A Spouse of a Swedish Citizen Has a May, Not a Shall, and the Sponsor Must Prove Money and a Home
Answer
The general rule applies to you
No exception is recorded for citizens of Trinidad and Tobago on this topic. That is the answer, not a gap - everything below is the rule you get, unchanged.
127 exceptions recorded across 48 countries · none match Trinidad and Tobago to Sweden · Residency through marriage
Family reunification in Sweden was renumbered through chapter 5 of the Aliens Act in 2026 and the shape it has now is worth reading carefully. Where the sponsor is a Swedish or Nordic citizen or holds a permanent right of residence, section 3 says a permit may be given to a spouse, a cohabiting partner or a child. Where the sponsor instead holds a permanent residence permit or a time-limited one of at least a year with well-founded prospects, section 3 a says a permit shall be given to the same people. Both are now subject to section 3 j, the maintenance and housing requirement: the sponsor must be able to support themselves and the applicant and have a home of sufficient size and standard for both. The Aliens Ordinance turns that into an arithmetic - pay after tax of 1.30 times the enforcement normal amount, plus the housing cost - and exempts the spouse of a Swedish, EEA or Swiss citizen where the couple have lived together abroad for a long time or the relationship is otherwise clearly well established. A permit may be refused where either partner is under twenty-one. A permit granted on a tie to a Swedish citizen runs two years, and permanent residence needs three years of time-limited permits.
At a glance
- Spouse of a Swedish citizen
- A permit may be given, not shall
Chapter 5, section 3 of the Aliens Act uses får ges, where section 3 a uses ska for a sponsor holding a residence permit.
- Maintenance requirement
- Pay after tax of 1.30 times the enforcement normal amount, plus the housing cost
Chapter 4, section 4 d of the Aliens Ordinance, implementing chapter 5, section 3 j of the Aliens Act. The normal amount is set under chapter 7, section 5 of the Enforcement Code and is not in this record.
- Housing requirement
- A home of sufficient size and standard for the sponsor and the applicant
Chapter 5, section 3 j, first paragraph of the Aliens Act. What counts as sufficient is left to Migrationsverket by chapter 4, section 4 d of the Ordinance.
- Who is exempt from the maintenance requirement
- The spouse of a Swedish, EEA or Swiss citizen with a long or clearly well-established relationship
Chapter 5, section 3 j, second paragraph, point 3 of the Aliens Act, which asks for cohabitation abroad over a long period or a relationship otherwise clearly well established.
- Waiting period for a sponsor on a temporary permit
- Two years of residence with a permit
Chapter 5, section 3 i of the Aliens Act, which does not apply where the sponsor was granted international protection as a refugee and the family ties predate their arrival.
- Age
- A permit may be refused if either partner is under twenty-one
Chapter 5, section 17 a, second paragraph, point 3 of the Aliens Act. It is a ground for refusal rather than an absolute bar.
- Length of the first permit
- Two years, on a tie to a Swedish citizen
Chapter 5, section 3 m, second paragraph of the Aliens Act.
- Permanent residence
- After three years of time-limited permits
Chapter 5, section 3 m, fourth paragraph of the Aliens Act, read with the self-support and conduct conditions in section 7.
Requirements
- A marriage or a cohabiting relationship with a sponsor resident in Sweden
- The sponsor able to support both of you and holding a home of sufficient size and standard, unless an exemption applies
- Where the sponsor holds only a time-limited permit, two years of the sponsor's own residence before the application is made
- Both partners aged twenty-one or over, or a risk that the permit is refused
Country-level policy
Sweden has spent 2026 attaching an income condition to things that previously had none, and the conditions do not use the same yardstick. Permanent residence requires the applicant to be able to support themselves, measured by the Aliens Ordinance against the reserved amount on attachment of earnings. Family reunification requires the sponsor to support both parties and to have a home of sufficient size and standard, measured at 1.30 times the normal amount on attachment of earnings plus the housing cost. Naturalisation, since 6 June 2026, requires an income of at least three income base amounts a year and no more than six months of social assistance in the last three. A work permit requires pay of at least 90 per cent of the median wage. Four tests, four different base figures, and three of them are statutory amounts fixed annually by instruments this record does not reach. None of them is stated in kronor in the law itself.
