Sweden set to double three-month deadline for (some) laid-off work permit holders

Under current rules, work permit holders who are made redundant have just three months to find a new job after the end of their notice period. If they do not find another job in time, then they must leave the country.

• READ ALSO: What laid-off foreigners get wrong about Sweden's 'three-month deadline'

It looks like a change to that law may be on the horizon. A new government proposal, which is the result of an EU directive passed in April 2024, has suggested extending the three-month limit to up to six months, although only in certain cases.

Firstly, the six-month deadline would only apply to people who have held a work permit for at least two years. They would also need to prove that they can support themselves financially for at least three months (the part of the job-seeking period extending past the current three-month deadline).

This represents a welcome change for opponents of the current three-month law. Saaya Sorrells-Weatherford, co-founder of the relocation consultancy Emigreat, told The Local back in 2024 that the current three-month rule is "unreasonably short", calling for it to be extended to six months.

"It can even be proportional to how long someone has held a work permit, as that indicates the level of uprooting it would take to have to leave," she suggested.

She is not the only person to call for an extension to the three-month rule. The Local's Editor, Emma Löfgren, called on the government in September last year to extend the deadline to six months, highlighting among other things the fact that neighbouring Denmark and Norway both offer twice as much time as Sweden does for laid-off workers to find a new job.

The Social Democrat's labour market spokesperson, Ardalan Shekarabi, called on the government to extend the three month deadline to six months as recently as April this year.

• OPINION: Sweden needs to reconsider 'three-month deadline' for laid-off non-EU workers

Unfortunately, laid-off workers from Northvolt and other major Swedish employers like Volvo Cars, who recently announced plans to cut over 1,000 jobs in Sweden, are unlikely to benefit from the new law, as the suggested implementation date isn't until next spring ‒ more specifically May 21st, 2026.