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When you apply for Swedish citizenship, your time abroad matters. Short trips are fine, but if they add up to too much in one year, the whole lot is taken off your residence time. So before you apply, you need a list of your trips. This guide shows how to count and where to find the trips you've forgotten.
The rule in one paragraph
Migrationsverket says that if you have been abroad for more than six weeks in a year, the whole time you were outside Sweden is deducted from your residence time. Shorter trips, such as visits or holidays, don't affect it. Six weeks is 42 days, and the trips in a year add up. The full explanation is in our guide to the six-week rule.
| Days abroad in a year | Effect on residence time |
|---|---|
| 42 or fewer | None |
| 43 or more | All of them are deducted |
How to count the days
Count both the day you leave and the day you come back as days abroad. A trip from Friday 3 July to Friday 24 July is 22 days, not 21 or 20.
We are not aware of a published rule on how Migrationsverket counts travel days. Counting both ends is the safe reading: if you stay under 42 days this way, you stay under any other way of counting.
"A year" isn't defined either. It could mean calendar years, or years counted from when your residence time started. The safe reading is to check both and use the stricter result.
Where to find old trips
Few people remember every trip from eight years. These sources fill the gaps:
Passport stamps
Stamps only cover some border crossings and miss many trips, so they are a starting point, not the whole picture. Check old passports too.
Airline accounts and booking emails
Search your email for "booking confirmation", "e-ticket", "boarding pass" and the names of airlines, train companies and travel sites. Frequent flyer accounts often list past flights.
Location history
If you used a map app's timeline or your phone's location history, it may show the days you were in another country. Check what your phone kept before you rely on it.
Bank and card statements
Card payments abroad show the date and the country or currency. A run of payments in euros or another currency often marks a trip.
Your calendar
Holidays, conferences and visits to family are often in a work or personal calendar.
Employer travel records
Your employer's travel booking tool or expense system lists work trips. Work trips count like any other time abroad, so ask HR or your travel team for your history.
Photos
Many phones store where and when a photo was taken. Scroll your photo map by year.
How to write them down
Keep it simple: one line per trip with the date you left and the date you came back. A spreadsheet or a plain text file both work.
If you save it as a CSV file, use two columns, from and to, with dates as year-month-day:
from,to 2025-07-03,2025-07-24 2025-12-20,2026-01-04 2026-04-10,2026-04-14
The Citizenship Countdown reads a pasted list or a CSV like this. It runs in your browser, so your trips aren't sent anywhere. It adds the days up per year, under both readings of "a year", and shows the date your residence time looks complete.
A trip that crosses New Year, like the second line above, counts in both calendar years: the days in December go to one year and the days in January to the next.
When the sources disagree
Sometimes your email says one date and your bank statement suggests another. A flight might have been delayed overnight, or you changed a booking.
- Use the earliest plausible departure date and the latest plausible return date. That keeps your count on the safe side.
- Add a short note next to any trip you rebuilt from indirect evidence, such as "from card payments".
- Keep the evidence itself in a folder, in case Migrationsverket asks.
Be honest and complete. Leaving out a trip to stay under 42 days is a much bigger problem than an application that has to wait a few months.
Make it a yearly habit
Finding eight years of trips is hard. Finding one year's is easy. Each January, add last year's trips to your list while the emails and statements are still fresh.
Mei does it on the same weekend she checks her tax return. It takes her half an hour, and her list is always ready. If a year is getting close to 42 days, she sees it in time to plan the rest of her travel.
If you are coming from permanent residence, our guide from permanent residence to citizenship covers what else to prepare.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do the days I leave and return count as days abroad?
Migrationsverket doesn't publish a counting rule. The safe reading is to count both the departure day and the return day as days abroad, so you stay within 42 days under any method.
How can I find trips I don't remember?
Check passport stamps, airline accounts and booking emails, your phone's location history, bank and card statements from abroad, your calendar, your employer's travel records and the locations stored in your photos.
Do trips inside the EU count towards the six weeks?
Yes. Migrationsverket counts the whole time you were outside Sweden, wherever you went. That is why passport stamps alone are not enough to rebuild your history.
What happens if I was abroad more than 42 days in one year?
Migrationsverket says the whole time you were abroad that year is deducted from your residence time, not only the days over 42. Your residence time is then complete later.
Is my travel list sent anywhere when I use the Citizenship Countdown?
No. The Citizenship Countdown reads your pasted list or CSV in your browser and does the counting there. Your trips are not uploaded.
How Settio helps
Find your own date with our free Citizenship Countdown: it counts your years and your days abroad, privately, on your phone.
For employers and agencies, Settio keeps every employee's permit on track from the first application, through the move and each renewal, until they no longer need one: plans for every case, an employee portal and permit and salary monitoring. See how it works.
Sources
3 official sources
Settio is a platform HR teams and immigration agencies use to keep work permits on track. The Citizenship Countdown is free and runs in your browser.
Know someone who needs this? Send them the link.