A doctor trained abroad cannot work as a doctor in Sweden without a Swedish licence. The title doctor of medicine is protected by law, and only a licensed doctor may use it. With a medical degree from the EU or EEA, you need only one application, because the education is generally recognised automatically. With a degree from outside the EU and EEA, you either follow a five-step route, which usually takes two to four years, or take a complementary programme at a Swedish university. Every route requires Swedish, or equivalent skills in Norwegian or Danish.
A doctor without a licence may practise only under a special authorisation, a temporary permission to practise for a particular employer. Your right to live and work in Sweden is a separate matter, decided by the Swedish Migration Agency.
More than a third of Swedish medical licences go to doctors trained abroad
Socialstyrelsen, the National Board of Health and Welfare, granted 2,384 medical licences in 2024. More than a third of them went to doctors educated outside Sweden, most of them in another EU or EEA country, and just over 200 went to doctors educated outside the EU and EEA. Doctors educated in Poland alone accounted for 141, according to Socialstyrelsen’s statistics on licensed health care staff for 2024.
An EU or EEA medical degree is generally recognised automatically
Medical education is harmonised within the EU, the EEA and Switzerland, which means that a doctor’s qualifications can generally be recognised automatically. You apply for the licence directly, through the e-service with BankID, through a web form or on a paper form. The application must include:
- your diploma
- a Certificate of Conformity confirming that your education meets Annex V of EU Directive 2005/36/EC
- a Certificate of Good Standing, issued within three months of the application, showing that you are not prohibited from practising
- proof of your skills in Swedish, Danish or Norwegian
- a document showing any change of name since you graduated.
Both certificates must come from the competent authority in the country where you trained. Your university is not a competent authority. Documents in Swedish, Norwegian, Danish or English do not need to be translated.
The fee is SEK 990, or SEK 3,300 if you have done your medical internship (AT) in Sweden. Socialstyrelsen aims to start processing within four weeks, and under the EU directive a decision must be made within three to four months of a complete application. A criminal record check is carried out before the licence is issued, and a conviction lengthens the processing time.
Switzerland counts as part of this route. A doctor with a UK diploma issued up to and including 31 December 2020 can also apply as an EU-educated doctor.
If your Swedish is not yet good enough, you can ask for your professional qualifications to be recognised first. A recognition is not a licence and does not give you the right to use the title. You apply for the licence later with your language certificate and a new fee.
Three years of practice in the EU opens the EU route to non-EU doctors
A doctor educated outside the EU and EEA can apply in the same way as an EU-educated doctor if two conditions are met: a licence under the EU directive, and at least three years of work in the EU or EEA country that first recognised the qualifications. The application then needs a certificate under Article 3.3 of Directive 2005/36/EC, issued by the competent authority in that country, in addition to the other documents.
Doctors trained outside the EU and EEA go through five steps
The clinical training requires a passed proficiency test but not the law course, which can be taken before, after or alongside it. Otherwise each step requires the previous one. You need neither Swedish, a Swedish personal identity number nor a residence permit for the first step, but you need Swedish to pass the steps after it.
- Have your education assessed. Socialstyrelsen compares your education with the Swedish one on level, length and content. You send copies of your diploma and of a certificate listing your courses and the length of the programme, in the original language and translated into Swedish or English. Documents in Swedish, Norwegian, Danish or English do not need to be translated. The fee is SEK 990, and an assessment takes about three months. If your education is not approved, you cannot continue on this route, and the fee is not refunded.
- Take the proficiency test. Umeå University holds the test in Swedish, on site in Umeå. It has a theoretical and a practical part, and you must pass the theoretical part before you may take the practical one. You have up to five attempts at the theoretical part and three at the practical part. If you fail your first attempt, you have five years from that day to pass. Extra attempts cannot be requested.
- Take the course in Swedish laws and regulations. Once you have passed the test, you can sign up for a free online course at Lund University on the laws that govern Swedish health care, full-time or part-time.
