The short answer
The Swedish citizenship language requirement is not one level. Prop. 2025/26:175 puts reading and listening comprehension at B1, which the law calls funktionell nivå, and speaking and writing at A2, which the law calls grundläggande nivå. The statute deliberately avoids naming the CEFR at all, so the equivalence comes from the bill rather than from the law. Reading and listening are due to be tested from 1 October 2027 at the latest, or earlier if the government decides; the speaking and writing test has no date at all. Until then Swedish is proven with a grade or an accepted exam, and Migrationsverket assesses it.
Two levels, not one
Press coverage settled on one number, B1, and that number is only half right. Section 10.2.2 of the government bill sets reading and listening comprehension at B1 of the CEFR, called GERS in Swedish. It sets speaking and writing at A2.
That split is not an accident. Understanding a letter from an agency and arguing your case out loud are different jobs, and the legislator priced them differently. If you are planning study time, plan it asymmetrically too: more reading and listening than production.
The bill gives one useful landmark for scale. Back when sfi courses were still tied to the CEFR, kurs D aimed at B1. That formal link no longer exists, so the comparison is a sense of size rather than an equivalence.
| In Swedish | What it means | When you use it |
|---|---|---|
| läsförståelse | reading comprehension | One half of the B1 requirement. |
| hörförståelse | listening comprehension | The other half, and the one adults underestimate. |
| muntlig och skriftlig färdighet | speaking and writing skill | The A2 half of the requirement. |
| Vilken nivå ligger jag på? | What level am I at? | The question to ask a teacher, rather than guessing from how confident you feel. |
The law does not say B1
This is the part almost nobody writes down, and it changes how you should read every other page on the subject. The statute uses funktionell nivå and grundläggande nivå. It does not say B1 and it does not say A2.
The equivalence between those Swedish terms and the CEFR levels is set out in the bill, where the government explains it wanted the legal text to stand on its own rather than depend on a framework maintained elsewhere.
Practical consequence: if you see a page quoting the law as requiring B1, that page is quoting a summary. The distinction matters mostly in one place, an appeal, where the words in the statute are the words that count.
There is no Swedish test yet, and that is on purpose
The requirement is in force. The exam that proves it is not. The bill assesses that the rules on the reading and listening test can come into force on 1 October 2027, with the option of an earlier date the government decides, and explicitly conditions any early start on the responsible authorities actually being able to deliver.
On 6 February 2026 the government adjusted UHR's mandate and set the deadline that the reading and listening test be delivered by 1 October 2027 at the latest, after Stockholm University said it needed more time. Gothenburg University and Stockholm University are both involved in developing it.
The speaking and writing test has no date. The law says it starts on the day the government decides, and no such day has been decided. We wrote the three dates out in full, because only one of them has actually happened.
| In Swedish | What it means | When you use it |
|---|---|---|
| funktionell nivå | functional level, the statute's term for what the bill equates with B1 | The phrase the law itself uses for reading and listening. |
| grundläggande nivå | basic level, equated with A2 in the bill | The statute's term for speaking and writing. |
| den dag som regeringen bestämmer | on the day the government decides | The formula that means no date has been set. |
So how is Swedish proven in the meantime
With a grade, in most cases. A passing grade in svenska or svenska som andraspråk from several parts of the Swedish education system counts, and so does the final year of an equivalent course in another Nordic country.
Beyond grades, the bill allows another language exam if it demonstrates B1 with a high degree of reliability, naming Tisus and Folkuniversitetet's Swedex, and asks for the assessment to be restrictive. Migrationsverket cites Tisus and Swedex on its own page for adults. The full list, with where each one comes from, is in the article on proving Swedish without the test.
One thing to note before you build a plan on it: the bill says this alternative route should be removed when the full Swedish test comes into force. It is a window, not a permanent arrangement.
What B1 reading actually costs in hours
Nobody gets to B1 comprehension by doing five minutes a day on a phone, and pretending otherwise is how people arrive at a paper unprepared. The honest arithmetic, hour by hour, is in how long Swedish takes, and it is uncomfortable reading on purpose.
The efficient path for this particular requirement is lopsided. Read a lot, listen a lot, produce less. The civics material is itself written at funktionell nivå, so working through it trains the exact skill the language requirement measures, which is a rare case of two obligations pulling in the same direction.
If grammar is what keeps stalling your reading, the rules are laid out one at a time on the grammar pages, and the pieces that break comprehension first are word order and the definite endings.
What nobody can promise you
We are not affiliated with UHR, Skolverket or Migrationsverket, and no course can guarantee that a level will be accepted in a file. Migrationsverket decides that, and the courts on appeal.
Nor is there a pass mark to quote for the civics test, let alone for a Swedish test that does not exist. Any page that gives you one is filling a blank UHR has left open.
What is safe to act on: the two levels, the split between comprehension and production, and the fact that reading Swedish well is the single highest-value thing you can do about any of it.
Sources
- Prop. 2025/26:175, Skärpta krav för svenskt medborgarskap2026-03-12
- Regeringen: Regeringen justerar uppdraget för medborgarskapsprovet i svenska2026-02-06
- Migrationsverket: Medborgarskap för vuxna2026-06-06
Rules and processing times change. Check the official page for your own case before acting on anything here.
Questions people ask
- What level of Swedish is required for citizenship?
- Two levels. The government bill puts reading and listening comprehension at B1 and speaking and writing at A2. The law itself uses funktionell nivå and grundläggande nivå and never names the CEFR, so the B1 and A2 equivalence comes from the bill.
- Is the Swedish language test for citizenship in place yet?
- No. The bill assesses that the reading and listening test can start on 1 October 2027 or on an earlier date the government decides, and the government confirmed on 6 February 2026 that it must be delivered by 1 October 2027 at the latest. The speaking and writing test has no date.
- Is sfi kurs D enough for the citizenship language requirement?
- A passing grade in svenska or svenska som andraspråk from komvux, sfi included, is listed among the ways of showing the Swedish. Whether your particular grade satisfies the requirement in your file is decided by Migrationsverket, not by a school and not by us.
- Does Swedex or Tisus count?
- The bill allows another language exam where it shows B1 with a high degree of reliability, and names Tisus and Folkuniversitetet's Swedex as examples. It also asks that the assessment be restrictive, and Migrationsverket makes it.
- Why do some pages say B1 and others say A2?
- Because both appear, for different skills. B1 is comprehension, A2 is production. A page giving a single level has flattened the requirement.
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