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Visa requirements for Swedish citizens
Administrative entry restrictions From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Visa requirements for Swedish citizens are administrative entry restrictions by the authorities of other states placed on citizens of Sweden.
As of 2025, Swedish citizens have visa-free or visa on arrival access to 188 countries and territories, ranking the Swedish passport 5th in the world according to the Henley Passport Index.[1]
As a member state of the European Union, Swedish citizens enjoy freedom of movement within the European Economic Area (EEA). The Citizens' Rights Directive[2] defines the right of free movement for citizens of the EEA. Through bilateral agreements freedom of movement is extended to Switzerland,[3] and all EU and EFTA nationals are not only visa-exempt but are legally entitled to enter and reside in each other's countries.
In order to travel to another country, a Swedish citizen requires a passport, except within the Nordic Passport Union, where no identity card is formally required. A passport is also not required for holders of the Swedish national identity card for travel to European countries (except Belarus, Russia, Ukraine[4] and United Kingdom), Dominica, French overseas territories, Georgia, Montserrat and Tunisia.
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Visa requirements map
Sweden
Full freedom of movement (Nordic passport union)
Freedom of movement
Visa on arrival
eVisa
Visa available both on arrival or online
Visa required
Visa requirements
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Dependent, Disputed, or Restricted territories
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Perspective
Visa requirements for Swedish citizens for visits to various territories, disputed areas, partially recognized countries, and restricted zones:
- Europe
Abkhazia — Visa required. ID card de facto valid[273]
Mount Athos — Special permit required (4 days: 25 euro for Orthodox visitors, 35 euro for non-Orthodox visitors, 18 euro for students). There is a visitors' quota: maximum 100 Orthodox and 10 non-Orthodox per day and women are not allowed.[274][275]
Brest and Grodno — Visa not required for 10 days.[276]
Crimea — Visa issued by Russia is required.[277]
Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus — Visa free access for 3 months. ID Card valid.[278]
UN Buffer Zone in Cyprus — Access Permit is required for travelling inside the zone, except Civil Use Areas.[279]
Gibraltar — Visa not required. ID Card valid.[280]
Jan Mayen — permit issued by the local police required for staying for less than 24 hours[281] and permit issued by the Norwegian police for staying for more than 24 hours.[282]
Kaliningrad Oblast — From 1 July 2019, Swedish citizens are eligible for E-visa access for 8 days.[283]
Kosovo — visa free for 90 days.[284] ID Card valid [285]
South Ossetia — Visa free. Multiple entry visa to Russia and three-day prior notification are required to enter South Ossetia.[286][287]
Transnistria — Visa free for 45 days, extendable at immigration offices. ID Card valid.[288][289]
- Africa
British Indian Ocean Territory — special permit required.[290]
Eritrea (outside Asmara) — visa covers Asmara only; to travel in the rest of the country, a Travel Permit for Foreigners is required (20 Eritrean nakfa).[291]
Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha
Ascension Island — e-Visa for 3 months within any year period.[292][293]
Saint Helena — Visitor's Pass granted on arrival valid for 4/10/21/60/90 days for 12/14/16/20/25 pound sterling.[294]
Tristan da Cunha — Permission to land required for 15/30 pounds sterling (yacht/ship passenger) for Tristan da Cunha Island or 20 pounds sterling for Gough Island, Inaccessible Island or Nightingale Islands.[295]
Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (Western Sahara controlled territory) — undefined visa regime.
Somaliland — visa required (30 days for 30 US dollars, payable on arrival).[296][297]
- Asia
Hainan — Visa on arrival for 15 days. Available at Haikou Meilan International Airport and Sanya Phoenix International Airport.
Visa not required for 15 days for traveling as part of a tourist group (5 or more people)[298][299]
Hong Kong — Visa not required for 90 days.[300]
India — Protected Area Permit (PAP) required for whole states of Nagaland and Sikkim and parts of states Manipur, Arunachal Pradesh, Uttaranchal, Jammu and Kashmir, Rajasthan, Himachal Pradesh. Restricted Area Permit (RAP) required for all of Andaman and Nicobar Islands and parts of Sikkim. Some of these requirements are occasionally lifted for a year.[301][302][303][304][305][306]
Macao — Visa not required for 90 days.[307]
North Korea outside Pyongyang – People are not allowed to leave the capital city, tourists can only leave the capital with a governmental tourist guide (no independent moving)
Palestine — Visa not required. Arrival by sea to Gaza Strip not allowed.[308]
Taiwan — Visa not required for 90 days.[309]
Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Province — OIVR permit required (15+5 Tajikistani Somoni) and another special permit (free of charge) is required for Lake Sarez.[310][311][312]- Tibet Autonomous Region — Tibet Travel Permit required (10 US Dollars).[313][314][315]
Turkmenistan — A special permit, issued prior to arrival by Ministry of Foreign Affairs, is required if visiting the following places: Atamurat, Cheleken, Dashoguz, Serakhs and Serhetabat.[316]- Korean Demilitarized Zone — restricted zone.
- UNDOF Zone and Ghajar — restricted zones.
