Deportation for crime: stricter rules from 1 September 2026

From 1 September 2026 it gets easier to deport a person who is convicted of a crime in Sweden. This is decided law, not a proposal. The Riksdag (the Swedish parliament) voted it through on 16 June 2026.

The rules apply to people who are not Swedish citizens. If you hold Swedish citizenship, a court cannot deport you.

What changes on 1 September 2026

The government lists several changes in the bill. Each one makes deportation easier, none makes it harder.

• A crime is normally a ground for deportation as soon as the punishment is tougher than böter (a fine). The old rule needed a more serious crime.
• The special, harder requirements for deporting a person who came to Sweden before they turned 15 are removed.
• An åklagare (public prosecutor) now has a duty to ask the court for deportation when someone is charged with a crime that can lead to it.
• Återreseförbud (a ban on returning to Sweden) becomes longer, and in more cases it has no end date.

The extra protection for people who arrived as children is gone

Until now the law set harder requirements before a court could deport someone who came to Sweden before the age of 15. Those extra requirements are removed.

This is the change most likely to surprise people. Someone who has lived here since primary school is now judged more like anyone else.

The bill is proposition 2025/26:235, Skärpta regler om utvisning på grund av brott. The government published it on 1 April 2026. A proposition is a bill that the government puts to the Riksdag.

What happens now

Nothing more has to happen. The Riksdag approved the rules on 16 June 2026 in betänkande 2025/26:SfU33 (a committee's written proposal to the Riksdag). They start to apply on 1 September 2026.

Deportation for a crime is decided by a court, inside the criminal case itself. The prosecutor asks for it, and the court decides.

This article describes what the law says. What it means in your own case is something only Migrationsverket (the Swedish Migration Agency) or a qualified lawyer can answer.