Reader question: Do I have to attend a ceremony to get Swedish citizenship?
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The Swedish government and its allies, the Sweden Democrats, are currently in the process of tightening up the rules for citizenship and permanent residency, with an inquiry in January this year proposing extending the residency requirement for citizenship from five to eight years, introducing a self-sufficiency requirement and requiring that applicants pass language and civics tests.
The government and the Sweden Democrats also asked the inquiry to look into introducing some sort of mandatory oath of allegiance or other ceremony for prospective Swedish citizens, in part to raise the profile of citizenship and make it mean more to applicants.
The inquiry decided against this, arguing that the voluntary ceremonies that each Swedish municipality holds for citizens each year are sufficient and that organising extra mandatory ceremonies would be too much of an administrative headache.
That might not always be the case. The government has already hinted it may overrule the inquiry on citizenship ceremonies.
But for now at least, ceremonies held by municipalities – which you may have received an invite for if you became a Swedish citizen in the past year – are just that: voluntary.
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The Migration Agency recently brought in a mandatory requirement to attend an in-person ID check for citizenship applicants, but these are unrelated to the ceremonies organised by municipalities, which you're only invited to once you already have citizenship.
So feel free to attend the ceremony on National Day if you want, or do something else with your extra day off if that suits you better.
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Local Sweden
9 hours ago
- Local Sweden
INTERVIEW: Probe into minister's relative has revealed 'threat to Swedish security'
In early July, anti-racist magazine Expo broke the news that a family member of a Swedish government minister was active in white supremacist groups. The Local spoke to Erik Glaad, one of the journalists behind the story, to find out more. Advertisement How did Expo carry out the investigation? 'This investigation is based on following the digital trail left by the minister's family member,' Glaad said. 'By doing so, we've been able to document extreme right-wing activity and engagement since August 2024.' The close relative of the minister, neither of whom were named in Expo's report, has 'sought out and joined' what Glaad described as some of Sweden's most racist groups, including Det fria Sverige and Aktivklubb Sverige. The individual – described in Swedish as an anhörig, which usually refers to a close family member – has also collaborated with an activist from Nordiska motståndsrörelsen, Glaad said, a group which was classified as a terror group by the USA last summer. Who are these groups and why are they dangerous? 'Det fria Sverige is a group with the long term aim of taking back Swedish society from immigrants, which, they believe, are occupying it,' Glaad said. 'They want to build a separatist movement in society for white people.' 'Nordiska motståndsrörelsen is potentially Sweden's most well-known neo-Nazi organisation, with a long history of political violence, and Aktivklubb Sverige is a violent neo-Nazi network which exists internationally with a few branches in Sweden.' The individual's involvement in Aktivklubb Sverige is of particular concern as Swedish police believe that the group is actively trying to map Swedish officials as potential targets for blackmail. 'They take part in combat training, with the long-term goal of creating a right-wing extremist militia, and the network they are a part of has access to weapons and explosives," Glaad said. The journalist added that there is no evidence in Expo's investigation to indicate that the relative in this case was targeted by any of these groups as a potential way of getting closer to the minister in question, and that they appear to have sought the groups out by themselves. Advertisement Why hasn't Expo named the minister? Expo has not named the minister in question or given any details as to the relationship between the minister and the person involved in the white supremacist groups, other than describing them as 'a young person'. Asked why Expo chose not to reveal the minister's identity, Glaad said: 'It's an ethical decision." He said it was difficult to go into too much detail without revealing specific details. 'Generally, though, you can say that within Swedish press ethics there is a very clear framework for who should be protected and who should not be protected from potential publicity damages," he said. Publicity damages, or a publicitetsskada in Swedish, take into account things like the age of the person the information concerns, as well as their role in society – for example if they are a public figure or not. 