Leaving from Belgium?To the Belgian plan →See the plan for Belgians moving to Sweden →This plan is for people leaving the Netherlands.
Sweden · No visa required
Emigrating to Sweden
For Sweden you apply for nothing: since 2014 EU citizens no longer have to register with the immigration service. You do arrange the folkbokföring, your registration with the tax agency. The real pitfall is housing: in the cities you start at the back of the queue. This page shows how the journey runs and how to get around that queue.
€ 199 one-off · 35 steps · no subscription
- Kind of journey
- Free movement: no application, but folkbokföring
- Lead time
- About 4 to 5 months. The home sets the pace
- Note
- The housing market: a nine-year queue in Stockholm
Last updated: 14 October 2026
Will your departure date work? Check it in the free step-by-step plan →
Five phases, from the housing question to the personnummer
Unlike what you'd expect, the first hurdle here isn't the paperwork but the home. After that a chain runs by itself: folkbokföring, ID-kort (the Swedish identity card), bank and BankID (the Swedish digital ID). In the middle are five weeks of patience.
- Orientation
No counter, but two queues
In this phase you get to know the two queues that shape your planning. Sweden abolished the registration duty for EU citizens in 2014; your right of residence arises by itself. The first queue is the folkbokföring at Skatteverket (the Swedish tax agency): five weeks, and the gate to everything. The second is the housing market: almost 900,000 people in the Stockholm queue, nine years on average. So newcomers start on the second-hand market (subletting). If you know that in advance, you plan around it.Read more
- Closing the Netherlands
The pension treaty that's tipping now
In this phase you work through the familiar list: healthcare, AOW, benefits, deregistration, documents. What's unique is your pension. Under the current treaty from 1991, Sweden taxes your Dutch company pension. On 24 June 2026 a new treaty was signed that brings this back to the Netherlands. When that takes effect isn't certain yet. So one conversation with a tax specialist before departure pays off more here than for any other country. Also: the health contribution via the CAK (for people who retire abroad) is at the Dutch level. With early retirement alone, you are expected to no longer be able to register with the CAK as a new customer from 1 November 2026.Read more
- The move
The car may simply come along here
In this phase you move your household contents, car and pets. Within the EU there's no declaration for removal goods. Bringing the car is, unlike in Denmark, simply a good idea here: no registration tax, one inspection process, and the Dutch BPM refund (car tax you get back on export) covers it amply. The route runs via two toll bridges; with a subscription the Öresund becomes 60% cheaper. Pets travel on the EU passport, and Sweden has no banned breeds. But dog and cat have to be in the Swedish register within four weeks; for cats that has applied since 2023.Read more
- Registration in Sweden
Home → personnummer → ID-kort → BankID
In this phase you arrange your personnummer (the Swedish citizen service number) and everything that follows from it. The order is strict: no folkbokföring without a home address, and that takes five weeks. After that everything speeds up: the ID-kort in two weeks, the bank, and then BankID, the digital key to the country. Meanwhile register the family with Försäkringskassan (the Swedish social insurance agency). Unlike with a Swedish birth, the child benefit doesn't come by itself with a move. Arrange your tax decision before your first payslip. Without it your employer withholds 110% of the table rate.Read more
- Arrival
The a-kassa on day one, the ceilings after
In this phase you settle into living and working. Join the a-kassa, the voluntary unemployment insurance, on your first working day. Since it was rebuilt in October 2025, the length of your membership literally decides the percentage of your benefit: 80% after a year of membership, 60% after six months, 50% without. The rest is manageable. Healthcare has co-payments with hard ceilings. The förskola (childcare) has a placement guarantee of four months. Free Swedish lessons have had a limit of three years since 2026. Your driving licence simply stays valid.Read more
This is what one step of your plan looks like
This is the real thing: one of the steps of the Sweden journey, exactly as it appears in your personal step-by-step plan, with the deadlines, the offices and the sources.
Step 1.2 of your plan
Look the housing market straight in the eye before you decide anything
- Lead time
- an evening of research
- Costs
- none
Finding a home is, for most people, the hardest part of moving to Sweden. That's why this step comes before everything else.
An ordinary rental home, with your own contract with the landlord (a "first-hand" contract), comes through a queue. In Stockholm almost 900,000 people were registered at the end of 2025, and the average waiting time is nine years. As a newcomer you start at the back.
The route that does work is renting andrahand: you rent from someone who has a contract themselves. That's allowed if the landlord or the rent tribunal has given permission. Three rules protect you:
- Never rent without that permission. Otherwise the main tenant can lose their contract, and you your home.
- Never pay for the contract itself. Trading in rental contracts is a criminal offence, for the buyer too.
- If you pay a subletter too much rent, you can claim the excess back.
Meanwhile, register with the queues straight away. In Stockholm that costs 200 kronor a year, and every month in the queue counts.
And this is the dashboard that step lives in. The example shows the plan for Spain; your dashboard shows the plan for Sweden.
This is step 1.2 of 37. The other 36 are ready for you, each with the same sources, the same offices and a schedule that keeps track of your dates.
