How to apply

The description below applies to you if you are the citizen of a country outside the EU/EEA and wish to move to live with a family member who is also a citizen of a country outside the EU/EEA or is a Swedish citizen.

Applying online

How to proceed (for applications on paper forms, see further down):

1. Prepare your documentation Check which documents and personal data you require. The Swedish Migration Agency gives priority to applications that are completed in full, and you get a decision sooner.

Read more under Required documents.

2. Applying Follow the Swedish Migration Agency’s instructions for applying online over the Internet. You attach documents electronically and pay the application fee using a VISA card or a MasterCard.

Swedish Migration Agency web application

3. Your family member must answer questions Your family member has to fill in a questionnaire. Once you have sent in your application, he or she will automatically receive an email with instructions. The family member must reply to the questions within two weeks.

4. Visit the embassy Wait for the email you receive asking you to make an appointment at the embassy. Only then will the Swedish Migration Agency have gone through both your application and your family member’s replies and have transferred your case to the embassy.

The appointments are made over the telephone.

If you want the interview with you or your children to be carried out in your native language, please specify this when making the appointment.

At the embassy, you have to prove your identity by showing your passport, and you will be interviewed. Children applying for a residence permit are also interviewed. If the child is too young or too immature, the person looking after the child is interviewed instead.

Bring along the originals of the documents you attached to your online application. In its email, the Swedish Migration Agency may also have asked you to bring additional documents with you. You may need to be photographed and fingerprinted for the residence permit card you will receive if you are granted a residence permit. This also applies to children.

After the interview, your case is transferred back to the Migration Agency in Sweden. If you have neither attended the interview nor made contact with the embassy, your case is nevertheless sent to the Swedish Migration Agency, and your application may be rejected.

5. Wait for the decision When the Swedish Migration Agency has reached its decision, you will be informed of this by email. The actual decision will be sent to your family member in Sweden, if you have authorised him or her to represent you. Otherwise, you will get the decision from the embassy via the email address you provided at the time of application.

6. Wait for the residence permit card If you are granted a residence permit, you will be issued with a residence permit card.

If you need a visa to enter Sweden If you need a visa to enter Sweden, the card is ordered automatically if you have already been photographed and fingerprinted. If you have not been photographed and fingerprinted, you should visit the embassy on a time you book over the phone. Bring your passport.

It can take up to eight weeks for the residence permit card to be made and delivered to the embassy. Once the card has arrived here,the embassy will invite you to come and pick up your residence permit card at the embassy.

If you do not need a visa to enter Sweden If you have been granted a residence permit and do not require a visa, you travel to Sweden and arrange for the card there. Contact the Swedish Migration Agency to have your photograph and fingerprints taken.

If you cannot or do not want to apply over the Internet, you can fill in a paper form that you submit in person to the embassy. Read more in the section Paper applications.