Certified companies

Becoming a Certified Company with the Migration Agency is very beneficial when it comes to work permit applications. The certification is an agreement between a company in Sweden (the employer itself or a relocation provider) that all submitted applications will be correct and that the case officers should not need to ask any questions about the applications themselves.

In return for submitting complete applications the Migration Agency will offer processing times of 10 business days for first time applications (as opposed to 3-5 months) and 20 business days for extension applications (as opposed to 6-10 months). It would there for be strongly advisable either to certify the employer in Sweden or to hire a relocation company to handle the application.

How to become a Certified Company with the Migration Agency

Being a certified company with the Migration Agency is one of the biggest perks that an employer can have. Being a certified company means that the processing times will be significantly shorter and there will also be a designated person at the Migration Agency that can answer any general questions about the work permit process.

The purpose of having a certification program is so that the Migration Agency can spend less time on reviewing applications and in return for this the certified company guarantees that all applications contain the right information at the time of submission.

Requirements to become a Certified Comapny

In order to become a certified company the Migration Agency has a few requirements. You can find these below:

• Be registered as an employer with the tax agency
• Have the funds to hire – when the Migration Agency reviews the funds in the company they will see what debts the company has and the amount of available capital. If the debts are higher than the available capital it is unlikely that the company can be certified.
• Have a recurring need in the coming year to recruit workers from a non-EU country – it is not sufficient that there is a need to hire one or two people per year. Usually if a company will be hiring 10-20+ people per year that need work permits, the company can be certified.
• Take responsibility for submitting web applications that are complete – a big part of the certification agreement is that the employer is required to submit correct and complete applications to the Migration Agency. If incorrect applications are filed the company can lose its certification.
• Have fulfilled the requirements for residence permits and work permits if the employer has previously recruited labour from a non-EU country – when making an assessment of whether or not a company can be certified they can look into how the company has previously handled work permits of their non-EU employee. If they see that a lot of mistakes have been made (insurances not signed, salaries not paid out, people haven’t taken enough holiday, etc.) they can deny the application.

In order to certify a company the following information is required:

• company name, organisation number, address, phone number and email address
• contact person
• specification of industry or type of business (including SNI code )
• information on possible collective agreements
• details of the recurring needs during the year to employ people from non-EU countries, and a brief explanation of the reasons for this.

With your declaration of interest, you should also enclose

• a registration certificate for the company
• an annual financial statement or annual accounts.

If your company is newly registered, you should also enclose

• an opening balance sheet or a profit-and-loss statement replacing the annual financial statement or annual accounts
• a brief description of your business.

Companies within certain industries are less likely to be certified

There are certain industries that the Migration Agency has harsher requirements on. There industries are:

• Cleaning (81290, 81210)
• Hotel and restaurants (55101, 56)
• Construction (41200, 421, 42990, 43)
• Trade (471-478)
• Agriculture and forestry (0113, 012, 02102)
• Automobile repair (452)
• Service  (9602, 9604, 9609)
• Staffing (782)
• Personal Assistance (88101, 88102)

Companies that have these SNI codes that are listed above are less likely to be certified. Due to the harsher requirements on these industries, applications for companies with these SNI codes automatically require a closer look by the Migration Agency. As such, the Migration Agency cannot guarantee the same processing times for applications for work within these industries.

You can find more information about these industries here.

Statistiska centralbyrån

Before hiring someone it is a good idea to check to see that the salary you are offering is in line with what the Migration Agency would accept. This can easily be done by using the SCB (Statistiska centralbyrån) website.

Below you will find a screenshot of how to correctly fill out the different sections. For the section regarding SSYK code this is where the person’s occupation should be entered. If you are unsure about which code to use you can find them here by typing in the title of the occupation here or by using the following PDF document with all SSYK codes which can be found here. The codes can be quite general so choose the one that matches the job as closely as possible.

Additional information requested

If additional information has been requested in your case, the processing time of your application can become significantly longer. You may be wondering why the processing of your application can be delayed for months for even some basic information. To answer this question it is important to understand how the Migration Agency operates.

Generally speaking, all cases are divided up between case officers and are processed in order of the dates that they were submitted. However, if an application is missing some information it will lose its spot in the queue and be put back at the bottom of the pile or in a separate pile for the case officer to proceed with at a later date. It is common that a lot of people feel frustrated by this as sometimes all that is required is that their case officer has a quick look at the document in order to approve their application.

This is understandable but unfortunately this is not how the Migration Agency operates. It is therefore essential that all information is submitted, which is why the guides on this website have been submitted.

If you have received a request it is important that you reply to it as soon as possible. If you wish to ensure that the case officer has received and understood the information submitted you can call them during their phone hours (usually between 10:00 – 11:00). The name, phone number, and e-mail address of the case officer will be written on the request that you receive. If only the name is written you can call the Migration Agency’s general line (0771-235-235) and press the number 3. You will then be directed to their switchboard where you can ask for the case officer’s information.

It is generally not a good idea to continuously call the case officer to request updates on the process or try to get them to make a faster decision in your case. This will in no way expedite the process and will more often than not end up annoying the person handling your case.