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Sweden plans to introduce tests for permanent residency from 2027

Adults seeking permanent residency in Sweden from 2027 will need to pass tests on Swedish language and society first, a new government inquiry has proposed.

Published: 29 May 2023 10:29 CEST

Sweden plans to introduce tests for permanent residency from 2027

Migration minister Maria Malmer Stenergard. File photo. Photo: Lars Schröder/TT

“For someone living and working in this country, it is essential to have knowledge of the Swedish language and understand the basic conditions of Swedish society,” Migration Minister Maria Malmer Stenergard said.

“It is important that a person understands what responsibilities, but also rights, they have in society,” she added.

EXPLAINED:

What do we know about Sweden’s planned tests for permanent residency?

The law is not yet officially in place: This is a proposal from the inquiry set up to investigate the introduction of tests on language and societal knowledge for permanent residency, which has now been submitted to the Swedish government, although it suggests putting it in place from July 1st, 2027.

Stenergard described it as “frustrating” that the proposed date of implementation is four years away, although she added that she understands that time is needed for the language and culture tests to be formulated.

The inquiry report is based on a proposal made by the parliamentary migration committee a few years ago under the previous Social Democrat government and is similar to other language or cultural knowledge requirements in other European countries.

UPDATED:

What’s the current status of Sweden’s planned migration laws?

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EXPLAINED: How a 'request to conclude' can speed up Swedish Migration Agency decisions

What is a ‘request to conclude’?

According to Sweden’s Administrative Procedure Act, which came into force in 2018, if an application you have made has not been decided “in the first instance” within six months at the latest, you can request in writing that the agency decide the case, using a process called a dröjsmålstalan, or “request for a case to be expedited”.

The agency then has four weeks to either take a decision or reject the request to conclude in a separate decision. You can then appeal this rejection to the relevant court or administrative authority.

You can only use the request to conclude mechanism once in each case.

READ ALSO: Sweden’s government snubs Migration Agency request for six-month rule exemption

How do you apply for a ‘request to conclude’ a Migration Agency case?

It’s very easy to fill in the form on the Migration Agency website, which only asks you to give your personal details, say whether your case concerns a work permit, residency permit, right of residency case, or ‘other’, and list any other people applying along with you. You then send the application by post to the Migration Agency address on the form.

Does it work?

A lot of people do seem to have success using the mechanism. The Migration Agency in section 9.1 of its annual report says that it is forced to to prioritise those who do this trick after a six month wait ahead of those who have spent longer in the queue. This is particularly the case for the ‘easy’ applications.

More or less everyone, though, has their initial request to conclude refused, seemingly automatically without the request ever being seen by a case officer.

Most them are then successful when they then appeal this refusal to the Migration court, with the Migration Agency stating on page 91 of its annual report that it lost 96 percent of such cases in 2021, 80 percent of such cases in 2022 and 77 percent of such cases in 2023.

As the Administrative Procedure Act states clearly that a decision should come within six months, the Migration Agency has in most cases a weak legal position.

Once your request is rejected you only a short time to appeal, so it is important to act quickly, even if the agency fails to inform you that your request has been rejected. It you have heard nothing and the four weeks are up, it’s important to chase your request so you can appeal before the deadline expires.

Even those who are rejected and don’t appeal sometimes get results, finding they are asked to submit their passport shortly afterwards.

However, this is not always the case, so it is essential to go ahead with the appeal anyway, even if your passport is requested.

What do people say?

The mechanism appears to be particularly popular among British people, with one member of the Brits in Sweden Facebook page saying that “pretty much everyone has used it”, but it is also used by other groups, such as Indians in Sweden.

One British woman said she had been informed about the rule by her case officer, and, although she was worried it might make a negative decision more likely, is glad she did so.

“I used it as it was offered and I didn’t want to wait any longer. I thought there was nothing to lose and it didn’t cost anything, only a bit of time!” she said.

She had her request for decision accepted, with the officer in four weeks getting back to her requesting that she send in two more forms, one documenting her relationship with an EU citizen, and another on her ability to support herself and pay for her accomodation.

“It’s a shame they didn’t advertise it more widely and I didn’t hear about it before. as I could have got a decision earlier on my residency application and then could have applied for permanent residency much sooner,” she said.

Another British woman said that she had decided to send in a request for a decision after she had been waiting for seven months for a decision on citizenship and her case officer told her to expect to wait as long as 36 months, despite being a simple case given that she had lived in Sweden lawfuly for five years, working throughout.

“I knew of the request to conclude option and used it. They waited the full month before responding and rejecting it, as was expected. But the next day also assigned me a case officer and asked for my passport,” she remembers. “I believe they did this so I wouldn’t appeal their rejection and get the courts support for them to hurry up and process it.”

Two months later, her citizenship was approved.

An Indian man said he had used the mechanism no fewer than three times, firstly when extending a work permit, then when applying for permanent residency for a dependent, and thirdly, when applying for citizenship.

In the first case, he said, the request had been accepted on a first attempt and his work permit extension — for which he had been waiting for more than a year — was granted 28 days later.

The second request, which he made after discovering his dependent had no case officer after seven months, was rejected. They appealed, the court ruled in their favour and their case officer gave a positive decision a month later.

Finally, in the citizenship case, the court ruled in his favour after the request was rejected, but 40 days later he is still waiting for a decision on the initial application.

Does sending in a request increase your chance of having an application rejected?

Anecdotally, it doesn’t appear to.

“It was a concern, yes,” the first British woman said, saying she had been told that sending in the form was “no reason to reject my application.”

“But this is Sweden and in my opinion, even simple or clear-cut things can be a gamble,” she added.

How does the mechanism affect handling times overall?

While the request-to-conclude mechanism might help applicants in individual cases, the Migration Agency complains that it has been making the problem of long processing times worse by creating an addition set of processes case officers need to handle, and also by affecting the agency’s ability to prioritise.

“The fact that many individuals request that their cases be decided is taking up a lot of resources and leading to processing times generally becoming longer, not least as many delay cases are appealed to the court,” Mikael Ribbenvik, the Migration Agency’s former Director General said when asking for the agency to be exempted from the system in April 2023.

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