Managed immigration service
Watch for: You depend on the provider's capacity and updates; your data and process live in their systems; costs grow with every case.
Fits best: Occasional hires, unusual routes and teams without anyone to run permits.
Compare approaches
Immigration software or a managed immigration service?.
A managed immigration service runs your permits for you: you hand over the case and receive updates. Immigration software lets your own HR team or agency run the permits, with the steps, deadlines, documents and portals in one place. Software suits teams that hire regularly and want control and their own data; a managed service suits occasional hires and unusual cases where you want someone else to carry the work.
Three approaches
How employers run work permits, compared.
By category. Each fits a different employer.
Specialist immigration software
Watch for: Someone in HR or your agency runs the cases; the software guides the steps but does not file for you.
Fits best: Employers and agencies hiring regularly who want control, speed and their own records.
Both together
Watch for: Agree who owns which step and keep one shared view of each case.
Fits best: Teams that run routine cases themselves and bring in an adviser for refusals, appeals and unusual routes.
What changes
Control, time and data.
Control
With software the plan, the deadlines and every document are yours to see at any moment; with a managed service you see what the provider shares.
Time
Software removes the chasing and the status questions; the filing itself still takes someone's time.
Data
With software, permit data stays in your own workspace with your own retention rules.
Cost
Software is priced per case or per month for the team; a managed service is typically priced per application, so the cost follows your volume.
Be fair
When a managed service is the better fit.
You hire from abroad once or twice a year
Learning the process may cost more than handing it over.
The case is unusual
Refusals, appeals and rare routes benefit from an adviser's experience.
No one can own the process
Software needs a person who runs the cases.
Who it suits
Software suits you when
- you hire from outside the EU several times a year
- you want deadlines and salaries checked every month
- you want your own data and audit trail
- you run an agency and want the software alone, never a vendor competing for your clients
FAQ
Questions, answered.
Can an employer file a Swedish work permit without a service provider?
Yes. The employer starts the application in the Swedish Migration Agency's employer e-service and the employee completes their part. Software helps with the plan, the documents and the deadlines around it.
Does Settio file applications for us?
No. Settio is software only: it plans each case, collects and checks documents and watches deadlines and salaries, while your team or your agency files.
Can we combine software with an adviser?
Yes. Many teams run routine cases themselves and let an outside adviser work on the same case for refusals and unusual routes.
Read more
- Buyer's guide: case management software
- Immigration software for HR teams
- Plans and pricing
- Questions, answered
Informational only. This guide is not legal advice. Always verify requirements with official government sources before acting. Facts checked 11 October 2026. About this information