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EXPLAINED: What Brits need to know about Sweden’s new post-Brexit bill

On November 11th, Sweden's parliament voted in favour of a key post-Brexit rights bill which would see British citizens and their families granted a new residence status. The Local looks over what's included.

Published: 11 November 2020 12:14 CET
Updated: 12 November 2020 07:14 CET

EXPLAINED: What Brits need to know about Sweden's new post-Brexit bill

As of December 1st, Brits should be able to apply for a new residence status if already living legally in Sweden. File photo: Bench Accounting/Unsplash

What's happening?

On Wednesday, the Swedish parliament voted in favour of a bill meant to protect British residents' right to stay in Sweden after 2020.

This was the last stage of the legal process before this becomes law, and it is now set to come into effect from December 1st.

What are the proposals?

After the UK left the EU on February 1st, 2020, it entered a so-called transition period during which UK nationals retained the same rights as before to move to, live in, and work in Sweden. This transition period is scheduled to end on December 31st, 2020, after which EU law will no longer apply to Brits.

These proposals regulate what will apply to Brits in Sweden after that. The government has proposed that British citizens who have moved to Sweden before the end of the transition period should be required to apply to the Swedish Migration Agency for a new residence status, granting them many of the rights they currently enjoy as EU citizens. You can read more about the new status on the Migration Agency website.

That includes the right to work and access healthcare, for example, under the same rules as EU citizens. The government also proposes that the Migration Agency issue documents to cross-border workers (for example, those Brits who are working in southern Sweden but commuting from their home in Denmark).

People walk past a Migrationsverket office. Photo: Janerik Henriksson / TT

What will I have to do to get my residence status?

Under the new law, British citizens will need to apply to the Migration Agency for the residence status, which would be in the same form as a residence permit card. This is different from countries which have chosen a registration model, meaning Brits already living in the country simply need to inform authorities of their residence.

Depending on whether you have been in Sweden for less than or more than five years, you will be granted either temporary or permanent residence. It would be free to make the application.

To prove you are legally resident, you do not need to have a personal number; the Swedish Migration Agency has previously told The Local you can use “any type of documentation”.

This could be proof of having paid rent, proof of the date you travelled into Sweden, or a job contract, although the Swedish personal number (a social security number) is the easiest way to prove your residence. Brits who arrived in Sweden as job-seekers might have registered with the Public Employment Agency and received a coordination number.

In order to be legally resident, you must meet one of the following categories: being employed or self-employed in Sweden; job-seeking (for up to six months); be a family member of another person who is legally resident (such as a non-British EU citizen, Swedish citizen, or work permit holder); have sufficient assets and health insurance to provide for yourself; or have lived legally in Sweden for at least five years, in which case you no longer need to meet any of the other requirements to continue to have right of residence.

You do not need to be physically in Sweden at the end of the transition period as long as you meet the criteria for being legally resident; welcome news perhaps to anyone whose Christmas or travel plans are uncertain due to the impact of the coronavirus pandemic.

When does the law come into effect?

The proposals are set to come into effect on December 1st, 2020.

Although the transition period ends on December 31st, that would not be the deadline for Brits to apply for their new residence status. The government proposed a ten-month application period, meaning Brits would have up until the end of September 2021 to apply.

What if I want to apply for Swedish citizenship, will the new residence status 'restart the clock'?

To apply for Swedish citizenship, foreign nationals must have been living in Sweden for five years, or three years if they are living with a Swedish spouse or partner and have been doing so for at least two years.

Usually, a permanent residence status is a prerequisite for non-EU citizens to apply for citizenship.

Under the proposals, there would be an exemption for British citizens who moved to Sweden before the end of the transition period. For the purposes of applying for citizenship, the post-Brexit residence status would be considered equivalent to permanent residence status.

What if I want to move to Sweden after December 31st, 2020?

In that case, the same rules would apply for Brits as currently apply for other non-EU citizens, barring any future law changes.

That means you would need to apply for and receive a residence permit (for example, a work permit or a permit to join a family member in Sweden) in order to be able to move to Sweden.

Member comments

Anonymous - 11 November 2020 at 22:41 CET

Are you sure that the after 31 December section is correct?

Become a Member to leave a comment.

'I feel exiled': How Brits in Europe are locked abroad with foreign partners

Europe is home to hundreds of thousands of British nationals, many of whom have foreign partners and children. But if they want to move to the UK to live and work it will soon become more difficult.

When it comes to getting a partner visa, the UK has some of the strictest rules in Europe. In addition to hefty fees and a healthcare surcharge, the Home Office requires British citizens and long-term residents who bring their foreign partner to the UK to have a minimum income showing they can support them without relying on the social security system.

The minimum income up until now was set at £18,600 (€21,700), or £22,400 (€26,100) if the couple had one child, plus another £2,400 (€2,800) for each other child.

But these income requirements will rise steeply from April 11th 2024.

How it works: What Brits in Europe should know about UK’s new minimum income rules

From this date the minimum a British national or long-term resident will need to earn if they want to return home will increase to £29,000 (€33,800) and up to £38,000 (€44,313) by spring 2025, although there will no longer be an additional amount for accompanying children.

Alternatively, families need to prove they have at least £62,500 (€72,884) in cash, which from 11 April will increase to £88,500 (€103,207).

