Friday, September 12 | 2025
You are moving to Sweden! Well, obviously we don’t know this for sure but it is an educated guess since you are reading this article. Or perhaps you have moved already and are reading this to see if there is something you missed when you moved. 🙂
In collaboration with Beyondo
Anyway, the reasons for moving to Sweden are many. Perhaps you met a viking/vikingess or you WANT to meet a viking. Perhaps you got a job (in that case congratulations!) that is making you move, or have a thing for the Scandinoir TV-shows and want to see if they are based on reality?
Regardless of the reason, there are a lot of things you need to take care of for a successful move. We know that it can be mega scary especially as you often don’t know what it is that you need to know and you are researching frantically trying to figure that out. Right?
Well, here is a list to get you started.
Start looking for work
So this point obviously doesn’t apply for those of you lucky enough to already have a job but for the rest. This is definitely where you should get started. Moving to Sweden and finding a job in Sweden if you don’t speak Swedish is hard. We are not going to sugar coat it. It is common for newbies to spend many years looking for work and if you are in a creative job that require language skills, then that can take longer still. So if you don’t have a job lined up – start looking as soon as you can.
Most places where you can find work in Sweden, will require that you have a Swedish personal number. You find more information about that here. But there are some options available for you without a personal number and that is international recruitment agencies:
- We highly recommend that you check out the available vacancies at Beyondo. They are a recruitment partner for internationals.
- You should of course also sign up with your CV to their talent database.
- Also check out all the information we have under our work section and some other international recruiters you should check out.
A word of warning. Most companies naturally want to get their new employee to start as soon as possible. This means that if you have a long time left before you land in Sweden, it may be difficult to get a company to invest in you if you are competing with someone who is already in Sweden or arriving soon. However, sign up with your CV and start looking anyway. It is better to be proactive for sure.
Start learning Swedish
The sad truth is that Sweden will remain a bit closed to you as long as you don’t speak Swedish. It is harder to find work, make friends and fully get incorporated in to Swedish society if you don’t speak Swedish. There are loads of options for you to start learning. Some you need to wait for until you get to Sweden but start by doing some proper research.
If you want a guide put together by a top Swedish study and career counselor then you should definitely get our digital course “Swedish learning options”.
If you prefer to do your own research, you can find a lot of information on our website.
Look for a place to live
Finding accommodation in Sweden can be quite easy or really hard, depending on where you are planning to live. If you are aiming for any of the larger cities like Stockholm, Malmö, Göteborg or Uppsala, then chances are that you are going to get frustrated. So our advice is to start looking for a place to live, like yesterday. You will probably end up having to do some short term rentals for a while but if you keep looking you should find a place to rent. Or you may even decide to buy a place which is actually not super complicated to do. But for the time being let’s focus on finding a rental.
In our guide, Preparing your move to Sweden we have a large section on how to find a place to stay and also how to make sure you stay away from getting tricked into renting a fake place. There are a number of major scams and we go through the top ones for you.
If you rather do your own research, get busy reading on our website, hit that Google search in general. Here are some websites to get you started:
Get a residence permit
This is actually probably where you should start. But as the residence permit varies depending on what you plan to do in Sweden, we moved it down a few steps.
In our guide, Preparing your move to Sweden we have a section on the different types of residence permits available, on permanent or temporary permits and a bit about waiting times. You can of course also do your own research on our website or on the Migration Agency website.
Check that your driving license is valid in Sweden
All driving licenses issued within the European Economic Area, the EEA, are valid in Sweden as long as they are valid in the country where they were issued – not matter how long you stay in Sweden.
Are you however driving in Sweden on a Non EU driving license? Watch out for the one-year-limit! Driving licenses from a non-EU country are generally valid in Sweden, if they are valid in the country where they were issued. There is, however, an important limit to this validity: a non-EU driving license is generally valid for just one year.
We have loads of information on our website about which licenses are valid and how long and how to exchange your license, so go check it out!
Are you bringing a pet? Start preparing in good time
Bringing your pet is not super straight forward and the rules vary a lot depending on where you are bringing your pet from.
We have a digital course that guides you through the whole process. Check it out and save yourself some time and headache.
Get a personal number
When moving to Sweden, you will start hearing about “the personal number”. The fact is that Sweden is hard to navigate without a personal number – personnummer. So make sure you sign up to get one as soon as you arrive.
You find some practical information on personal numbers on our website and also a couple of blog posts from other newbies on this topic:
Get the technology in order
You are going to want to get the communication set up as soon as possible. So make sure you do some research so that you can get a phone and broadband up and running as quickly as you can so moving to Sweden doesn’t plunge you into the dark ages.
We have loads of information on the website and a guide to common providers.
Get insurance
If you are coming with a visa, you will have to have insurance from your home country but if you arrive on a residence permit you need to sort out your insurance by yourself. Accidents do happen so make sure to take care of this as quickly as possible.
You find information about different types of insurances here and also a guide to common providers.
Let there be light
If you are renting second hand you won’t have to worry about setting up an electricity contract. But if you are renting a first hand contract, then you definitely will. And you want to take care of this as quickly as possible so you don’t have to spend a lot of days without electricity.
Find information and common providers on our website.
So, that is our ultimate Moving to Sweden list. We hope it was useful and that you get a smoother arrival in Sweden.
Also, we’d love to know more about why you want to move (or have already moved) to Sweden. Tell us in the comments! Let’s see ho many different reasons we can get:-)
