Hi and thank you for turning to Fråga Juristen with your question. I will try to explain the legal question and what applies in your case below.

Your wife needs to apply for a residence permit

Since you are a Swedish citizen you will not apply for family reunification. Instead it is your wife who will have to apply for a residence permit to move to you, her spouse, in Sweden. For her to receive a residence permit you must fulfill the maintenance requirement. Meaning you need to be able to support both of you and have a suitable accommodation of adequate size and standard. Your wife also needs to be able to prove her identity with a valid passport or other type of ID document.

You will have to apply for residence permits for your children

Your children will need residence permits as well, but in their cases, it is you who must make the application as they are each under the age of 18. As in the case of your wife it is required that you be able to support them and that you have an accommodation of adequate size and standard. The children must also be unmarried.

The maintenance requirement

As mentioned, you need to show that you can support your wife and children. This means you have a regular work-related income. This can come from salary/wages from work, unemployment benefits, sickness benefits or income-based old-age pensions. The answer to your question is in other words no, you do not need a job to fulfill the requirement. But if that is the case you still need to have a high enough income from benefits etc. so that you meet the standard amount required.

The standard amount for 2020 is

• SEK 8 264 for spouses living together
• SEK 2 654 for children aged 6 years or younger
• SEK 3 055 for children aged 7 years or older

It is also possible to fulfill this requirement if you have enough money or assets to support yourself and your family for at least two years.

As for the accommodation it needs to be large enough to fit your family. Because you have children there needs to be more than one room. It is OK for two children to share one room. If it is a sub-let home the sub-let needs to be approved by the landlord or housing cooperative association. The home must be available when your family arrives in Sweden and you must show that the home will be available for one year to come.  

Citizenship for your children

Since you are a Swedish citizen you can apply for citizenship for your children once they receive their residence cards. This requires that you be the legal guardian of the children and that their identities can be proven. It is only if a child has turned 15 that it is required to wait 3 years before becoming a Swedish citizen.