'Because of that, we've made decisions that would not have been necessary in other cases. But in this case, that's why we've had to do this hard anonymisation," Glaad said. Advertisement In other words the press is not protecting the minister from potential damages, but rather their family member, whose identity would also be revealed if journalists named the minister. "This is regarding a child who is not a public individual,' the government's deputy head of communications Linda Hallenberg told the TT newswire. Glaad did not wish to comment on the age of the minister's family member or give any other details which could reveal the identity. How does Expo know that the minister and the activist have a close connection? Expo also established a connection between the family member and the minister, among other things due to the fact that they appear in photographs together. 'There are other types of details which I can't discuss here, because of the limitations placed on this due to the anonymity, but we have been able to securely establish a connection between the family member and the minister,' he said. Expo mapped the family member's actions online, including on a number of social media accounts and in chat groups they gained access to. What has the minister said about this? Advertisement At the time of writing, the minister's team had had almost a week to respond to requests for comment from Expo. 'They have refused to answer any questions. They stopped responding to us once we told them we were going to publish this story and asked for a response to our questions,' Glaad said. 'We contacted the minister's press office on Thursday [June 26th] and our contact with them ended late that evening. Since then I've tried to restart that contact and say we want a response to our questions, but that hasn't happened, because they haven't replied to us at all. There's been complete silence from them since [June 26th].' Glaad added that it is 'clearly a sensitive issue for the government." 'These are questions like 'is the minister aware of this engagement in right-wing extremist groups?', 'did the minister tell the Security Police or another security service about this?', 'when did that happen?', 'how did the minister find out about their family member's engagement in these groups?'. Questions which should be easy to answer but which they have chosen to stay quiet on," Glaad said. Why is the story important even without naming the minister? Glaad said that the investigation shows "there is a threat to Swedish security", and that in itself is important enough to inform the public about even though the minister's identity has been anonymised. According to Kim Hakkarainen, a Swedish security expert Expo spoke to, the connection between the minister and their relative could be a security risk. "It's a weakness which could be used by an antagonist, for example another state or antagonistic actor who wants to harm Sweden, in order to influence or use the minister's family member as an enabler," he told Expo. Glaad added that he understands the decision to anonymise the minister involved 'has caused reactions,' and that other media organisations may make different decisions. 'Other Swedish media might come to a different conclusion and that's up to them. That's how it works in the Swedish press, every editorial team makes its own decisions on what to publish, and that can vary a lot.'
Local Sweden
9 hours ago
- Local Sweden
What happens at the in-person ID check for Swedish citizenship?
Sweden launched in-person ID checks for citizenship this spring, with all applicants having to attend before they can become Swedish citizens. The Local spoke to a reader about their appointment to find out what to expect. Advertisement 'It only took five minutes,' the reader said. 'Two people looked at my passport together.' She is a woman from a non-EU country who wished to remain anonymous. Her appointment took place in mid-June. The people at the Migration Agency did not ask her any questions, but she asked them when she could expect a decision to be made in her case. 'They said no idea.' The reader spoke to the officials in Swedish, but The Local has heard of some applicants carrying out their in-person ID checks in English. 'I was an hour early and it was fine,' she said. 'They just asked if I'd applied for citizenship then looked at my passport.' When we spoke to the reader around three weeks after her interview, she was still waiting for a response. 'I'm still waiting,' she said. 'Spoke to the case officer last week who had said she has done her work and now it's up to the decision-making officer. They can't say how long it might be.' 'Every day I check the Migration Agency website thinking it might be my lucky day, but still nothing.' The Local understands that the in-person ID appointment comes at the end of the processing of citizenship cases, and we've heard from many readers that they got their decision shortly after. However, some readers have also told us they had to wait several weeks. Advertisement The Migration Agency announced earlier this year that it would be changing the way it processes applications, focusing more on older cases – some applicants have been waiting as long as four or five years. The reader The Local spoke to had a significantly shorter wait, having applied for citizenship almost a year ago. She submitted a request to conclude after six months, which was rejected, then overturned on appeal, and received a letter inviting her to book a personal ID check at the beginning of June. 'I saw two people wrote on Facebook that their applications had been granted. One of them applied before me and one applied after me. The one who applied after me even went to their interview ten days after me,' she said.
