Migration court rules new citizenship rules apply to pending applications

The Migration Court in Malmö, seen as one of the country's most influential migration courts, rejected a man's appeal in the Malmö court's first ruling on the question: he had applied for citizenship in 2025 after living in Sweden since 2019, but was refused on June 9, 2026, three days after the new eight-year residency requirement took effect. Judge Fredrik Löndahl wrote that legislative intent carries substantial weight where no transitional provisions exist, and judge Annika Friberg that neither Swedish nor EU law bars applying the new requirement retroactively; according to the Fair Transition campaign, the Gothenburg migration court had already rejected several similar appeals before this one.

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