Inside Sweden: The long waiting times for citizenship are about to get even longer

2025-04-26T07:37:37Z

The Local’s editor Emma Löfgren rounds up the biggest stories of the week in our Inside Sweden newsletter.

Hej,

The Migration Agency on Friday lowered its forecast for how many Swedish citizenship cases it believes it will process in 2025.

In October 2024, it predicted it would be able to finish processing 87,000 applications this year thanks to increased staff. That would have been a welcome increase after years of strong criticism (from heavyweights such as the Parliamentary Ombudsman and National Audit Office) of its long waiting times.

Then the government ordered the agency to carry out extra security checks of citizenship applicants, instructions widely interpreted by experts as a pretext for slowing down the granting of new citizenships before major reforms come into force in summer 2026.

As a result of these security checks, the Migration Agency now predicts it will finish processing 26 percent fewer citizenship cases in 2025 than previously estimated.

Meanwhile, the government has said it generally wants the 2026 citizenship reforms to apply even to those who apply before they come into force (going directly against the advice of the official inquiry).

It means people who apply for citizenship today, even without taking the delays caused by the extra security checks into account, have *no idea* under what rules they will actually be assessed (current advice from the Migration Agency is that 75 percent of recently concluded cases were processed within 23 months, the upper limit of which takes us well past the 2026 deadline).

The long waiting times for citizenship are an undemocratic scandal and the result of how a series of governments have failed to give the Migration Agency adequate resources, despite claiming that migration is one of their most important issues. It should be on the front page of every Swedish newspaper.

In other news

Everyone who has applied for Swedish citizenship, both before and after tighter security checks came into force on April 1st, is being asked to answer a set of detailed additional questions. We got hold of the questions so looked into what they say, and also why the Migration Agency is asking for this information.

In Stockholm parents of some of the 159 pupils left stranded by the IES school chain’s decision to close its only upper secondary school mounted a protest, calling for the council’s education department to intervene to save the school.

GAMES: Have you tried The Local’s games for Membership+ subscribers yet? We’ve got a new crossword and word search puzzle out now

The government this week appointed an inquiry to look into whether legislative changes are needed to strengthen academic freedom – a topic which has grabbed headlines after the Trump government’s attempts to crack down on diversity and inclusion initiatives at universities.

Another interview for our My Swedish Career series! Richard Mason, originally from Wales, moved to Sweden in 2020 for a postdoctoral position at Umeå University. The Local’s Becky Waterton spoke to him about his research and his experience of life in northern Sweden as an international academic.

Are you paying too much rent? One subletter is set to get back more than 120,000 kronor after being overcharged for an apartment in Stockholm’s upmarket Östermalm area, the Svea Court of Appeal ruled.

The government and the Sweden Democrats have put forward a proposal that would pay refugees up to 350,000 kronor to return home, increasing the current grant by 3,400 percent, despite an inquiry last year criticising it.

In this week’s episode of Sweden in Focus Extra for Membership+ subscribers we interview Gothenburg politician Axel Darvik and Uppsala University vice chancellor Anders Hagstedt about how Sweden can woo US scientists.

Sweden’s first and only Catholic cardinal, Anders Arborelius, is one of the possible candidates to become the next pope after Pope Francis died on Easter Monday. How likely is it that he takes over?

And finally, The Local’s monthly roundup of everything happening in Sweden next month, including a change of direction for the Social Democrats, a tax deadline, public holidays, and, maybe, another Eurovision win for Sweden.

Have a good weekend,

Emma Löfgren

Editor, The Local Sweden

Inside Sweden is our weekly newsletter for members which gives you news, analysis and, sometimes, takes you behind the scenes at The Local. It’s published each Saturday and with Membership+ you can also receive it directly to your inbox.

Read full article

Auto-posted from news source