Swedish citizenship

Swedish nationality law determines entitlement to Swedish citizenship. Citizenship of Sweden is based primarily on the principle of jus sanguinis. In other words, citizenship is conferred primarily by birth to a Swedish parent, irrespective of place of birth.

In general, children born in Sweden to foreign parents do not acquire Swedish citizenship at birth, although if they remain resident in Sweden they may become Swedish later on.

Swedish law was significantly amended with effect from 1 July 2001 and from that date, dual citizenship is permitted without restriction.

A child born after 1 April 2015 acquires Swedish citizenship automatically if:

A child born before 1 April 2015 acquires Swedish citizenship at birth if:

For example, a child born to a Swedish father and a non-Swedish mother will not be Swedish if either: its parents are not married to each other or if they were not married when it was conceived and it was born outside of Sweden, unless the father sends notification to an embassy or consulate with the child's passport, birth certificate, proof of his own citizenship at the time of the birth, and a certificate of paternity. A child who is born abroad and whose father is a Swedish citizen (not married to the child's mother, and the mother is not Swedish) will acquire Swedish citizenship when the parents get married, provided the child is aged under 18.

A child who is aged under 12 and who has been adopted by a Swedish citizen automatically receives Swedish citizenship upon adoption if

The adoption must have been officially decided or approved after 30 June 1992.

A child aged 12 or more at the time of adoption may acquire Swedish citizenship by application.

Swedish citizenship can be acquired by naturalization, also known as citizenship by application.

A foreigner may be granted Swedish citizenship upon meeting certain requirements, including:

A number of exemptions apply to the residence period:

For those married to, living in a registered partnership with or cohabiting with a Swedish citizen, he/she can apply for Swedish citizenship after three years. In these cases, he/she must have been living together for the past two years. It is not enough to be married to one another, he/she must also live together.

Sweden imposes no requirements on Swedish language abilities or knowledge about Swedish history or culture, the only other countries in Europe without these requirements are Belgium, Ireland and Italy.

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Wikipedia