What applies to you
Nothing changes for a citizen of Trinidad and Tobago
We have no rule recorded that treats your citizenship differently here, so the general rule above is the one that applies to you. That is an answer, not a gap.
What the law says
«Uppehållstillstånd på grund av anknytning till en person (anknytningspersonen) som är bosatt i Sverige och är svensk medborgare eller medborgare i något annat nordiskt land eller har permanent uppehållsrätt får ges till en utlänning som är»Our translation - not official
A residence permit on the ground of a tie to a person (the sponsor) who is resident in Sweden and is a Swedish citizen, a citizen of another Nordic country or holds a permanent right of residence may be given to a foreigner who is
The ground where the sponsor is a Swedish citizen, and the verb is permissive.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
The Swedish parliament's public database of the Svensk författningssamling, serving every Act and ordinance as a single consolidated page at a stable address of the form /sv/dokument-och-lagar/dokument/svensk-forfattningssamling/<slug>_sfs-YYYY-NNN/. Each record prints the SFS number, the department responsible, the date of issue and an Ändrad line naming the last amending SFS incorporated, and each amended section carries in its own body the Act that gave it its present wording. Provisions not yet in force are printed alongside the current text and marked /Träder i kraft I:<date>/, and repealed sections are kept in place reading Har upphävts genom lag (YYYY:NNN), so the page shows what has gone as well as what is there. Transitional provisions are printed at the foot under Övergångsbestämmelser, but only for those amending Acts that have them.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: The Ändrad line names the last amendment incorporated. It is not a sweep date and must not be recorded as a consolidation cut-off: it says nothing about when the page was last checked against the statute book. The consolidations are unofficial - the authentic text is the Svensk författningssamling as published by the Government Offices - and riksdagen prints a link to the Government Offices' own full text beside each record. An amending Act's own entry-into-force date is usually not on the page at all: where the Act has no transitional provisions, the date has to be read in the SFS as published. Where a section exists in several future versions the page prints them all, so an article number alone does not identify the text in force. The site is a Next.js application serving the whole statute inside the initial HTML; the extraction service returns nothing at all for some of the larger documents, which has to be met with a direct fetch rather than read as an absence.
We re-read it every 45 days. More about this source
«anknytningspersonens make eller sambo»Our translation - not official
the sponsor's spouse or cohabiting partner
The first category, which covers a cohabiting partner as well as a spouse.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
The Swedish parliament's public database of the Svensk författningssamling, serving every Act and ordinance as a single consolidated page at a stable address of the form /sv/dokument-och-lagar/dokument/svensk-forfattningssamling/<slug>_sfs-YYYY-NNN/. Each record prints the SFS number, the department responsible, the date of issue and an Ändrad line naming the last amending SFS incorporated, and each amended section carries in its own body the Act that gave it its present wording. Provisions not yet in force are printed alongside the current text and marked /Träder i kraft I:<date>/, and repealed sections are kept in place reading Har upphävts genom lag (YYYY:NNN), so the page shows what has gone as well as what is there. Transitional provisions are printed at the foot under Övergångsbestämmelser, but only for those amending Acts that have them.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: The Ändrad line names the last amendment incorporated. It is not a sweep date and must not be recorded as a consolidation cut-off: it says nothing about when the page was last checked against the statute book. The consolidations are unofficial - the authentic text is the Svensk författningssamling as published by the Government Offices - and riksdagen prints a link to the Government Offices' own full text beside each record. An amending Act's own entry-into-force date is usually not on the page at all: where the Act has no transitional provisions, the date has to be read in the SFS as published. Where a section exists in several future versions the page prints them all, so an article number alone does not identify the text in force. The site is a Next.js application serving the whole statute inside the initial HTML; the extraction service returns nothing at all for some of the larger documents, which has to be met with a direct fetch rather than read as an absence.
We re-read it every 45 days. More about this source
«Uppehållstillstånd på grund av anknytning till en person enligt 3, 3 a, 3 f eller 3 g § får beviljas endast om anknytningspersonen kan försörja sig och utlänningen samt har en bostad av tillräcklig storlek och standard för sig och utlänningen.»Our translation - not official
A residence permit on the ground of a tie to a person under sections 3, 3 a, 3 f or 3 g may be granted only if the sponsor can support himself or herself and the foreigner and has a home of sufficient size and standard for himself or herself and the foreigner.
