Applying for an id-kort in Sweden: why you still need a card after your personnummer, and why it's urgent now
Your personnummer has arrived, the letter from Skatteverket is lying on the kitchen table, and it feels like the end of the bureaucracy marathon. It isn't. The personnummer is a number in a register: it doesn't fit in a wallet, and you can't show it at a counter.
A list from the Swedish police shows just how big that difference is. If you apply there for a passport or a nationellt id-kort (national ID card), you have to identify yourself, and only five physical documents count as valid: a Swedish passport, a nationellt id-kort, a Swedish driving licence, an SIS-marked Swedish ID, and the "identitetskort för folkbokförda i Sverige", the card from Skatteverket. A foreign national ID card, such as my German one, is not on that list. Nor, incidentally, is a digital ID via BankID.
That's the point where the personnummer stops being enough.
What the id-kort is, and what it isn't
Skatteverket issues the id-kort on the basis of Lag (2015:899) and Förordning (2015:904). The ordinance is brief on the two points that matter: "Ett identitetskort ska utfärdas med en giltighetstid av högst fem år" (§ 8, an identity card is issued with a validity of at most five years) and "ska sökanden betala en ansökningsavgift på 400 kronor" (§ 16, the applicant pays an application fee of 400 kronor). Five years, 400 kronor.
What it isn't: a travel document. Skatteverket states explicitly that the card does not replace a passport and is only valid within Sweden. So your passport or ID card from home stays in your wallet; it remains the document that gets you across borders.
Formally, the id-kort isn't an SIS card either. Skatteverket says it meets comparable security requirements and can be used in everyday life like an SIS-marked id-kort, for example at banks and in shops. And one more detail that surprises people: a code letter for an e-legitimation (electronic ID) comes with the card in a separate letter. You don't take that letter with you when you collect the card.
Swedish citizens don't need any of this: Skatteverket refers them to the nationellt id-kort from the police. This card is the solution for everyone else: for people with a personnummer and no Swedish passport. In other words, for people like me, and quite possibly you.
The application: 400 kronor, one appointment, two weeks
The process is less bureaucratic than it sounds, but it has two stumbling blocks.
You must be folkbokförd (registered as resident) in Sweden and have a personnummer. The minimum age is 13; under 18 you need the written consent of both guardians, form SKV 1502. You don't need a personbevis (extract from the population register).
The first stumbling block: you have to pay the 400 kronor before your appointment. Skatteverket puts it unambiguously, "Du kan inte betala ansökningsavgiften på servicekontoret" (you can't pay the application fee at the service office), and recommends bringing a bank statement or receipt. If you turn up without having paid the fee, you've wasted an appointment.
The second: not every servicekontor issues id-kort, and to apply you need an appointment booked via the online booking system of Statens servicecenter. On site, you're photographed and your height is measured; if you can't stand, you're measured sitting down.
After that it takes about two weeks. You'll get a text message or a letter, and then you collect it in person within two months, bringing the receipt from your application. You don't need an appointment to collect it.
If you don't have a Swedish ID
This is where it gets interesting for newcomers, because different rules apply to an application at Skatteverket than at the police. Alongside Swedish documents (a valid id-kort, a Swedish passport with a burgundy cover, a nationellt id-kort, a driving licence, an SIS-marked card, a service ID from a state authority), Skatteverket also accepts foreign passports and ID cards from the EU, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland, provided they meet the requirements. So if your passport or national ID card is from one of those countries, it gets you through this door, even though neither is on the police list.
If you don't have any of these documents, you need an intygsgivare: someone who knows you well, comes with you and confirms your identity, and who can identify themselves. Those eligible include spouses, registered partners, adult children and grandchildren, parents, guardians, adult siblings, grandparents and partners you've lived with for at least six months. With proof of the relationship, a god man, a förvaltare, foster parents or an employer you've worked for for at least a year also count.
Read that list again as a newcomer. Six months of living together, a year with the same employer, family in the country: in your first six months, that often adds up to no one at all. I couldn't find any statistics on this, but the logic of the list is clear. So if you have a valid passport or ID card that Skatteverket accepts, use it while it's still valid. If your passport is from a country not named above, check directly with Skatteverket which documents they'll accept from you.
The window is closing, in Gothenburg first
And now the part that makes this article urgent.
