SverigeID from 1 December 2026: Sweden's state e-identification and what it means for newcomers
On 1 December, Sweden launches a state e-identification (e-legitimation, a digital ID for logging in and signing online). It is called SverigeID, it comes from the police, it runs through an app, and it sits at the highest trust level in Sweden's trust framework. The legal basis is the law 2026:1358 (lag 2026:1358) together with the ordinance 2026:1359 (förordning 2026:1359); both enter into force on that day.
What it is not: a replacement for BankID. The police say themselves that SverigeID is a complement to the existing e-legitimationer. So if you are waiting for a state login to solve the bank account problem by itself, you are waiting for something that is not coming, at least not on 1 December.
It is still worth looking at now. Not because of the app, but because of the card underneath it and because of two dates: 1 November and 1 December.
Two routes, and for newcomers only the second one counts
SverigeID is always tied to a physical card. Which card depends on your citizenship.
Swedish citizens get it tied to a nationellt id-kort (the national ID card). You book an appointment through the police's normal booking system, apply from 1 December at the passport office (passexpedition), accept the terms of use, and you are done. One important catch: national ID cards issued before 1 December cannot be used. If you picked one up in October, you still need a new one for SverigeID.
Everyone else, meaning people registered in the population register (folkbokförda) without Swedish citizenship, which is most readers of this site, gets SverigeID tied to an id-kort without travel function. This is a new card that did not exist before. And this route works differently: appointments can be booked from 1 November by phone only, on 114 14, the application itself is only possible from 1 December, and only at 33 selected police stations.
The age limit is the calendar year in which a person turns nine. Under 18, the consent of the guardians (vårdnadshavare) is generally required. The e-legitimation is valid for five years, or three years for children under twelve.
33 stations, five of them in the west
The list is short, and it is the reason the phone appointment will become a bottleneck. In Polisregion Väst (the police region covering western Sweden) there are five locations: Gothenburg (Passcentralen), Borås, Trollhättan, Skövde and Falkenberg. If you live in Bohuslän or in Halland, you will be travelling to Gothenburg or to Falkenberg.
For the whole of Stockholm there are six stations, and for northern Sweden there are six across an area half the size of Germany. I think it is unlikely that a phone line on 114 14 will have free appointments available from 1 November. I have no statistics on this, but the arithmetic of eligible applicants against locations is uncomfortably clear. Call on 1 November, not on the 15th.
What it costs, and the number nobody mentioned until recently
For months the fee appeared in no press release. It is in the ordinance.
Chapter 3, section 4 of förordning 2026:1359 covers two cases. If SverigeID is issued on a nationellt id-kort, you pay only the fee for that id-kort; the e-legitimation itself costs nothing on top. If it is issued on another carrier, meaning the id-kort without travel function, the application fee is 500 kronor.
And then the second number, which hurts more in practice: the nationellt id-kort costs 400 kronor today. From 1 December 2026 it costs 500 kronor. This was changed by förordning 2026:1361, which amends section 25 of förordning 2005:661: the old version says 400 kronor, the version applying from 1 December says 500.
So if you need a nationellt id-kort and were planning to get one anyway: before 1 December you save a hundred kronor, but you get a card that cannot carry SverigeID. You cannot have both. This is not a deliberate obstacle, just the order in which the two ordinances come into force, but you should know about it before you pay twice.
What I cannot substantiate: whether non-citizens pay a separate card fee on top of the 500 kronor for the e-legitimation. The police give no amount at all on their SverigeID page, and the ordinance contains only that one figure. Budget for 500 kronor and do not be surprised if the counter asks for more.
What SverigeID can do, and where it hits a limit
This is the point that gets lost in most reports. That an authority must accept SverigeID does not follow from the launch date.
In chapter 4, section 1, the law obliges public bodies to recognise several e-legitimationer for their online services, but only if the means is provided within an authorisation system and the trust level fits. The Agency for Digital Government puts it this way: only once SverigeID is part of that authorisation system is it supposed to be usable there. That has been commissioned, but it is a second step, not the same one. On the services to be connected, the police say only that they may be added “successivt” (gradually), and they do not name a single one.
Then there is the question of reach. Under chapter 1, section 4, certain privately organised bodies also count as public bodies: school providers, health and dental care, parts of the social services. Banks and insurers are not among them. That is exactly where you need a login in everyday life. This is why BankID will remain, for the foreseeable future, the tool with which Sweden actually works, and SverigeID the second leg to stand on.
In practice this means the app is the only approved device. No card reader, no browser plug-in. If you do not have your own smartphone, you can link another person's phone via the CAN number (the card access number). That sounds charming on paper, and I would not recommend it to anyone who then has to call that number their login.
Skatteverket's id-kort is being phased out, and a gap stretches behind it until 2029
This is the real news for newcomers. Skatteverket (the Swedish Tax Agency) now says on its own application page: from 1 December 2026, everyone who wants a new id-kort should turn to the police.
The draft law of 3 September 2026 sets the framework: applications to Skatteverket are possible until 28 February 2027, and the law behind it expires on 1 March 2027. Cards already issued remain usable as ID until the end of their validity, and the banks' blocking check is supposed to continue until February 2032. The current fee: 400 kronor.
And the general state ID card that would replace it cleanly? It appears in a memorandum (promemoria) from the Ministry of Justice of June 2026: issued from 1 September 2029, valid for five years, without travel function, with fingerprints in the chip, and the fee is still a placeholder in the draft. Both are draft status, not enacted law.
Between March 2027 and September 2029, essentially one card remains for non-citizens registered in the population register: the one SverigeID is tied to. If your Skatteverket id-kort expires in that period, the police are your route. No longer Skatteverket's service office (servicekontor).
How it differs from Germany, as one example
In Germany, for example, the online ID function sits on the card you have anyway. According to the official AusweisApp, you need an activated eID function, a six-digit PIN, the installed app and an NFC-capable smartphone or a USB reader. The card is the document; the phone is only the reader.
In Sweden it is the other way round. The phone is the document, and the card is the proof with which you unlock it once. That is why a Swedish card issued before 1 December cannot carry SverigeID: it does not have the required link.
The second difference is quieter and hits new arrivals harder. In Germany, for example, you get the eID with your ID card, without anyone's approval. In Sweden you first need folkbokföring (population registration) and a personnummer (personal identity number), then a card, then an account, then a login, and each step presupposes the previous one. If you only have a samordningsnummer (coordination number), you face the same wall with SverigeID as before: for foreigners, the law requires folkbokföring or a personnummer.
What I would do now in your position
You are registered in the population register, have a valid Skatteverket id-kort and a smartphone: do not rush. Your ID remains valid. But call 114 14 on 1 November and get yourself a December appointment while the list is empty.
Your id-kort expires in 2027: this is the urgent case. Either renew once more through Skatteverket by 28 February 2027, or switch straight to the police route and take the December appointment.
You have meanwhile become a Swedish citizen: hold off on the nationellt id-kort until 1 December, even if it then costs a hundred kronor more. A card from the end of November will not carry SverigeID, and 100 kronor is cheaper than 500 kronor twice.
You do not yet have a Swedish bank account: SverigeID does not solve that. The route continues via account and BankID, and I have written down the rest of the sequence in the roadmap to the Swedish authorities.
And in every case: keep your passport and national ID card from your home country valid. In everyday Swedish life they are no substitute for an id-kort, but they are the only thing that carries you through any gap between two Swedish cards.
Complete package: Moving to Sweden, the in-depth guide on this topic: see it in the shop (the guide is currently available in German only).
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.