‘Family life has been destroyed’

To put this in context the Migration Observatory at the University of Oxford suggests that around 50 percent of UK employees earn less than the £29,000 threshold and 70 percent less than £38,700. The Observatory also says that while the number of people affected by the policy is small compared to the overall UK immigration (family visas represent 5 percent of all entry visas), the impacts on concerned families can be “very significant”.

The Migration Observatory notes that other European countries apply income thresholds to sponsor foreign partners. Spain, for instance, requires sponsors to have an annual income equal to the social security salary. In Denmark, sponsors must not have claimed social benefits in the three years before the application. But in Spain and the US, the partner’s foreign income also counts towards the threshold.

So what does this mean for mixed British and international families living in Europe who might want or even need to return to the UK to live?

Campaigners have complained that many Britons with foreign partners have simply been “locked abroad” or families have been separated while they try to meet the minimum income or savings requirement.

Reunite Families UK, a non-profit organisation supporting people affected by the UK spouse visa rules, says this policy causes distress, especially for children.

Some 65 percent of respondents in research carried out by the group said that their child received a diagnosis of a mental health condition due to the separation of their parents.

“Since its introduction, this policy has destroyed the family life of countless people and children,” Matteo Besana, Advocacy and Campaigns Manager at Reunite Families UK said.

“Women have been forced to become single parents to their children and live away from their partner and the father of their children only because they didn’t meet the threshold.

“As shown by our research on the mental health impact of the policy, these are scars that, particularly for children, will be carried for the rest of their lives,” Besana said.

The people most likely to be affected are women, who tend to earn less or not work because they took on caring responsibilities. Also heavily impacted are people under 30 and over 50 years of age, people living outside London and the Southeast of England where wages are higher, and those belonging to specific ethnicities, according to the Migration Observatory.

The Local spoke to two British women, in Italy and Sweden, struggling to return to the UK with their families because of these rules.

More savings needed

Sarah Douglas, who has been living in Italy since 2007, was planning to return to Scotland with her Italian husband and three children.

“It was always our long-term goal to move back to the UK after we had our children and once we’d have saved enough to buy a home in the UK,” she said.

“In hindsight, we should have gone after the Brexit referendum, but in the beginning it wasn’t clear what the final deal would be and I naively assumed that situations like mine would be taken into account and we would have the right to return… Once it did become clear, we were in the middle of the pandemic and it wasn’t the time to move,” she said.

Having stayed home to take care of the children, Sarah will find it hard to land a job near her family in Scotland that meets the minimum income required to sponsor a foreign partner for a UK visa.

Her husband, a computer programmer, has been trying to get an employment visa, “but most of them state that you must already have permission to work in the UK,” Sarah says. And applying for British citizenship is not an option for a non-UK resident spouse.

‘People need to be aware’

Sarah and her husband are trying to save as much as they can, an alternative to the income requirement, but the amount they need is rising to almost £90,000, meaning it may be a long time before they have enough to move home.

While the aim of the UK’s policy is to ensure families moving to the UK are not a burden on the taxpayer, the reality is that people arriving on a family visa are not able to claim any benefits from the UK government.

“They should judge the overall financial viability of the family unit, rather than just the earning potential of the sponsoring partner,” Sarah says.

“We could live well with my husband’s salary and he could work remotely. We are stable and financially secure, but because I don’t earn any money, they say we are not able to support ourselves.”

Sarah says that most of the British public are unaware of the minimum income requirement.

“People think if you are married, your husband is allowed to come to the UK, but when I say no, it doesn’t work like that, they are really surprised. A lot of people are not aware of how this could affect them,” she said.

Looking for a job from abroad

Another British women who lives in Sweden with her South African husband and two children and plans to move to the UK told The Local how the minimum income requirement had put them in a “precarious and stressful situation”.

The woman, who preferred to remain anonymous said: “After having the two children, I was very fortunate to find a research position and do my PhD, which is a salaried position in Scandinavia, and now that I finished, we are looking to leave.

“But I need a job in the UK to sponsor my husband, and as a new graduate with limited work experience, it is not easy. It is even more difficult when you are not in the country and I missed out on opportunities because they wanted an immediate start. I really don’t want to move without my whole family,” she said.

She says the UK’s policy is “gendered and geographically discriminatory” because it makes life harder for women and also harder for anyone who is planning to move to a part of the country that isn’t in London, where salaries are higher.

“I feel exiled from my country and separated from my family there,” she said.

Her husband, she argues, has his own company and could continue working remotely from the UK, earning well above the requirement. He would also pay taxes and national insurance while having to pay the healthcare surcharge, a form of double taxation, she argues. But that would not entitle him to a visa.

“Our house is on the market now. We have booked removal companies for the 6th of June. The dog is booked for his transport. I just think this policy is so out of touch with the modern world,” she said.

Reunite Families UK has called on the government to recognise the right for British or settled citizens to bring their close family members to the UK and scrap the minimum income requirement. Alternatively, the group says the rules should take into consideration the earning potential of both partners and consider “the best interests of children”.

A petition on the UK parliament website asks the government to reconsider the minimum income policy. If it reaches 100,000 signatures, it will have to be debated in parliament.

This article has been produced by Europe Street news.

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