- Caribbean and North Atlantic
Anguilla — Visa not required for 3 months.[317]
Aruba — Visa not required for 30 days.[318]
Bermuda — Visa not required.[319]
Bonaire, St. Eustatius and Saba — Visa not required for 3 months.[320]
British Virgin Islands — Visa not required.[321]
Cayman Islands — Visa not required for 6 months.[322]
Colombia — Visitors arriving at San Andrés and Leticia must buy tourist cards on arrival.[323]
Curacao — Visa not required for 3 months.[324]
Montserrat — Visa not required for 6 months. ID card valid if in transit to a third country if staying for max 14 days [325]
Puerto Rico — Visa not required under the Visa Waiver Program, for 90 days on arrival from overseas for 2 years. ESTA required.[326]
Sint Maarten — Visa not required for 3 months.[327] ID Card valid if arriving at L'Espérance Airport in the French part of the island
Turks and Caicos Islands — Visa not required for 90 days.[328]
U.S. Virgin Islands — Visa not required under the Visa Waiver Program, for 90 days on arrival from overseas for 2 years. ESTA required.[329]
- Oceania
American Samoa — Electronic authorization for 30 days.[330]
Ashmore and Cartier Islands — special authorisation required.[331]
Clipperton Island — special permit required.[332]
Cook Islands — Visa free access for 31 days.[333]
Guam — Visa not required under the Visa Waiver Program, for 90 days on arrival from overseas for 2 years. ESTA required.[334]
Niue — Visa on arrival valid for 30 days is issued free of charge.[335]
Pitcairn Islands — 14 days visa free and landing fee US$35 or tax of US$5 if not going ashore.[336][337][338]
Tokelau — Entry permit required.[339]
United States Minor Outlying Islands — special permits required for Baker Island, Howland Island, Jarvis Island, Johnston Atoll, Kingman Reef, Midway Atoll, Palmyra Atoll and Wake Island.[340][341][342][343][344][345][346]
- South Atlantic and Antarctica
Falkland Islands — A visitor permit is normally issued as a stamp in the passport on arrival, The maximum validity period is 1 month.[347]
South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands — Pre-arrival permit from the Commissioner required (72 hours/1 month for 110/160 pounds sterling).[348][349]- Antarctica and adjacent islands — special permits required for
British Antarctic Territory, 
French Southern and Antarctic Lands, 
Argentine Antarctica, Australian Antarctic Territory, 
Chilean Antarctic Territory, Heard Island and McDonald Islands, Peter I Island, Queen Maud Land, 
Ross Dependency.[350][351][352][353][354][355][356][357][358][359][360][361]
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Non-ordinary passports
Holders of Swedish diplomatic passports have additional visa-free access to Russia. Holders of diplomatic or service passports of any country have visa-free access to Cape Verde, Ethiopia, Mali and Zimbabwe.
Non-visa restrictions
Blank passport pages
Many countries require a minimum number of blank pages to be available in the passport being presented, typically one or two pages.[362] Endorsement pages, which often appear after the visa pages, are not counted as being valid or available.
Vaccination
The African countries of Angola, Benin, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Republic of the Congo, Côte d'Ivoire, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea-Bissau, Kenya, Liberia, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Rwanda, Senegal, Sierra Leone and Togo, South Sudan, Uganda, and Zambia, require all incoming passengers older than nine months to one year[363] to have a current International Certificate of Vaccination or Prophylaxis, as does the South American territory of French Guiana.[364]
Some other countries require vaccination only if the passenger is coming from an infected area or has visited one recently or has transited for 12 hours in those countries: Algeria, Botswana, Cabo Verde, Chad, Djibouti, Egypt, Eswatini, Ethiopia, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Lesotho, Libya, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritania, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, Papua New Guinea, Seychelles, Somalia, South Africa, Sudan, Tunisia, Uganda, United Republic of Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe.[365][366]
Passport validity length
Very few countries, such as Paraguay, just require a valid passport on arrival.
However many countries and groupings now require only an identity card – especially from their neighbours. Other countries may have special bilateral arrangements that depart from the generality of their passport validity length policies to shorten the period of passport validity required for each other's citizens[367][368] or even accept passports that have already expired (but not been cancelled).[369]
Some countries, such as Japan,[370] Ireland and the United Kingdom,[371] require a passport valid throughout the period of the intended stay.
In the absence of specific bilateral agreements, countries requiring passports to be valid for at least 6 more months on arrival include Afghanistan, Algeria, Anguilla, Bahrain,[372] Bhutan, Botswana, British Virgin Islands, Brunei, Cambodia, Cameroon, Cape Verde, Cayman Islands, Central African Republic, Chad, Comoros, Costa Rica, Côte d'Ivoire, Curaçao, Ecuador, Egypt, El Salvador, Equatorial Guinea, Fiji, Gabon, Guinea Bissau, Guyana, Haiti, India, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Israel,[373] Jordan, Kenya, Kiribati, Kuwait, Laos, Madagascar, Malaysia, Marshall Islands, Mongolia, Myanmar, Namibia, Nepal, Nicaragua, Nigeria, Oman, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Peru,[374] Philippines,[375] Qatar, Rwanda, Samoa, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Solomon Islands, Somalia, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Suriname, Tanzania, Thailand, Timor-Leste, Tokelau, Tonga, Turkey, Tuvalu, Uganda, United Arab Emirates, Vanuatu, Venezuela, and Vietnam.[376]
Countries requiring passports valid for at least 4 months on arrival include Micronesia and Zambia.
