From 1 April, the possibility of changing tracks will end
On 1 April, the Swedish Parliament’s decision to remove the possibility of changing tracks will come into force. This affects those who have been granted, or applied for, a work permit after an asylum application has been rejected. Your co-applicant family members will also be affected.
Who is affected?
This affects you if you applied for a work permit without leaving Sweden after your asylum application was rejected. You will no longer be able to be granted a new or extended residence permit on the basis of work.
Your family members who have a residence permit as your co-applicants are also affected. If you cannot obtain a residence permit on the basis of work, your family members cannot obtain a residence permit as your co-applicants.
The Swedish Parliament’s decision to end the possibility of changing tracks has no transitional rules. This means that the Swedish Migration Agency will make decisions according to the new regulations from 1 April, regardless of when you applied for a residence permit on the basis of work.
How you are affected depends on when your asylum rejection and decision that you must leave Sweden gained the force of law.
If you are going to extend your permit
If you have already been granted a residence permit on the basis of work through a change of track, you may continue to work in Sweden as long as your permit is valid, but from 1 April you will not be able to get an extended residence permit on the basis of work.
If less than 4 years have passed since your asylum rejection and a decision that you must leave Sweden gained the force of law
If, on 31 March, it was less than 4 years since your asylum application was rejected and the decision that you must leave Sweden gained the force of law, that decision still applies. This means that the decision to leave Sweden must be implemented and that you cannot be granted a new or extended residence permit on the basis of work from within Sweden. In most cases, this means that you need to leave the territory of the EU countries and the Schengen area.
Impediments to enforce the decision to leave Sweden
The Swedish Migration Agency can in some cases examine whether there are impediments to enforce the expulsion decision. However, it is only in exceptional cases that such an assessment can lead to a residence permit. It is required, among other things, that new circumstances have emerged that have not previously been assessed.
Circumstances that may constitute impediments to enforcement include:
- changes in the political situation in the country to which the decision says you must travel, and which put your life or health at risk if you travel there
- that you have become too ill to complete the trip
- a plausible assumption that the country to which you are supposed to travel will not receive you.
If more than 4 years have passed since your asylum rejection and a decision that you must leave Sweden gained the force of law
If, on 31 March, it has been more than four years since your asylum application was rejected and the decision that you must leave Sweden gained the force of law, that decision has expired and is no longer valid. This means that the Swedish Migration Agency can examine whether you can be granted a residence permit on some other basis without having to leave Sweden. However, you cannot be granted a new or extended permit on the grounds of work without leaving Sweden.
If you have applied for a permanent residence permit, you can be granted one provided that you meet the requirements for it.