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EXPLAINED: Can non-EU travellers get to Sweden via Denmark?

Sweden has extended its non-EU entry ban until October 31st. But there may be ways for you to travel to Sweden regardless.

Published: 10 June 2021 15:12 CEST
Updated: 2 September 2021 14:00 CEST
EXPLAINED: Can non-EU travellers get to Sweden via Denmark?
A stop in Denmark could be the way to get to Sweden if you need to travel from a non-EU country. Photo: Silvia Man/imagebank.sweden.se

At the moment, Sweden has entry bans in place that affect most non-EU countries. This means that if you are travelling to Sweden from a non-EU country that’s not on the short list of exempted countries, you need to fall into a category that is exempt from the ban.

These categories include, among others, Swedish residents, EU citizens, and people travelling for essential work or urgent family reasons. You can find a full list on the Swedish Police Authority’s website. Exemptions do not extend to tourists nor in general to people travelling to visit friends or family (unless you can prove that there are specific urgent reasons).

So if you want to travel from for example the UK, US or India to visit, say, friends or your adult children in Sweden, you cannot enter Sweden directly, and that entry ban is in place until at least October 31st. At the time of writing, that’s irrespective of your vaccination status, so having had both jabs makes no difference.

But there may be ways for you to get to Sweden if you need to.

Sweden’s entry ban is based on the country you travel from. This means that if you travel to Sweden via a country exempt from the ban (including all EU/EEA countries), you will be able to enter. This however of course also depends on the travel restrictions in that country.

Sweden currently requires people who enter from most countries, including from most EU countries (unless you have an EU Digital Covid Certificate that shows you are vaccinated or have recovered from Covid in the past six months), to present a negative Covid-19 test on the border (there are exemptions from this too), so if you travel to Sweden via one of these countries you need to be aware of that.

But if you travel via one of the Nordic countries – this includes Denmark, Norway, Finland and Iceland – it is possible to enter Sweden freely without even showing a negative test.

Travelling via Denmark is likely the easiest option, as Copenhagen Airport has a lot of international connections and it is relatively easy to travel onwards to Sweden by train or air. And if you’re travelling from a country such as the UK, you may be able to drive to Sweden.

Again, please note that this depends on the travel and testing rules in the countries you have to travel through in order to reach Sweden, and this article does not focus on those rules.

But take Denmark as an example. Denmark has dropped its most restrictive “red” travel classification for all countries, including all non-EU countries. And unlike Sweden, Denmark does differentiate between non-vaccinated and fully vaccinated non-EU travellers, so depending on where you’re travelling from, it is much easier for fully vaccinated people to get into Denmark. You can read more on the official Danish site or our sister site The Local Denmark.

In order to travel from Denmark to Sweden, there are currently no requirements in place either to show a negative Covid-19 test or to prove a worthy purpose of travel, regardless of your nationality or where you were prior to your stay (however brief) in Denmark.

Do keep up-to-date with coronavirus guidelines in Sweden as well as the countries you travel through. And another thing to note: There is no legally enforced quarantine in Sweden, but the Public Health Agency has issued recommendations regarding self-isolation and testing to people who have been to a country outside the Nordics in the past week and are not fully vaccinated. You can read more on its website.

Travellers should note that entry to Sweden is always at the discretion of the individual border officer, and entry rules may change at short notice. The Local cannot guarantee you will be granted permission to cross the border into Sweden. You are welcome to email our editorial team at [email protected] if you have questions, but please be aware that we cannot confirm that you will be able to travel to Sweden, and we may not be able to reply to every email.

Member comments

  2. Your article states that it’s up to the border police to decide if you get in . How can Sweden refuse entry to people from the US if their own stated Covid policy says specifically that anyone can enter from Denmark regardless of nationality?

  3. This article is just about tourist ( without a “worthy purpose” of travel), right? I would like to see the same subject for people who have a residence permit but are not yet in Sweden.

  4. Hej, can anyone advise me. You can enter Sweden from the UK if you have an ’urgent family matter.’ Can anyone confirm what constitutes as ’urgent’? We had a baby in April and are very ready for grandparents to visit but can’t find anywhere if this constitutes as urgent.

  5. The article says “But there may be ways for you to get here if you need to, as Sweden’s travel ban is based on the country you travel from.”

    Do you have a reliable source for this?

    Thanks

  6. I am a Uruguayan national and will be starting my studies in Copenhagen in September.
    Currently i can only enter Spain within the EU. I had many people tell me that i can fly to Spain and then drive or take a bus to Copenhagen as there is border controls. Anybody knows if this is true?

    Thanks!

  7. Has anyone flown from U.K. recently via Denmark?
    I have parents who have changed flights twice now because of Sweden extending silly ban for U.K.

  8. I live in Denmark. I have crossed both to and from Denmark more than once without anyone checking anything. Other times, I have been checked… more often on returning to Denmark. It appears to depend on the time of day. It seems that during certain hours, the checkpoints simply aren’t manned.

    Of course, I will not publicly identify the locations or times of my crossings. I doubt that the above is true for all of them. The purpose of this comment is just to note that the authorities don’t consistently follow their own governments’ rules. It is not to suggest to others ways to evade those rules.