See all 37 steps for SwedenWhat you get for € 199
All 37 steps to Sweden, for your situation
In order, with the office and the official source at every step. Steps that don't apply to you don't appear.
Your deadlines in one place
For each step you see the latest date to start, and you get a heads-up before something is due or expires. Your documents sit in the vault, with their dates.
A plan that stays right
Twice a month we check the sources. If something changes, it's in your plan and you get a message.
The step-by-step plan for Sweden
€ 199
one-off · 37 steps
- Pay once, no subscription
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Every step on one list, free
Not ready to start yet? Then you get the departure checklist for Sweden: every step in order, to print and tick off. With it, five mails in a week and a half about the pitfalls and the real costs. If the rules for Sweden change, you'll hear about it. After that we ask once where your plans stand, send one offer, and now and then one thing that fits your moment. No newsletter, and you can switch it off at any time.
That was the move. And once you live there?
Which country may tax your pension once you live in Sweden? Is there a favourable regime, a scheme that lowers your tax? And how do you get insured? That depends on where your income comes from. Tick it and you'll see which rules apply to you, with the source.
See the financial conditionsClosing down the Netherlands: all your letters in one go
Moving to Sweden starts with leaving the Netherlands properly. That's why the plan includes the letter tool: you enter your details once and every cancellation and notification letter is ready.
Just the letters, without the plan? That works too, for € 49
- Health insurance, rent, energy, subscriptions, GP, school, bank and pension fund: 16 kinds of letters. You enter your details only once.
- A sending list that counts back from your departure date and your notice period, even when that's three months.
- Also what you need to ask for as an emigrant: your no-claims years in English, your medical file and the school report (the report on your child for the new school).
Auke, maker of Vertrekklaar
On 2 January we're leaving ourselves, on a trip around the world with our family. What I put here, I'm arranging for my own family too.
On 20 September 2026 a customer wrote that the CAK rule for early retirement was missing from his plan. He was right. That evening the step was in thirteen plans, with the source attached.
The knowledge base on Sweden
Per phase, the articles that are already there. They're written from the same journey and go deeper than what fits above.
- AOW and pension in Sweden: the treaty is tipping — but not yetUnder the 1991 treaty your occupational pension and annuity are taxed exclusively in Sweden; AOW and government pension stay Dutch. But on 24 June 2026 both countries signed a new treaty that pulls all Dutch pensions to the source state — not yet in force, but the direction. Plus the country-of-residence factor that jumped from 0.78 to 1.0 in four years.
- Your car to Sweden: cheap, with three bits of small printSweden levies no registration tax on import — the opposite of Denmark — and with the Dutch BPM refund on top the sum almost always comes out positive. But there are three bits of small print: the seven-day rule on foreign plates, the VAT on cars that count as new, and the malus that hangs on the first registration — worldwide, not on the Swedish registration.
- Your dog or cat to Sweden: the EU passport, and into the register within four weeksDog and cat travel to Sweden on the European pet passport: chip before the rabies vaccination, at least twelve weeks old at the first jab, and a 21-day wait. A deworming requirement Sweden does not have. What does apply, and what guides miss: dogs and cats must be in Jordbruksverket's register within four weeks — 40 kronor per animal via the e-service, 100 on paper.
- Your household goods to Sweden: no customs, but three things you declareTullverket says it literally: whoever moves to Sweden from another EU country pays no import duties, no VAT and files no declaration. Three exceptions deserve a line of their own: alcohol only for personal use within the guide levels and if you are 20 or over, medicines up to a year's supply with a prescription, and weapons always with a permit and a declaration at the border. Plus the bridges, which you can prepay.
- Banking and paying in Sweden: the right to an account, and the key called BankIDA Swedish bank may not refuse a consumer legally resident in the EEA a basic payment account, must decide within ten banking days and must justify a refusal in writing. Yet newcomers often founder at the counter — on identification. The route that works: personnummer, Skatteverket's ID card for 400 kronor, the account, and then BankID via your bank. Without BankID you can pay in Sweden, but you can't live there.
- The first weeks in Sweden: five weeks of silence, and what you can do in the meantimeSweden asks for no application and no counter at the immigration agency, but one visit: to Skatteverket, in person, with the whole family. After that you wait about five weeks for a case officer before your personnummer arrives. What you do in that silence — car, pet, a-kassa, Försäkringskassan, förskola — determines whether the weeks after run smoothly. The clocks in a row.
All 13 articles about Sweden
- Personnummer and BankID: the Swedish chain, and where it jams
- Living in Sweden: the queue, the second-hand market and the rules
- Buying a house in Sweden: nothing counts until the signature — and sometimes you buy not a house but a share
- Your driving licence in Sweden: nothing is required, exchanging is allowed — until the Dutch one expires
- School and förskola in Sweden: free from six, and the childcare you apply for four months ahead
- Working in Sweden: the a-kassa was rebuilt in 2025, and that affects you
- Healthcare in Sweden: you pay per visit, up to the ceiling
Also applies to your move
Ready to begin?
The step-by-step plan for Sweden: 37 steps, with your documents and your costs in one place. For each step you see the latest date to start. You pay once and it's yours.