The new citizenship law will extend the amount of time applicants must have lived in Sweden from five to eight years, in most cases, as well as requiring applicants to have sufficient knowledge of Swedish language and society.
'Upstanding way of life'
Applicants will also need to have an "upstanding way of life" or hederligt levnadssätt. There are currently requirements in place that applicants have led a skötsam (well-behaved) life, among other things not having any debts with the Enforcement Authority (Kronofogden) or prison sentences.
Currently, applicants’ behaviour (outstanding unpaid debts with Kronofogden or a history of crimes, for example) until the date of application, as well as how they can be expected to act in the future is taken into consideration. This will be expanded to include behaviour both in Sweden and abroad.
The length of time applicants must wait after being convicted of a crime before they qualify for citizenship will also be extended, for example someone committing a crime with a four-year prison sentence will have to wait fifteen years before they can apply for citizenship. This is harsher than the change proposed in the original inquiry back in January 2025.
Self-sufficiency requirement
The government has also proposed a self-sufficiency requirement far higher than that proposed by the inquiry last year ‒ 20,000 kronor a month.
The inquiry recommended using the förbehållsbelopp to set this figure, which is a figure used by the Enforcement Authority when deciding how much money someone should be able to keep to cover the cost of housing and other living expenses in case of debt restructuring.
This figure is updated each year and is also referred to as the existensminimum (existence minimum). For 2025, the figures were 6,186 kronor for a single adult or 10,219 kronor for a couple.
Citizenship tests
There will be two citizenship tests, a civics test and a Swedish language test.
The first civics test will be held in August this year, while the Swedish language test has been delayed and will first be held in autumn next year.
"The idea is not that you'll be questioned about specific aspects of Sweden's history, which king took over in which year, but it's more things that you need to be able to succeed in Sweden, take part in a general election for example," migration minister Johan Forssell said.
What does this mean for people with an outstanding application?
The new package of laws is set to come into force on Sweden's national day, June 6th, 2026. The government also confirmed that when the law comes into force, it will apply to any case which has not been concluded by that date.
It's not clear if that also applies to the language and culture tests, and if so, what will happen to people who apply for citizenship before the language tests are ready in October 2027. The Local has contacted the government for clarification on this issue.
This article has understandably raised a lot of questions amongst readers. We have answered some of them in a Q&A. Feel free to post your questions in the comments and we'll add them to the article.
You can also watch our Publishing Director, James Savage, explain the most significant changes in the video below:
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