How to find a job in Sweden as a refugee

Yes, if Migrationsverket grants you AT-UND, the exemption from the work permit requirement for asylum seekers. The agency considers it after you apply for protection. You qualify if you submit acceptable identity documents or otherwise help clarify your identity, your case is being examined in Sweden, and your application is well-founded. It is not granted if you are expected to receive a refusal of entry to be enforced immediately, or if another EU country is responsible for your case.

AT-UND is recorded on your application card, which replaced the LMA card for applications from 12 June 2026; all LMA cards must be exchanged by 1 October 2026. An employer checks your right to work by scanning the QR code, and the job itself doesn’t need approval. If you get an offer before you have AT-UND, show it to Migrationsverket and it will decide quickly. You need a coordination number from Skatteverket to be paid, and you must tell Migrationsverket when you start working, because you can’t receive its financial aid and a salary at the same time.

Know the limits. Since 1 April 2025 it is no longer possible to switch to a work permit from inside Sweden after an asylum refusal (the old “change of track”). Work you do while waiting is valuable experience, but it will not by itself give you the right to stay.

A residence permit on protection grounds gives you the right to live and work in Sweden while it is valid. Contact Arbetsförmedlingen as soon as possible after the decision. It decides whether you can join the introduction programme (etableringsprogrammet), and you can’t receive introduction benefit until you do. Get your personal identity number from Skatteverket too: you need it for the benefit, for e-ID and for programme activities.

The programme is for refugees, people with subsidiary protection and their family members who are at least 20 and under 66. With your employment officer you draw up an individual plan. It can include SFI, civic orientation, municipal adult education, validation of your skills, work experience placements and support with applications or starting a business. It is usually full-time, 40 hours a week, and lasts at most 24 months within 36 months of your population registration or placement in a municipality. Introduction benefit is paid by Försäkringskassan while you take part.

The strongest route is a workplace. Arbetsförmedlingen has several subsidised forms of employment where the employer receives support for your salary. An etableringsjobb is temporary, up to two years full-time, and aims to lead to a permanent job. An introduktionsjobb can be permanent or temporary and combined with studies. A nystartsjobb is for people who have been registered as unemployed for six months within nine. Each has conditions, so ask your employment officer which ones you qualify for.

Treat every placement as a trial for one employer. Choose workplaces where people in your target job actually work, agree two or three concrete tasks, and keep a weekly note of what you did. Those notes become your CV bullets and your interview answers.

SFI (Swedish for Immigrants) is free and run by your municipality once you are registered in the population register. Since 1 January 2026 you have three years from enrolment to finish, with extensions only for special reasons such as illness, parental leave or work. You can study part-time alongside a job, which is often the fastest way to improve. If you are registered with Arbetsförmedlingen, it may also offer vocational Swedish, taught around a specific profession.

Arbetsförmedlingen notes that not every job demands perfect Swedish at the start. Put your level on your CV precisely: “SFI course C completed, studying course D” tells an employer more than “basic Swedish”. For roles where English is the working language, see English-speaking jobs in Sweden.

UHR (the Swedish Council for Higher Education) issues a free recognition statement showing what your foreign education corresponds to in Sweden. You can apply with a residence permit, a work permit, or while waiting for an asylum decision. If you completed a post-secondary education but lost your diplomas or transcripts, UHR can still assess it through a background paper based on other documents and information. Without formal papers, Arbetsförmedlingen can help validate what you know, including skills learned at work.

Doctors, nurses, teachers and other regulated professions need authorisation from the responsible authority before they can practise. Our qualification recognition guide explains how to plan for that while earning in a related role.

A residence permit under the EU Temporary Protection Directive includes the right to work. The EU has extended the directive until 4 March 2028. If your permit was decided before 5 August 2026, it is valid until 4 March 2027, and you can apply to extend it at the beginning of 2027. If you missed the previous deadline of 4 March 2026, you must reapply, and you have no right to work until a new permit is granted.

Which support you get depends on population registration. After a year in Sweden on temporary protection you can register and, if you meet the conditions, join the introduction programme. Before that, with a coordination number, you can still get subsidised jobs such as an etableringsjobb, but not the introduction programme or labour market training.

Since 11 June 2026 you can apply for a work permit, EU Blue Card, study or research permit without leaving Sweden. For a first work permit you are exempt from the 90% salary rule for two years and need SEK 28,725 a month instead. Changing permit can end support from Migrationsverket, Arbetsförmedlingen and your municipality, including housing, so read Migrationsverket’s guidance before you apply.

From 12 July 2026, people with a permit on protection grounds, and their family members, can no longer be granted permanent residence; the agency only considers extensions. Anyone who already has a permanent permit is not affected. At the same time, you can now apply for Swedish citizenship without permanent residence, if you have well-founded prospects of long-term residence or have lived in Sweden for ten years and meet the other requirements. Long-term resident status requires that you can support yourself, and citizenship has its own maintenance requirement, which makes a job even more important.

Use the standard Swedish format from our Swedish CV guide, then solve the problems specific to your situation.

• Experience from home: translate the job title to its nearest Swedish or English equivalent and add one line on the employer: sector, size, what it did. A recruiter in Malmö doesn’t know a ministry in Kabul or a factory in Aleppo.
• Gaps from flight: one factual line is enough, such as “2023–2025: Relocated to Sweden; SFI courses B–C”. How much of your story you share is your choice. Our career gap guide has more wording.
• Missing certificates: list the qualification with institution and year, add “assessed by UHR” once you have the statement, and never claim what you can’t document.
• Swedish references: put placements and volunteering in your experience section with concrete tasks, and ask every supervisor for a reference. If your old employers can’t be reached, Arbetsförmedlingen suggests bringing written references instead.

Information Sverige (informationsverige.se), run by the County Administrative Boards, explains your rights and next steps in many languages, including how the introduction programme works. The Swedish Red Cross gives migration counselling at every stage: advice on the asylum process, family reunification, searching for missing family members, and treatment centres for people affected by war and torture. You have the right to an interpreter in your contacts with Arbetsförmedlingen, and it offers help in many languages by phone. Once you have a job, the trade union for your profession can explain your pay and conditions.