- Complete six months of clinical training. You can start when you have passed both parts of the test. You find the workplace yourself and do all of the training there. You also need a special authorisation: a state health care provider can issue it, while a private provider must apply for it. The authorisation lasts for at most seven months. After passing both parts of the test, you may also work as a doctor under a special authorisation for a limited period before the clinical training starts. Previous work as a doctor does not shorten the training, and Socialstyrelsen gives no financial aid during it. The law course can be taken before, after or alongside the training, though not during working hours.
- Apply for the licence. You send the application form, a copy of your passport, a copy of your certificate of Swedish proficiency and the original certificate of clinical training. Applicants without a Swedish personal identity number or coordination number also send a copy of the certificate from the law course. If you paid SEK 990 for the assessment, you do not pay again. A complete application currently takes about two to four weeks, and Socialstyrelsen checks police records before deciding.
Every route requires Swedish, Norwegian or Danish
You must send the certificate of your language skills with the licence application at the latest. Socialstyrelsen accepts an approved grade or certificate in one of the following:
- Swedish 3 or Swedish as a Second Language 3, for example at municipal adult education (Komvux)
- Swedish at level C1 of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages
- a course or exam that meets the Swedish entry requirements for higher education
- equivalent proficiency in Norwegian or Danish.
An operational manager at a health care provider can instead assess your Swedish, using Socialstyrelsen’s form. For doctors from the EU and EEA, the language skills must then correspond to level C1. The language requirement also applies to citizens of Sweden, Denmark, Finland and Norway.
A complementary university programme can lead straight to a licence
Instead of starting with the assessment, a doctor trained outside the EU and EEA can take a complementary programme at a Swedish university. Four universities offer it: Karolinska Institutet, the University of Gothenburg, Lund University and Umeå University. Places are limited. Each university sets its own entry requirements, many require a decision from Socialstyrelsen that your education is equivalent to the Swedish one, and all require Swedish. The programmes are not taught as distance education, though some courses may be.
The programmes are moving to a model in which they lead directly to a licence, with no medical internship (AT) afterwards. Every course start at Umeå University already does so, as do programmes starting at Lund University from the spring term of 2026 and at the University of Gothenburg from the autumn term of 2026. These programmes cover 120 or 150 credits, and the Gothenburg programme runs over four terms. Karolinska Institutet plans a two-year programme of the same kind from the spring term of 2028 at the earliest.
AT is still required only after Karolinska Institutet’s one-year programme, which admits students for the last time in the autumn term of 2026. After that programme you send Socialstyrelsen a certificate and receive a decision that you may do a medical internship (AT). The internship is a block appointment of at least 18 months of full-time work, or the equivalent part-time. It must include:
- at least nine months in internal medicine and surgical subspecialties, with at least three months in each
- three months in psychiatry
- six months in general practice.
You find the internship workplace yourself. On both models you apply for the licence on the paper form for those educated outside the EU and EEA, not through the e-service. After a programme that leads directly to a licence, the fee is SEK 990. After an internship in Sweden it is SEK 3,300, or SEK 2,310 if you have already paid SEK 990 for an assessment.
Specialists from outside the EU and EEA need the basic licence first
A specialist trained outside the EU and EEA must first be licensed as a doctor of medicine and then complete Swedish specialist training (ST) to receive proof of specialist competence. A specialist trained in the EU or EEA can apply for proof of specialist competence together with the licence, with one fee for the licence and one per specialty.
A decision from Socialstyrelsen can be appealed within three weeks
A decision from Socialstyrelsen can be appealed to the Administrative Court in Stockholm. The appeal is sent to Socialstyrelsen and must arrive within three weeks of the day you were notified of the decision.
Pharmacists and nurses trained abroad follow similar routes with different details, and nurses complete three months of clinical training instead of six. See the guides to working as a pharmacist in Sweden with a foreign degree and to the nursing licence for nurses with a non-EU degree. For the job search itself, read about finding a job in Sweden as a foreigner.
Last fact-checked: 23 October 2026