The ultimate guide to getting a work permit in Sweden

How do I apply for a work permit?

Here are the basic, nitty-gritty articles on exactly how you go about getting a work permit for a job in Sweden. How do I apply? How does the fast track work? How can I get an IT job in Sweden? See below.

• EXPLAINED: How to apply for a work permit in Sweden 
• EXPLAINED: How can people overseas get an IT job in Sweden?
• How foreigners can get on the fast track for a work permit in Sweden

How long will it take?

Here are the articles on current waiting times for work permits, your rights while you wait, and how you can get a faster decision on your application.

• IN NUMBERS: How long are waiting times at Sweden’s Migration Agency?
• How to get a faster decision on your Swedish citizenship or permit application
• What are my rights while I wait for my Swedish residence permit to be extended?

Work permit delays

Here are all our articles covering delays to work permit applications, how they are affecting foreigners in Sweden, and whether travelling while you wait is worth the risk.

• Should foreigners trapped in Sweden by permit delays risk a one-way visa? 
• ‘Sweden is like a big prison’: The tech workers trapped by work permit delays
• LISTEN: Why foreigners are furious about ‘humiliating’ work permit delays
• Foreigners trapped by Swedish work permit delays call for visa relief
• EXPLAINED: Why is it taking so long to get work permits in Sweden?

Changes to work permit labour law

How has work permit law changed? Are there any issues with the new system? How is it likely to change in the future? Here's The Local's coverage of recent and potential upcoming changes to work permit laws.

Current law:

• How will the new work permit law just passed in Sweden affect foreigners?
• How has the Migration Agency been applying Sweden’s new labour law?

• EXPLAINED: Sweden’s new work permit law and the ‘seven year rule’

• PODCAST: Sweden’s new work permit law: what are the pros and cons?

• INTERVIEW: ‘The biggest change to work permits in eight years’

• EXPLAINED: How will Sweden’s new work permit rules apply in practice?
• New job-seeker visa in Swedish government’s bid to overhaul work permits
• INTERVIEW: ‘Work permit law is a turning point for talent deportations’

What does the new government want to do about work permits?

• How does Sweden’s new government want to change migration policy?

Labour market testing

It's not clear whether Social Democrat proposals to reintroduce labour market testing, also known as skills shortage testing, kicked off by the outgoing government, will become law, but here's our coverage of what labour market testing is and how it could affect the Swedish labour market.

• How could a new skills shortage test for work permits impact foreigners in Sweden?

• Swedish government’s work permit plan an ‘absolute catastrophe’ for business

• What do we know about labour market tests for Swedish work permits?

• Swedish government calls for return of labour market testing for work permits

What can I do if I don't get the result I expected?

Was your permit rejected? Do you think you should have been given permanent residency instead of a work permit? Here's a list of what you can do if your application doesn't turn out the way you'd hoped.

• Reader question: What can I do if given a work permit not permanent residency?
• What to do if your work permit renewal is rejected