The National Audit Office examines the Swedish Migration Agency’s handling of citizenship matters

News

Published: 2024-04-24 11:05

THE MIGRATION AGENCY

Processing times at the Swedish Migration Agency regarding citizenship cases have increased significantly over the past ten years.
The National Audit Office is now reviewing the Migration Agency’s handling of these cases. It appears from a press release.

In the last ten years, processing times for citizenship cases have increased significantly at the Swedish Migration Agency. In 2023, an application for citizenship took about 500 days on average to process. This is almost three times as long as in 2013 and also greatly exceeds the authority’s internal target of 180 days.

The National Audit Office is now reviewing the Swedish Migration Agency’s handling of citizenship matters. The review must answer whether the Swedish Migration Agency handles citizenship cases efficiently, that is, with a high legal quality and with as short processing times as possible.

– A delayed decision on citizenship may mean, for example, that the person may not vote in parliamentary elections or be considered for certain jobs or training. But the processing must also maintain a high legal quality so that only people who are entitled to it are granted citizenship, says Auditor General Helena Lindberg.

Open cases increased fivefold from 2013 to 2020

The number of open cases at the Swedish Migration Agency increased fivefold from 2013 to 2020 after the number of applications for Swedish citizenship increased sharply between 2013 and 2019, as a result of the large number of people on the run who came to Sweden in 2015–2016.

The Ombudsman for Justice (JO) has criticized the Migration Agency’s processing times because they conflict with the Administrative Act’s requirements for fast and cost-effective processing. According to JO, the Migration Agency has had sufficient time to adapt its operations after the sharp increase in cases in 2015.