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'

But a change to that law is on the horizon. A government proposal, which is the result of an EU directive passed in April 2024, suggests 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 at the time, 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 2024 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 Democrats' labour market spokesperson, Ardalan Shekarabi, called on the government to extend the three-month deadline to six months in April last year.

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

The original implementation date was supposed to have been May 21st, 2026, but it has now been moved to February 1st, 2027.

The government on July 8th submitted the bill to Sweden's Council on Legislation, the committee that scrutinises bills before they go before parliament, to ensure they are in line with existing legislation.