The money and the home, in one sentence and as a condition on the permit rather than as guidance.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
The Swedish parliament's public database of the Svensk författningssamling, serving every Act and ordinance as a single consolidated page at a stable address of the form /sv/dokument-och-lagar/dokument/svensk-forfattningssamling/<slug>_sfs-YYYY-NNN/. Each record prints the SFS number, the department responsible, the date of issue and an Ändrad line naming the last amending SFS incorporated, and each amended section carries in its own body the Act that gave it its present wording. Provisions not yet in force are printed alongside the current text and marked /Träder i kraft I:<date>/, and repealed sections are kept in place reading Har upphävts genom lag (YYYY:NNN), so the page shows what has gone as well as what is there. Transitional provisions are printed at the foot under Övergångsbestämmelser, but only for those amending Acts that have them.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: The Ändrad line names the last amendment incorporated. It is not a sweep date and must not be recorded as a consolidation cut-off: it says nothing about when the page was last checked against the statute book. The consolidations are unofficial - the authentic text is the Svensk författningssamling as published by the Government Offices - and riksdagen prints a link to the Government Offices' own full text beside each record. An amending Act's own entry-into-force date is usually not on the page at all: where the Act has no transitional provisions, the date has to be read in the SFS as published. Where a section exists in several future versions the page prints them all, so an article number alone does not identify the text in force. The site is a Next.js application serving the whole statute inside the initial HTML; the extraction service returns nothing at all for some of the larger documents, which has to be met with a direct fetch rather than read as an absence.
We re-read it every 45 days. More about this source
«Kravet i 5 kap. 3 j § första stycket utlänningslagen (2005:716) på att kunna försörja sig och utlänningen är uppfyllt om anknytningspersonen har lön som efter avdrag för preliminär skatt uppgår till»Our translation - not official
The requirement in chapter 5, section 3 j, first paragraph of the Aliens Act (2005:716) to be able to support oneself and the foreigner is met if the sponsor has pay which, after deduction of preliminary tax, amounts to
How the Ordinance measures the maintenance requirement: pay after preliminary tax, against a figure set elsewhere.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
The Swedish parliament's public database of the Svensk författningssamling, serving every Act and ordinance as a single consolidated page at a stable address of the form /sv/dokument-och-lagar/dokument/svensk-forfattningssamling/<slug>_sfs-YYYY-NNN/. Each record prints the SFS number, the department responsible, the date of issue and an Ändrad line naming the last amending SFS incorporated, and each amended section carries in its own body the Act that gave it its present wording. Provisions not yet in force are printed alongside the current text and marked /Träder i kraft I:<date>/, and repealed sections are kept in place reading Har upphävts genom lag (YYYY:NNN), so the page shows what has gone as well as what is there. Transitional provisions are printed at the foot under Övergångsbestämmelser, but only for those amending Acts that have them.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: The Ändrad line names the last amendment incorporated. It is not a sweep date and must not be recorded as a consolidation cut-off: it says nothing about when the page was last checked against the statute book. The consolidations are unofficial - the authentic text is the Svensk författningssamling as published by the Government Offices - and riksdagen prints a link to the Government Offices' own full text beside each record. An amending Act's own entry-into-force date is usually not on the page at all: where the Act has no transitional provisions, the date has to be read in the SFS as published. Where a section exists in several future versions the page prints them all, so an article number alone does not identify the text in force. The site is a Next.js application serving the whole statute inside the initial HTML; the extraction service returns nothing at all for some of the larger documents, which has to be met with a direct fetch rather than read as an absence.
