Swedish citizenship income requirements 2026: 250 200 kr a year

You have the eight years, you have the permanent residence permit, and then somebody in a group chat mentions an income requirement you had never heard of. It is real, it entered into force on 6 June 2026, and it applies to your application even if you filed it two years ago.

The number, and where it comes from

The statute does not name a sum. It says the wage or business income must reach an annual income of three income base amounts (inkomstbasbelopp), a figure the government fixes by ordinance each autumn for the year ahead.

For 2026 the income base amount is 83 400 kr, set by Förordning (2025:1002). Three of them is 250 200 kr before tax, and Migrationsverket publishes exactly that figure, together with its monthly equivalent of 20 850 kr.

Because the base amount moves every January, so does the requirement. If you are planning an application for next year, look up the new ordinance rather than reusing this year’s number.

What counts as income, and what does not

Two kinds of money count: salary from employment, and income from your own business. Both must be your own, and Migrationsverket says plainly that capital, or income from capital, cannot be used to meet the requirement.

The exclusions are specific rather than general. Wages from särskilt anställningsstöd, nystartsjobb and etableringsjobb are excluded by the statute itself, as is business income earned while receiving stöd till start av näringsverksamhet. Migrationsverket adds a-kassa, aktivitetsstöd, utvecklingsersättning and etableringsersättning.

There is a separate condition sitting alongside the amount. Over the three years before the application you must not have received försörjningsstöd for more than six months in total.

One caution about that three-year window: the statute counts backwards from the application, while Migrationsverket’s own page in places counts backwards from the decision. Given that a decision can arrive years after the application, this is not a small difference, and we have not found an official reconciliation of the two.

Who is exempt

Children applying in their own right are outside the requirement. The government said so in the bill, and Migrationsverket repeats it: children do not have to be able to support themselves.

For adults, 11 c § lists four exemptions. Entitlement to inkomstgrundad ålderspension, garantipension or äldreförsörjningsstöd is one. Full-time studies with passing results towards a university degree, or towards a yrkeshögskola qualification, is another, and the försörjningsstöd condition still applies to it. Studying at gymnasiet is a third.

The fourth is the open one: where it cannot reasonably be required that you meet the requirement. Migrationsverket gives a lasting disability as its example, and the bill describes it as covering a lasting functional impairment that makes an own work income impossible.

Note one thing Migrationsverket publishes that the statute does not. Its page says the requirement applies to applicants aged 18 to 67, but the 67-year line in 11 § relates to the knowledge requirement, not to income. Older applicants are dealt with through the pension exemption instead.

Students, parents on leave, and sickness benefit

Sjukpenning and föräldrapenning are treated as wage when they are paid temporarily during an ongoing employment. That is the wording of 11 b §, and the bill names both benefits as its examples.

Both halves of that sentence matter. A parent on parental leave from a job is inside the rule; a parent with no employment to be on leave from is not covered by it, and no exemption in 11 c § is written for them either.

Studiemedel from CSN is not income under this rule. It is not on any list of qualifying income, and students are handled through the exemption route instead, which only covers university, yrkeshögskola and gymnasiet. Komvux, SFI and folkhögskola are not named.

The requirement is also forward-looking. It is not enough to have hit the figure once: the ability to support yourself must not be only temporary, and the bill says it is reasonable to look at whether the applicant has had sufficient and continuous income for a longer period before the assessment.

A worked example, with dates

Amina has driven a city bus since March 2023, gross 24 900 kr a month, which is 298 800 kr a year. That is comfortably over 250 200 kr, and it is a permanent job, so it is not a temporary ability.

In 2024 she was on föräldrapenning for seven months while still employed. That period counts as wage under 11 b §, so the year does not read as a gap.

In 2022 she worked eight months in an etableringsjobb. That income is excluded by the statute, so it does not help her, but it does not count against her either. She also received försörjningsstöd for four months in 2023, which is under the six-month ceiling.

She applies in September 2026 and pays 2 900 kr. On the income condition her file is clean; whether the decision is a yes depends on the other five conditions, and on how long the queue is. Work out your own residence date first with our guide to how the eight years are counted.

Before you send the application

The check below takes an evening with your payslips and your bank app, and it is the cheapest hour you will spend on this. The fee is not refunded if the answer is no.

What we do not know yet

Migrationsverket has not published how it verifies your income. Its pages name Kronofogden, Polisen and Säkerhetspolisen as sources for the conduct check, and say nothing about Skatteverket for the income one. The only concrete signal is the application form itself, which asks you to declare your annual income for the last eight years.

There is also no published rule about a single bad year. The bill rejects a fixed time limit and asks for an overall assessment of the individual circumstances, which is honest but not something you can plan around.

And two groups have no written answer at all: a parent on parental leave without an employment behind it, and a person on long-term sjukersättning rather than temporary sjukpenning. Neither appears in the income list nor in the exemption list. If that is you, ask Migrationsverket in writing before you pay, and keep the answer.