The Göteborg Järntorget service office states on its own page: "This service centre will stop issuing ID cards from 1 December 2026." If you book an application appointment from 1 November 2026 onwards, you'll collect the finished card at a different office. If you live in Gothenburg and want an id-kort, the end of November is your practical deadline.
Behind this is the bigger picture. In September 2026 the government presented a lagrådsremiss, a draft bill referred to the Council on Legislation (Fi2026/01416, "Avveckling av Skatteverkets id-kortsverksamhet"): Lag (2015:899) is to be repealed on 1 March 2027. Applications to Skatteverket will be possible until the end of February 2027; after that, the authority's technology contract also expires. From 1 December 2026, applicants are to be referred to the police, but they keep their right to have their application processed. For a sense of scale: around 143,000 people applied in 2025.
Important: this is a lagrådsremiss, not an adopted law. As of today, the Riksdag has not decided. Skatteverket itself had asked for 1 December 2026; the government rejected that.
Cards already issued remain valid until they expire, so for up to five years beyond the end of the authority's id-kort service. There is one restriction: if you get the new card from the police, you have to hand in the old one there to be cancelled, unless it has been lost or destroyed.
What's coming from 1 December 2026: SverigeID
At the same time, something new is starting. On 1 December 2026, the police are introducing the state e-legitimation SverigeID, based on Lag (2026:1358) and Förordning (2026:1359), at the highest assurance level, LOA4. It doesn't replace BankID; it comes in addition to it.
Three points matter for us:
The card. Swedish citizens get SverigeID linked to their nationellt id-kort. People who are folkbokförda without Swedish citizenship get it linked to an id-kort without a travel function, and according to the government's proposal, this is the card that will replace the Skatteverket id-kort. Nationella id-kort issued before 1 December can't be used for SverigeID.
The appointment. For folkbokförda without citizenship, appointments can be booked from 1 November 2026 by phone only, on 114 14. Applications themselves are possible from 1 December at 33 selected police stations, in Gothenburg at the Passcentralen. SverigeID is used via an app; the mobile phone is the only approved device, and with a CAN number someone else's device also works.
The price. Unknown. The lagrådsremiss only says the state e-legitimation is to be fee-funded and the responsible authority may set the fees. I couldn't find a figure on the police website on 15 October 2026. The 400 kronor applies to the old Skatteverket card, not to the new one.
How it compares: the German example
In Germany, where I come from, having an ID card is an obligation. From the age of 16 you're required to have one; according to the city of Cologne, it costs 46 euros from age 24 and 27.60 euros below that, is valid for ten or six years respectively, and processing usually takes two to three weeks. The online ID function sits on the same card and is activated free of charge at 16.
Sweden does it differently: your identity lives in the register, as the personnummer. The physical ID card is a service you apply for and pay for, and for which you first have to prove your identity, if necessary via a relative who comes along. I couldn't find a Swedish rule equivalent to Germany's obligation to hold an ID card. And what sits on the card in Germany runs via your phone here: BankID today, SverigeID from December.
That's why the gap between arriving and having an ID hits newcomers so hard. You're in the register, you have a number, you count as registered, and yet you're standing at the pharmacy counter or at Systembolaget without the thing everyone here knows.
What I would do now in your position
If you're folkbokförd, have no Swedish ID and need one: book an appointment now, with a valid passport or ID card that Skatteverket accepts as proof, and pay the 400 kronor beforehand. In Gothenburg before December, otherwise by the end of February 2027.
If your id-kort expires in 2027 or 2028: do nothing, but keep the switch on your radar. The card stays valid, and its successor comes via the police.
If you can wait and you have a smartphone: SverigeID from 1 December, appointment booking from 1 November on 114 14, in Gothenburg at the Passcentralen. Expect a fee whose amount hasn't been published yet.
And in any case: keep your passport and ID card from home, and keep them valid. The Swedish id-kort won't get you across a border, and for the authorities roadmap of your first months, from health insurance to deregistering in your home country, the document from home is often what has to be on the table anyway.
If you're buying a house right now, you need identification twice over: since 1 July 2026, a personnummer, samordningsnummer or organisation number has been mandatory for the lagfart (registration of ownership), and because there's no notary, it's the bank that checks at the end who is signing.
Buying a house in Sweden: practical guide: the in-depth guide to this topic is currently available in German. View it in the shop.
I'm Sebastian Schiefner, a photographer in Gothenburg, and I help people who are moving to West Sweden with finding a home and buying property. Free intro call.
