Sweden on November 1st, 2023, raised its work permit salary threshold from around 13,000 kronor a month to 80 percent of the median salary, currently 27,360 kronor.

This means that non-EU workers earning less than that aren’t eligible for a work permit.

According to new figures supplied to The Local by the Migration Agency, a total of 670 work permit applications since then (including 605 first-time applications and 65 renewals) have been denied because the applicant’s salary didn’t meet the new requirements.

That’s approximately an average of 96 rejections a month – up from fewer than five monthly rejections for the same reason in the seven months before November 1st.

Meanwhile, Sweden’s rejection rate of work permit renewals (for any reason) has almost doubled.

In the seven months before November, 3.47 percent of work permit renewals were rejected (588 out of 16,938 processed applications). That figure increased to a 6.39 percent rejection rate in the seven months after November (936 out of 14,642 processed applications).

The much higher rejection rate for first-time work permit applications also almost doubled in the same period, from 20 percent to 36 percent (or in other words: from 3,564 out of 17,096 processed applications to 4,462 out of 12,318 processed applications).

The higher salary threshold also applies to people who submitted their work permit application before November 1st, so it is not unlikely that the number will decrease in the future as more people choose not to apply at all because they know they won’t meet the requirements.

READ ALSO:

• ‘We’re losing the life we built in Sweden’ – work permit holders dread uncertain future

Looking at both first-time applications and renewals, the top professions rejected over not meeting the salary threshold were cleaners and home service staff, fast-food staff and kitchen workers, and chefs and pantry chefs.

The nationalities that got the most rejections in the same months, i.e. November 2023 to and including May this year, were Turkey, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Iraq and Mongolia.

Nothing has yet been decided, but there are plans in the pipeline to raise the salary threshold further, to the level of the full median salary, a move that has been criticised by leading business organisations, who argue it would block much-needed high-skilled talent from applying.

Editor’s note:

The figures show the number of decisions where “does not meet the salary requirement” was listed as the main reason for the rejection. There may in theory be more applications that didn’t meet the requirement, but which were rejected for primarily other reasons. Only employees are included in the figures (arbetstagare), i.e. not researchers, entrepreneurs or family members.