In June, the Swedish government voted to implement a new temporary law to restrict the number of family reunification cases being handled by Migrationsverket.
The old rules set the “family reunification maintenance requirements” to be that if someone was moving to live with another person in Sweden, they needed to be able to financially support just themselves.
The new rules coming into effect on July 20th 2016 mean that new migrants to Sweden are now “required to have the means to support themselves and the family that has been granted a residence permit”. This is a temporary law that will last for 3 years, and then be reviewed. The new rule will affect all cases starting from July 20th.
This is a huge change and increases the burden on families looking to move together in Sweden and begin their move to Sweden. One issue that is causing controversy is that this new rule does not affect Swedish, EEA, or Switzerland citizens, or those that have lived in Sweden for more than 4 years.
How much funding do you need for family reunification?
If you are a citizen of Sweden, another EEA country or Switzerland, or have lived in Sweden for more than 4 years, the maintence requirement does not apply to you.
Otherwise, the Migrationsverket website does not give a number but 6 months of wages should be a good start. They only suggest that you meet the maintence requirements “if you have a sufficiently large capital on which you can live”.
If you can show work salary slips, benefits, or pensions, then this can also meet the maintenance requirement.
More Information
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