We re-read it every 45 days. More about this source
«1,30 gånger normalbeloppet vid utmätning av lön enligt 7 kap. 5 § utsökningsbalken, och»Our translation - not official
1.30 times the normal amount on attachment of earnings under chapter 7, section 5 of the Enforcement Code, and
The multiplier, and the instrument the base figure comes from. The housing cost is added on top as the second point of the same paragraph.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
The Swedish parliament's public database of the Svensk författningssamling, serving every Act and ordinance as a single consolidated page at a stable address of the form /sv/dokument-och-lagar/dokument/svensk-forfattningssamling/<slug>_sfs-YYYY-NNN/. Each record prints the SFS number, the department responsible, the date of issue and an Ändrad line naming the last amending SFS incorporated, and each amended section carries in its own body the Act that gave it its present wording. Provisions not yet in force are printed alongside the current text and marked /Träder i kraft I:<date>/, and repealed sections are kept in place reading Har upphävts genom lag (YYYY:NNN), so the page shows what has gone as well as what is there. Transitional provisions are printed at the foot under Övergångsbestämmelser, but only for those amending Acts that have them.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: The Ändrad line names the last amendment incorporated. It is not a sweep date and must not be recorded as a consolidation cut-off: it says nothing about when the page was last checked against the statute book. The consolidations are unofficial - the authentic text is the Svensk författningssamling as published by the Government Offices - and riksdagen prints a link to the Government Offices' own full text beside each record. An amending Act's own entry-into-force date is usually not on the page at all: where the Act has no transitional provisions, the date has to be read in the SFS as published. Where a section exists in several future versions the page prints them all, so an article number alone does not identify the text in force. The site is a Next.js application serving the whole statute inside the initial HTML; the extraction service returns nothing at all for some of the larger documents, which has to be met with a direct fetch rather than read as an absence.
We re-read it every 45 days. More about this source
«Om anknytningspersonen har ett tidsbegränsat uppehållstillstånd får uppehållstillstånd på grund av anknytning till honom eller henne enligt 3 a §, 3 f § eller 3 g § 1 beviljas endast om anknytningspersonen har vistats i Sverige med uppehållstillstånd sedan minst två år när ansökan om uppehållstillstånd på grund av anknytning gavs in.»The waiting period, and it is measured at the moment the family application is lodged rather than when it is decided.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
The Swedish parliament's public database of the Svensk författningssamling, serving every Act and ordinance as a single consolidated page at a stable address of the form /sv/dokument-och-lagar/dokument/svensk-forfattningssamling/<slug>_sfs-YYYY-NNN/. Each record prints the SFS number, the department responsible, the date of issue and an Ändrad line naming the last amending SFS incorporated, and each amended section carries in its own body the Act that gave it its present wording. Provisions not yet in force are printed alongside the current text and marked /Träder i kraft I:<date>/, and repealed sections are kept in place reading Har upphävts genom lag (YYYY:NNN), so the page shows what has gone as well as what is there. Transitional provisions are printed at the foot under Övergångsbestämmelser, but only for those amending Acts that have them.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: The Ändrad line names the last amendment incorporated. It is not a sweep date and must not be recorded as a consolidation cut-off: it says nothing about when the page was last checked against the statute book. The consolidations are unofficial - the authentic text is the Svensk författningssamling as published by the Government Offices - and riksdagen prints a link to the Government Offices' own full text beside each record. An amending Act's own entry-into-force date is usually not on the page at all: where the Act has no transitional provisions, the date has to be read in the SFS as published. Where a section exists in several future versions the page prints them all, so an article number alone does not identify the text in force. The site is a Next.js application serving the whole statute inside the initial HTML; the extraction service returns nothing at all for some of the larger documents, which has to be met with a direct fetch rather than read as an absence.
We re-read it every 45 days. More about this source
«någon av makarna eller samborna är under 21 år»Our translation - not official
either of the spouses or cohabiting partners is under 21 years of age
The age rule. It is drafted as a ground on which a permit may be refused, not as a condition of eligibility.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
The Swedish parliament's public database of the Svensk författningssamling, serving every Act and ordinance as a single consolidated page at a stable address of the form /sv/dokument-och-lagar/dokument/svensk-forfattningssamling/<slug>_sfs-YYYY-NNN/. Each record prints the SFS number, the department responsible, the date of issue and an Ändrad line naming the last amending SFS incorporated, and each amended section carries in its own body the Act that gave it its present wording. Provisions not yet in force are printed alongside the current text and marked /Träder i kraft I:<date>/, and repealed sections are kept in place reading Har upphävts genom lag (YYYY:NNN), so the page shows what has gone as well as what is there. Transitional provisions are printed at the foot under Övergångsbestämmelser, but only for those amending Acts that have them.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: The Ändrad line names the last amendment incorporated. It is not a sweep date and must not be recorded as a consolidation cut-off: it says nothing about when the page was last checked against the statute book. The consolidations are unofficial - the authentic text is the Svensk författningssamling as published by the Government Offices - and riksdagen prints a link to the Government Offices' own full text beside each record. An amending Act's own entry-into-force date is usually not on the page at all: where the Act has no transitional provisions, the date has to be read in the SFS as published. Where a section exists in several future versions the page prints them all, so an article number alone does not identify the text in force. The site is a Next.js application serving the whole statute inside the initial HTML; the extraction service returns nothing at all for some of the larger documents, which has to be met with a direct fetch rather than read as an absence.
