Currently, Swedish citizenship can be granted at birth or following adoption, through application (the usual route for most foreigners) or via notification.

Citizenship through notification – medborgarskap genom anmälan – is available to children who have lived in Sweden for at least three years (two if stateless), young adults between 18 and 21 who have lived in Sweden since they turned 13 (15 if stateless) and Nordic citizens.

The requirements, even taking these new rules into account, are less strict than citizenship through application.

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Under the new rules, people suspected or convicted of committing certain serious crimes, deemed a threat to Swedish security or connected to groups or organisations whose activities include “systematic, widespread and serious offences against other people” will be barred from citizenship via notification. The new rules will come into force on October 1st and will generally apply only to people over the age of 15.

Nordic citizens and children born in Sweden who have been stateless since birth are exempt from the new rules.

The new rules will also make it more difficult to relinquish Swedish citizenship once gained in some cases, specifically if there is a reason to believe that the applicant is being coerced to relinquish their citizenship by someone else, or, in the case of a child, if it is deemed to not be in the child’s best interest. Children over the age of 12 will also need to consent to relinquishing their citizenship.