Local Sweden
a day ago
- Local Sweden
'Sweden doesn't want me to stay here, but it doesn't want me to leave either'
Mahmut, originally from Turkey, came to Sweden as an asylum seeker back in 2017 due to political unrest in his home country. Now, he is in citizenship limbo and believes Swedish security police have branded him a security threat, without telling him why. Advertisement Mahmut* grew up in Turkey and completed his bachelor degree there before moving to the US for further study, eventually graduating with a PhD. "After two years I went back to Turkey to work," he tells The Local. "Then after another two years, in 2013, the political problems started." Mahmut was formerly a member of the Gülen movement, led by US-based Muslim preacher Fethullah Gülen. The Gülen movement was originally allied with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan prior to 2013. The alliance broke down after a prosecutor linked to the Gülen movement revealed serious governmental corruption. Erdogan responded by declaring it a terror movement, and blamed it for an attempted 2016 coup. Since then, many of the movement's members ‒ current and former ‒ have become refugees elsewhere. "I actually wasn't even living in Turkey at the time, but the coup and what happened in the aftermath really impacted all Turkish citizens globally," Mahmut explains. In 2016, his father was kidnapped by Turkish authorities while working outside Turkey. Mahmut realised quickly that Turkey had also issued an arrest warrant for him, and that he was no longer safe, even despite the fact he was living in a different country, so he decided to move to Sweden with his family. "We came to Sweden in 2017 and then I applied for asylum right away, because my passport was cancelled so I couldn't live in Sweden and apply for a work permit," he says. He found a job within a month of arrival. "I knew English and I had a PhD, so I've been working since then. I've been paying a lot of taxes," he says. He currently earns more than double Sweden's median salary in a tech role with a major Swedish company. Despite leaving the movement some years ago he cannot return to Turkey as there are still multiple ongoing investigations against him. Mahmut has had regular contact with the Migration Agency since arriving in Sweden in 2017. Photo: Susanne Lindholm/TT In Sweden, the first immigration hurdle the family encountered was a law change which tightened up the rules for permanent residency, meaning that families no longer qualified as a whole if one member of the family met the requirements. "I was working and my wife was learning Swedish, so because of that law we thought that 'OK, maybe I can continue working and my wife can learn Swedish first. And we decided to have a second child. But then the law changed and I got permanent residency but my wife couldn't get it because she wasn't working. So that was the first issue we had," he said. His wife decided to apply for a long-term residency permit under EU rules instead, a status known in Swedish as varaktigt bosatt. Shortly after he received permanent residency in 2021, he applied for citizenship along with his eldest daughter. "She was eight years old and got her Swedish citizenship after a month," he said. "But I didn't get my citizenship." READ ALSO: Swedish Migration Agency and government slammed over 'unreasonably' long citizenship queues Four years later, he's still waiting. "My second child was born in 2020 and she was given residency for three years, and then we applied to extend it in 2023. We have refugee status, and I can't really go to the Turkish embassy here, so my daughter was actually stateless. She didn't have Turkish citizenship, so had no ID at all because she didn't have a Turkish passport or identity card, and her refugee passport expired when her residency expired." Advertisement At the beginning of 2024, he started to become more suspicious about the fact that there was no movement in his case. "It had been almost two years since I applied for citizenship, almost two years since my wife applied for varaktig bosatt, and almost one year since my daughter applied for residence extension. I exchanged a lot of emails with the Migration Agency and they weren't really responding, just saying 'every case is unique'." In the meantime, a lot of Turkish citizens he knew in the same position – including his family members who had also sought asylum in Sweden – were having their applications approved. "My sister applied for citizenship around the same time, in 2021, but she got hers approved within seven months. My other sister and brother got theirs in eight or nine months, which was really weird – especially as I had been working for longer." Advertisement His family were effectively stranded in Sweden during this time, as his daughter did not have any ID or a valid residency permit. After speaking to a lawyer, he was told that he could order a dagboksblad, essentially a log of his family's case files from the Migration Agency. Once those were sent over, he discovered that not only was his application referred to Säpo, Sweden's security police, but so were both of his wife's applications. The head offices of Sweden's Security Police (Säpo) in Solna. Photo: Jessica Gow/TT In addition to that, there were multiple lines of redacted information from his daughter's application. She was four years old at the time. He asked his caseworker for more information on why his application had been sent to Säpo, and received a document saying that they had requested it because they thought he might be involved in terrorist activities or a threat to national security. "That was really shocking," he said. "It was really a nightmare. When I found out about this, I really went into a depression. From the beginning