New assessment of maintenance requirement when applying for a permanent residence permit
The Swedish Migration Agency has changed its assessment of the length of employment required to obtain a permanent residence permit.
Previously, at least 18 months of employment was required from the date of the decision in order to meet the legal requirement of "sustainable maintenance" when applying for a permanent residence permit. Following a landmark ruling from the Migration Court of Appeal, the requirement of 18 months of employment has been removed. Instead, an individual assessment is made, where, for example, a longer fixed-term employment is usually approved. However, it is not possible to say in advance how long such an employment must be.
Guiding judgment after appeal
The requirement of 18 months of maintenance in order to obtain a permanent residence permit has been criticised, and after a person appealed the Migration Agency's rejection, a landmark ruling was pronounced by the Migration Court of Appeal.
The Court held that the Swedish Migration Agency cannot require 18 months of maintenance for a person to be granted a permanent residence permit, when 12 months of maintenance is usually sufficient for a person who wants a relative to move to Sweden. However, at the same time the Court stated that the Swedish Migration Agency cannot set a fixed time limit. Therefore, it cannot be determined that 12 months of employment is always sufficient, or always required, to obtain a permanent residence permit. Instead the Swedish Migration Agency will do an individual assessment if the person applying for a permanent residence permit does not have permanent employment.