When you turn 18
According to Swedish law, you become an adult the day you turn 18. This means that you do not have the same right to support and help as an unaccompanied minor, and your application must be examined according to the same rules as an adult asylum seeker.
Shortly before you turn 18, or in connection with the Swedish Migration Agency deciding that your age will be changed to over 18, you will be invited to a meeting where you will receive information about how your rights and obligations will change when you turn 18.
Guardian
An important difference between being an unaccompanied minor and an adult asylum seeker is that once you turn 18, you usually do not have the right to a guardian. The guardian’s assignment ends because you are of legal age and no longer need a legal guardian. You can handle your contact with the authorities yourself and sign all necessary papers.
Accommodation
The Swedish Migration Agency is responsible for arranging temporary accommodation for all adult asylum seekers who need it. The municipality where you live may require the Swedish Migration Agency to take over responsibility for arranging temporary accommodation for you as soon as the municipality is informed that you have turned 18 or if the Swedish Migration Agency has changed your age to 18. This can happen even if you appeal the Swedish Migration Agency's decision to change your age.
If you need the Migration Agency's help with temporary accommodation, you will not be allowed to choose where to live. You must move to a place where the Swedish Migration Agency has vacant accommodation. The Swedish Migration Agency will try to arrange accommodation for you close to the area where you have previously lived, but there are no guarantees that this will be the case.
You can choose to arrange accommodation yourself, for example by staying with relatives or friends. Then you have to pay for your accommodation yourself.
Talk to your reception unit if you need help arranging accommodation.
Read more about temporary accommodation for adult asylum seekers
Finances
When you turn 18, you become responsible for your own finances.
Read more about what kind of financial support you can get from the Swedish Migration Agency
Healthcare and dental care
Asylum-seeking children have the right to free dental care and healthcare. An adult asylum seeker, on the other hand, is only entitled to emergency medical and dental care and care that cannot wait. It is the staff at the hospital, health centre, or dental clinic that assesses whether you should receive care.
Adult asylum seekers must pay for doctor’s appointments and medications. Show your LMA card and you will pay a lower price.
School
If you are studying at upper secondary school, you have the right to continue attending school while you wait for a decision on your application for asylum. Your right to continue your upper secondary studies applies even if you need to move to one of the Swedish Migration Agency’s temporary accommodations in another municipality.
If you are not studying at upper secondary school but still want to study while you wait for a decision, you can ask the Swedish Migration Agency about ‘early interventions for asylum seekers’ (also called TIA).
Read more about activities while you are waiting for a decision
If your application has been rejected
If you have turned 18, it is no longer necessary for a relative or an authority to receive you when you return.
If you have received a decision to return to your home country, you must leave Sweden within the time limit stated in the decision, or immediately if there is no deadline and the decision can no longer be appealed. If you do not leave Sweden within that time, there is a risk that you will have a so-called re-entry ban, that is, you may not travel back into Sweden within 1–5 years.
You are entitled to accommodation and financial support from the Swedish Migration Agency until your deadline for voluntary return expires, or when the decision can no longer be appealed if you were not given a deadline. If you have children of your own who have also applied for asylum in Sweden, you are entitled to extended support from the Swedish Migration Agency.
The Swedish Migration Agency will help you prepare for your trip as long as you cooperate.
Read more about what happens when an adult asylum seeker has their application rejected