of 2024 until the end of that year I was speaking to two psychiatrists." Advertisement His situation has not only taken a mental toll, but also a physical one. "I've been dealing with lots of problems. I've been going to hospitals, had a colonoscopy, endoscopy, but they cannot diagnose what's wrong. But I have a lot of stomach pain. I can't leave home because when I get on a bus or in a car my blood pressure drops and I've passed out a couple of times. It caused serious hell because again, I don't think I deserve this." At the end of last year, his youngest daughter's residency application was finally approved, and then they applied for Swedish citizenship for her, which was also granted. His wife was also finally granted permanent residency. Mahmut is still waiting for his own citizenship application to go through, despite Säpo writing in a previous application that they had no comments, or in Swedish ej erinran, on his case. He has not been asked to show his passport or ID card, nor been sent a questionnaire of further questions to fill out. READ ALSO: The extra security questions Sweden's Migration Agency wants citizenship applicants to answer "When I spoke to my caseworker, they claimed that they are actually still waiting for approval from another government organisation. They already have approval from Säpo, so I asked them what kind of organisation they are waiting for approval from, and they said that they cannot name it." Advertisement Säpo press secretary Jonathan Svensson confirmed to The Local that Säpo is "one of the authorities which the Migration Agency consults". "Somewhat simplified, the Security Police have the possibility of leaving a comment, for example in cases where someone has applied for a residence permit or citizenship, if we think the person in question could be a security threat," he said. "The Security Police can also be consulted even if the person in question has previously been granted a residence permit." Svensson added that he was not able to give more specific information on how the two agencies collaborate. At this time, Mahmut was discussing his case with journalist Joakim Medin, from Dagens ETC – the same Medin who in 2025 was arrested and detained in Turkey for over a month after he had travelled to Istanbul to report on protests against the jailing of the city's mayor. Medin revealed in an article in July 2024 that the Migration Agency had sent residence permit and citizenship applications from Gülenists to the Foreign Ministry during Sweden's Nato accession process, citing the fact that approvals could affect Sweden's relations with Turkey. Advertisement Mahmut has many contacts with Gülenist refugees in Sweden who have fled Turkey. He has previously worked together with the Migration Agency to help refugees in his situation seek asylum in Sweden, meeting with Migration Agency leadership multiple times to tell them about the situation for members of the Gülen movement. His information has also provided the Migration Agency with background for legal positions made when handling cases involving current or former Gülenists. The Migration Agency confirmed to The Local that it does have to send some applications to the Foreign Ministry, but that it wasn't able to provide statistics on which nationalities or countries were affected. "The Migration Agency does, like other government agencies, have to inform the head of the Foreign Ministry when issues arise that could affect the relationship to another state or an international organisation," Rebecka Paulusson, a press communicator at the agency, told The Local. "The type of issue which could affect our relationship with another state can vary over time depending on external factors. The type of situation (or issue) in question can also vary. Typically, it concerns the decision we expect to make in a certain case, but it could also be another initiative or change in the management of the agency or its working methods." Paulusson added that in the first half of this year (including incomplete figures for June), the agency informed the Foreign Ministry about applications in 36 cases – 25 applications for residency permits and 11 for citizenship. Sweden's foreign ministry is located on Gustav Adolfs torg in Stockholm. Photo: Christine Olsson/TT The Local also contacted the Foreign Ministry for comment but had not received a response at the time of publication. Advertisement Mahmut believes, after all this, that his name is "on a list somewhere", as he was also flagged for a background check when changing career – unlike other non-EU colleagues. "During this extra security interview, after talking about why I was a refugee, the person asked me if anyone threatens me or my family to release secret information. I was really shocked. They asked me 'if someone offers you a lot of money, would you give out secret information', and I realised that she was questioning me and trying to understand if I was a spy." He passed the background check and was offered the job, but is concerned that the issue will follow him in the future. "I think I've been profiled by Säpo and I'm going to face this problem forever. There's no progress in my citizenship application because of this. I can't become a citizen." Mahmut is considering leaving Sweden but is effectively trapped in the country. "I don't have a Turkish passport because it's been cancelled by Turkey. I can't become a Swedish citizen. I have a refugee passport, so I can move to another country, but even if I do that I need to fill in some paperwork and in order to do that paperwork I need to have a valid passport. So Sweden doesn't want me to stay here, but it doesn't want me to leave either." "I feel like I'm trapped. And I'm really tired of this." *Note: Mahmut is not his real name.