Countries requiring passports with a validity of at least 3 months beyond the date of intended departure include Azerbaijan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Honduras, Montenegro, Nauru, Moldova and New Zealand. Similarly, the EEA countries of Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, all European Union countries (except Ireland) together with Switzerland also require 3 months validity beyond the date of the bearer's intended departure unless the bearer is an EEA or Swiss national.
Countries requiring passports valid for at least 3 months on arrival include Albania, North Macedonia, Panama, and Senegal.
Bermuda requires passports to be valid for at least 45 days upon entry.
Countries that require a passport validity of at least one month beyond the date of intended departure include Eritrea, Hong Kong, Lebanon, Macau, the Maldives[377] and South Africa.
Maximum passport age
Countries of the Schengen area require non-EU passports to be less than 10 years old upon entry.[378] A number of holders of British passports, which until September 2018 could be issued with a validity period of up to 10 years and nine months if the previous passport was not expired, were unable to travel to the EU subsequent to Brexit due to this restriction.[379]
Criminal record
Some countries, including Australia, Canada, Fiji, New Zealand and the United States,[380] routinely deny entry to non-citizens who have a criminal record, while others impose restrictions depending on the type of conviction and the length of the sentence.
Persona non grata
The government of a country can declare a diplomat persona non grata, banning them from entering the country or expelling them if they have already entered. In non-diplomatic use, the authorities of a country may also declare a foreigner persona non grata permanently or temporarily, usually because of unlawful activity.[381]
Israeli stamps
Kuwait,[382] Lebanon,[383] Libya,[384] and Yemen[385] do not allow entry to people with passport stamps from Israel or whose passports have either a used or an unused Israeli visa, or where there is evidence of previous travel to Israel such as entry or exit stamps from neighbouring border posts in transit countries such as Jordan and Egypt.
To circumvent this Arab League boycott of Israel, the Israeli immigration services have now mostly ceased to stamp foreign nationals' passports on either entry to or exit from Israel (unless the entry is for some work-related purposes). Since 15 January 2013, Israel no longer stamps foreign passports at Ben Gurion Airport. Passports are still (as of 22 June 2017[update]) stamped at Erez when passing into and out of Gaza.[citation needed]
Iran refuses admission to holders of passports containing an Israeli visa or stamp that is less than 12 months old.
Biometrics
Several countries mandate that all travellers, or all foreign travellers, be fingerprinted on arrival and will refuse admission to or even arrest travellers who refuse to comply. In some countries, such as the United States, this may apply even to transit passengers who merely wish to change planes rather than go landside.[386]
Fingerprinting countries/regions include Afghanistan,[387][388] Argentina,[389] Brunei, Cambodia,[390] China,[391] Ethiopia,[392] Ghana, Guinea,[393] India, Japan,[394][395] Kenya (both fingerprints and a photo are taken),[396] Malaysia upon entry and departure,[397] Mongolia, Saudi Arabia,[398] Singapore, South Korea,[399] Taiwan, Thailand,[400] Uganda,[401] the United Arab Emirates and the United States.
Many countries also require a photo be taken of people entering the country. The United States, which does not fully implement exit control formalities at its land frontiers (although long mandated by its own legislation),[402][403][404] intends to implement facial recognition for passengers departing from international airports to identify people who overstay their visa.[405]
Together with fingerprint and face recognition, iris scanning is one of three biometric identification technologies internationally standardised since 2006 by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) for use in e-passports[406] and the United Arab Emirates conducts iris scanning on visitors who need to apply for a visa.[407][408] The United States Department of Homeland Security has announced plans to greatly increase the biometric data it collects at US borders.[409] In 2018, Singapore began trials of iris scanning at three land and maritime immigration checkpoints.[410][411]
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Vaccination
Many African countries, including Angola, Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Republic of the Congo, Côte d'Ivoire, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Ghana, Guinea, Liberia, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Rwanda, São Tomé and Príncipe, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Uganda, Zambia require all incoming passengers to have a current International Certificate of Vaccination. Some other countries require vaccination only if the passenger is coming from an infected area.[412]
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Right to consular protection in non-EU countries
When in a non-EU country where there is no Swedish embassy, Swedish citizens as EU citizens have the right to get consular protection from the embassy of any other EU country present in that country.
Swedish citizens may also seek assistance from public officials in the foreign services of any of the Nordic countries, when in a country with no Swedish representation. This is afforded by the Helsinki Treaty which states that public officials in the foreign services of any of the Nordic countries shall assist citizens of another Nordic country if that country is not represented in the territory concerned.[413][414]
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See also
References
Notes
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