We re-read it every 45 days. More about this source
Practical notes
The maintenance figure is a formula, not a sum. The normal amount it multiplies is fixed annually under the Enforcement Code, which was not read here, so the kronor result is not stated in this record.
Chapter 5 of the Aliens Act was renumbered by an Act of 2026 and the section letters used here are those of the consolidated text as read. An older guide citing section 3 b or section 3 c for maintenance is citing a numbering that no longer applies.
Who is a cohabiting partner is decided by the Swedish Cohabitees Act, which this record does not reach.
- consolidatesUtlänningslag (2005:716), consolidated text as amended to SFS 2026:1752
Sveriges riksdag, Dokument och lagar
About this source
The Swedish parliament's public database of the Svensk författningssamling, serving every Act and ordinance as a single consolidated page at a stable address of the form /sv/dokument-och-lagar/dokument/svensk-forfattningssamling/<slug>_sfs-YYYY-NNN/. Each record prints the SFS number, the department responsible, the date of issue and an Ändrad line naming the last amending SFS incorporated, and each amended section carries in its own body the Act that gave it its present wording. Provisions not yet in force are printed alongside the current text and marked /Träder i kraft I:<date>/, and repealed sections are kept in place reading Har upphävts genom lag (YYYY:NNN), so the page shows what has gone as well as what is there. Transitional provisions are printed at the foot under Övergångsbestämmelser, but only for those amending Acts that have them.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: The Ändrad line names the last amendment incorporated. It is not a sweep date and must not be recorded as a consolidation cut-off: it says nothing about when the page was last checked against the statute book. The consolidations are unofficial - the authentic text is the Svensk författningssamling as published by the Government Offices - and riksdagen prints a link to the Government Offices' own full text beside each record. An amending Act's own entry-into-force date is usually not on the page at all: where the Act has no transitional provisions, the date has to be read in the SFS as published. Where a section exists in several future versions the page prints them all, so an article number alone does not identify the text in force. The site is a Next.js application serving the whole statute inside the initial HTML; the extraction service returns nothing at all for some of the larger documents, which has to be met with a direct fetch rather than read as an absence.
We re-read it every 45 days. More about this source
- consolidatesUtlänningsförordning (2006:97), consolidated text as amended to SFS 2026:1746
Sveriges riksdag, Dokument och lagar
About this source
The Swedish parliament's public database of the Svensk författningssamling, serving every Act and ordinance as a single consolidated page at a stable address of the form /sv/dokument-och-lagar/dokument/svensk-forfattningssamling/<slug>_sfs-YYYY-NNN/. Each record prints the SFS number, the department responsible, the date of issue and an Ändrad line naming the last amending SFS incorporated, and each amended section carries in its own body the Act that gave it its present wording. Provisions not yet in force are printed alongside the current text and marked /Träder i kraft I:<date>/, and repealed sections are kept in place reading Har upphävts genom lag (YYYY:NNN), so the page shows what has gone as well as what is there. Transitional provisions are printed at the foot under Övergångsbestämmelser, but only for those amending Acts that have them.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: The Ändrad line names the last amendment incorporated. It is not a sweep date and must not be recorded as a consolidation cut-off: it says nothing about when the page was last checked against the statute book. The consolidations are unofficial - the authentic text is the Svensk författningssamling as published by the Government Offices - and riksdagen prints a link to the Government Offices' own full text beside each record. An amending Act's own entry-into-force date is usually not on the page at all: where the Act has no transitional provisions, the date has to be read in the SFS as published. Where a section exists in several future versions the page prints them all, so an article number alone does not identify the text in force. The site is a Next.js application serving the whole statute inside the initial HTML; the extraction service returns nothing at all for some of the larger documents, which has to be met with a direct fetch rather than read as an absence.
We re-read it every 45 days. More about this source