on the day you sign the contract, and again on the day you file.