Have you been denied family reunification? Residence permit? business visa? Citizenship? Identity card/personnummer? Visa? Or something completely different? let’s take a look at your case so that the decision can hopefully be overturned.

It has become much more difficult to enter Sweden. After the refugee crisis, the authorities have tightened the requirements violently, and you may have been caught in that regard. We have appealed many cases to our clients and they have won their cases. We hope that we can help you as well.

If the appeal came in on time and the Embassy sees no reason to change the decision, the case will be forwarded as soon as possi-ble. Your application, the decision, and all other documents submitted in the case will be sent to the Administrative Court in Göteborg. The Administrative Court then decides and notifies you at the address you specified in the application or in the appeal.

Have you been denied family reunification? Residence permit? business visa? Citizenship? Identity card/personnummer? Visa? Or something completely different? let’s take a look at your case so that the decision can hopefully be overturned.

It has become much more difficult to enter Sweden. After the refugee crisis, the authorities have tightened the requirements violently, and you may have been caught in that regard. We have appealed many cases to our clients and they have won their cases. We hope that we can help you as well.

If the appeal came in on time and the Embassy sees no reason to change the decision, the case will be forwarded as soon as possi-ble. Your application, the decision, and all other documents submitted in the case will be sent to the Administrative Court in Göteborg. The Administrative Court then decides and notifies you at the address you specified in the application or in the appeal.

Appeals and Reconsideration of Migration Agency Decisions

A refusal from Migrationsverket is a deadline, not a verdict. What it is not is a signal to resubmit the same application with more documents attached. Two distinct routes exist, they have different purposes and different time limits, and choosing between them is the first real decision in the case.

Reconsideration by the deciding authority

Under Section 37 of the Administrative Procedure Act, Forvaltningslagen (2017:900), an authority may reconsider its own decision where the decision is manifestly incorrect on account of new circumstances or for any other reason, and the change can be made quickly, simply and without detriment to any private party. In practice this is the right route where evidence existed but was not before the case officer, or where a documentary requirement was met in a form the officer did not recognise.

Appeal to the Migration Court

An appeal goes through Migrationsverket to the Migration Court, förvaltningsrätten in its capacity as migrationsdomstol. This is the right route where the error is legal rather than evidentiary: a requirement applied that the law does not impose, a discretion exercised without the individual assessment the law requires, or an assessment that ignores directly applicable EU law. Permission to appeal further to the Migration Court of Appeal is granted only on limited grounds, principally where the case raises a question of precedential importance.

What we look for in a refusal

• Legal error. A condition imposed that has no basis in the Aliens Act, Utlänningslagen (2005:716), or in the directly applicable EU instrument, most often Directive 2004/38/EC in free movement cases.
• Failure of individual assessment. Chapter 1, Section 9 of the Instrument of Government, Regeringsformen, requires objectivity and impartiality, and Article 41 of the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights guarantees the right to good administration, including the right to be heard and the duty to give reasons. A decision that recites a general standard without applying it to the facts of the case is vulnerable.
• Proportionality. Whether the consequence of refusal is proportionate to the deficiency identified.
• Procedural error. Whether the applicant was given the opportunity to complete the file before a decision was taken.
• New evidence or changed circumstances arising since the decision.

What we do not do

We do not promise outcomes, and we do not file appeals that cannot succeed in order to buy time. Where our reading of the decision is that the authority applied the law correctly and the case is genuinely weak on the facts, we say so and discuss what would need to change before a fresh application has a real prospect. That conversation is cheaper than an appeal.

Deadlines

Appeal deadlines are short and are stated in the decision itself. They run from the date you received the decision, not the date it was written. If you have a refusal in hand, the useful first step is to send us the decision and the date you received it, before anything else.

EU cases specifically

Free movement refusals often turn on points the Court of Justice has already settled: that prior lawful residence in another member state is not required (Metock, C-127/08), that a residence card may not be refused solely for want of a visa or identity document where the relationship can be proved otherwise (MRAX, C-459/99), and that dependency is a factual question about actual material support rather than a legal maintenance obligation (Jia, C-1/05; Reyes, C-423/12). Where a decision conflicts with those principles, the argument is a legal one and belongs before the court. See EU family reunification.

Send the decision to info@swedenrelocators.se or call 072-327 62 76 for an assessment. Contact us.

General information, not individual legal advice. Deadlines and procedures are confirmed against the decision itself and current Migrationsverket practice. Last reviewed 26 August 2026.

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