Residence permit

Students from outside the EU/EEA

As a non-EU/EEA student you must apply for a residence permit for studies. The permit must be issued before your entry to Sweden. You make your application online at the Swedish Migration Agency's website. It can be issued for one or two years at a time. If you apply for one year at a time, you will have to extend your residence permit for the coming year. Applications for residence permits are processed by the Swedish Migration Agency (Migrationsverket) and not by Karolinska Institutet. 

If you have any family member accompanying you (spouse/children), you can apply for them at the same time. 

Important! Apply as soon as possible

• It is very important that you start preparing for your residence permit as soon as you receive notification of your admission. The time from applying for your residence permit to receiving it can be long, sometimes several months. But the bank statements showing that you can support yourself during your studies cannot be older than four months.
• If you must pay a tuition fee, you cannot apply for a residence permit until you have paid the first instalment, so make sure you do this as soon as possible.
• You need a valid passport when applying for residence permit and it must be valid for your entire stay in Sweden.
• You must present your passport personally at a Swedish Embassy with a migration section when you apply for a residence permit for the first time.
• You might also have to visit a Swedish Embassy or consulate in your home country for biometric data (photo and fingerprints). For some, this step can be done upon arrival in Sweden. 

How to document that you can support yourself financially?

The Swedish Migration Agency is strict about financial support. You must show that you are able to support yourself - even without your family. Please read the information at the Swedish Migration Agency's website carefully before submitting your application! Here are some of the most common mistakes we know of:

• If your parents support you, make sure that you do not transfer the money to your account as a lump sum the week you submit your application.
• If you have several bank accounts, you must enclose statements from all your accounts.
• The statement must contain details of the balance, the name of the account holder and the currency.
• Bank assets must be on an account that belongs to you and from which only you and your husband or wife, if you have one, can withdraw money. If you share the account with, for example, your parents or a relative, the bank assets will not be regarded as your own.
• At some banks you need to show up in person to get your bank statements. Please have this in mind if you’re going back to your country for Christmas.

Apply for residence permit at the Swedish Migration Agency
Find your embassy or consulate general