  9. Would be interested to know the experience of any US citizen who has tried to enter Sweden after a connection in Iceland.

    1. We did it! However; it is important to note that IcelandAir would not board us on September 16 in Newark, NJ with a round trip ticket to Stockholm with a connection in Iceland (Keflavik airport). Fortunately, we had time in Newark to buy a ticket just to Keflavik. Then at Keflavik, we went through passport control, claimed our bags, showed our test results and vaccination records, bought a ticket to Stockholm online, checked our bags, and boarded. The last minute tickets cost extra. We bought our round trip tickets to Stockholm after September 6, and IcelandAir should have informed us earlier if those tickets were invalid. The agents at the counter in Newark had a notice that said ARN is a “no-go” for Americans. They understood nothing about transit countries.

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For members

TRAVEL NEWS

What will Europe’s EES passport checks mean for dual nationals?

The EU's Entry & Exit System (EES) of enhanced passport checks will usher in big changes for travellers - here we answer readers' questions on the position for dual nationals.

Published: 22 April 2024 17:10 CEST
What will Europe's EES passport checks mean for dual nationals?

The EU is preparing, after many delays, to introduce the EES system for travel in and out of Europe.

You can find a full explanation of how it works HERE, but in essence it is an enhanced passport check – registering biometric details such as fingerprints and facial scans and introducing an automatic calculation of how long you have stayed within the EU/Schengen zone in order to detect ‘over-stayers’.

And it’s already causing stress for travellers. We asked readers of The Local to share their questions here – and one of the biggest worries was how the system will work for dual nationals ie people who have a passport for both an EU country and a non-EU country.

EES: Your questions answered

EU passports 

One of the main purposes of EES is to detect ‘over-stayers’ – people who have either stayed in the EU longer than their visa allows or non-EU nationals who have over-stayed their allowance of 90 days in every 180.

As this does not apply to EU nationals, people travelling on an EU passport are not required to do EES pre-registration and will continue to travel in the same way once EES is introduced – going to the ‘EU passports queue’ at airports, ports and stations and having their passports scanned as normal.

Non-EU 

Non-EU travellers will, once EES is up and running, be required to complete EES pre-registration.

This means that the first time they cross an EU/Schengen zone external border they will have to go to a special zone of the airport/port/terminal and supply extra passport information including fingerprints and a facial scan.

This only needs to be done once and then lasts for three years.

Non-EU residents of the EU/Schengen zone

This does not apply to non-EU citizens who are permanent residents of an EU country or who have a long-stay visa for an EU/Schengen zone country – click HERE for full details.

Schengen zone passports/Irish passports 

EES applies within the Schengen zone, so people with Swiss, Norwegian and Icelandic passports are treated in the same way as citizens of EU countries.

Ireland and Cyprus are in the EU but not the Schengen zone – these countries will not be using the EES system at their borders, but their citizens are still EU citizens so can continue to use EU passport gates at airports and will be treated the same as all other EU citizens (ie they don’t have to do EES pre-registration).

OK, so what if you have both an EU and a non-EU passport?

They key thing to remember about EES is that it doesn’t actually change any of the rules on immigration – it’s just a way of better enforcing the rules that are already in place. 

Therefore the rules for dual nationals remain as they are – for most people which passport to travel on is a matter of personal choice, although Americans should be aware that if you have a US passport and you are entering the USA, you must use your American passport. 

But it’s also important to remember that the passports of dual nationals are not ‘linked’ – therefore if you present an American passport at the Italian border, you will be treated exactly the same as every other American, there is no way for the border guard to know that you are also Italian.

Likewise if you are a UK-Germany dual national and you travel back to the UK on your German passport, you can expect to be treated the same as every other German at the border, and might be asked for proof of where you are staying in UK, how long you intend to stay etc – the system has no way of knowing that you are also British. 

Therefore whether you have to complete EES pre-registration or not is entirely a matter of which passport you are travelling on – if you use your EU passport you won’t have to do it, if you use your non-EU passport you will.

It’s also possible to use two passports for the same trip – so let’s say you’re travelling from Spain to Canada – you enter Canada on your Canadian passport, and show your Canadian passport again when you leave. However, once you re-enter Spain you show your Spanish passport in order to benefit from the unlimited length of stay.

If you’re travelling between France and the UK via the Eurostar, Channel Tunnel or cross-Channel ferry, you need to remember that the Le Touquet agreement means that French passport checks take place in the UK and vice versa. You can still use both passports, but you just need to keep your wits about you and remember to hand the French one to the French border guards and the British one to British guards.

In terms of avoiding immigration formalities using two passports is the most efficient way for dual nationals to travel, but some people prefer to stick to one passport for simplicity, or don’t want to keep both passports together in case of theft.

Basically it’s a personal choice, but you just need to remember that you will be treated according to the passport that you show – which includes completing EES pre-registration if you’re showing a non-EU passport.

It’s also worth remembering that if the changes do cause border delays (and there are fears that they might especially at the UK-France border), then these will affect all travellers – regardless of their passport. 

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