What Sweden’s new self-sufficiency rules could mean for foreign researchers​on September 9, 2025 at 7:12 am

What is the self-sufficiency requirement?

Under current rules, people applying for residency permits as a family member of the following groups must prove that the so-called ‘key person’, the person they are planning to join in Sweden, can support them.

• Work permit holders,
• People with permits to work as self-employed in Sweden
• People with Swedish or Nordic citizenship
• People with permanent residence permits, cards or status, or with permanent right of residence

This means that the key person needs to have a large enough income to support both partners and any accompanying family members, as well as a home large enough for the family to live in.

This currently only applies for the first permit – applicants don’t need to meet this requirement when they renew their permit.

The self-sufficiency requirement varies depending on the size of your family, but you will need a certain amount left over after housing costs each month (after tax). Below are the figures for 2025:

• 6,186 kronor for a single adult
• 10,219 kronor for a couple
• 3,306 kronor for a child aged 0-6
• 3,967 kronor for a child aged 7-10
• 4,629 kronor for a child aged 11-14
• 5,290 kronor for a child aged 15 or above

This means, for example, that a single parent wanting to bring their 16-year-old child to Sweden would need to have a total of 11,476 kronor left over each month after paying for their home, while a parent supporting their partner and two children aged 7-10 would need 18,153 kronor left over.

Housing costs can include heating, fees paid to the housing association, interest on a mortgage, rent and any necessary operating costs not included in these fees, depending on the type of home.

The rules are slightly different for people who have permits as self-employed – they need a lump sum of 200,000 kronor for themselves, 100,000 kronor for their spouse or partner and 50,000 kronor for each accompanying child.

How will the new proposal change things?

The new proposal will introduce a self-sufficiency requirement for the family members of these two additional groups, when family members are applying for a residence permit to join them in Sweden: 

• researchers,
• family members of people with long-term EU residence permits, varaktigt bosatta in Swedish.

These groups already have a requirement for the permit holder to support themselves, but under the new rules the permit holder would need to also have enough money left after tax and housing costs to support the family members applying to join them.

In some cases, the inquiry said, applicants would also need full-coverage health insurance.

Will there be any other changes to the self-sufficiency rules?

Yes. The inquiry report also proposed taking the incomes of other family members into account when calculating self-sufficiency. 

Currently, accompanying family members’ incomes are not factored into the self-sufficiency figure, meaning that a family’s application to join someone in Sweden can be rejected if the income of the ‘key person’ in Sweden is too low, even if a family’s household income would be sufficient to meet the requirement.

Additionally, applicants would need to show that they still meet the self-sufficiency requirements when they renew their permit. Under current rules, it is sufficient to meet the requirements once, at the time of application.