One of the advantages of being a citizen of an EU-member country or EEA-member country – basically every country on this list – is that you automatically have the right to live and work in Sweden. Taking advantage of this right is interpreted differently depending somewhat on your EU/EEA country of origin, and particularly impacts the rights of your family members to come with you to Sweden, especially if your family members are from non-EU/EEA countries.

Remember these two different agencies as they will be referred to throughout the rest of this article:

• Migrationsverket – Swedish Government Immigration Agency
• Skatteverket – Swedish Government Tax Agency, issues your Swedish Personal Number (personnummer)

First a note to citizens from the countries of Denmark, Finland, Iceland, and Norway (Nordic Citizens): you can tune out now because you do not even need to register with Migrationsverket. If you are from one of these countries and plan to live and work in Sweden longer than one year, all you need to do is get a Swedish personal number by registering with the Swedish tax agency Skatteverket. Note that you will not be able to work legally until you register with Skatteverket, and if you want to bring non-EU/EEA family members to live with you in Sweden, they must obtain resident permits issued by Migrationsverket.

For all other countries on the list, keep the following in mind:

• You can live in Sweden without a residence permit, however if you want to stay longer than three months you should apply for a Swedish Personal Number, known as a personnummer
• If you want to work in Sweden in any case you need a personnummer, which is issued when you register with Skatteverket
• If your family is from outside of Europe they can still join you in Sweden, but you will need to sponsor them. This means you need to fulfill the requirements for you and your family to get residence permits (uppehållskort). Residence permits are issued by Migrationsverket – see the following links:
  • Swedish Resident Card (Uppehållskort) through Marriage
  • Swedish Residence Card (uppehållskort) for other family members
• If you are from Switzerland you will need to apply for a residence permit from Migrationsverket on a special form for Swiss citizens if you plan on living or working in Sweden longer than three months