(SWEDEN) — Sweden published the final exemption list for its new work-permit salary threshold, setting a lower salary floor for selected occupations while excluding personal assistants and forest berry pickers from work permits entirely.

Under the new rule, the standard salary requirement remains 90% of Sweden’s median salary at the time of application. Occupations on the exemption list can qualify at 75% of the median salary instead.

The final list covers a broad slice of technical, industrial, care and land-based work. It includes engineering and chemistry roles, several IT support and systems jobs, assistant nursing positions, childcare assistants, ambulance care assistants, animal care, mixed farming, forestry, welding, repair work, electrical distribution, food processing and some machine-operation roles.

That list also includes berry pickers and planters, etc. The distinction matters because Sweden separately said forest berry picker work permits cannot be granted at all under Chapter 6, Section 2 of the Aliens Act.

The new structure creates three tracks for applicants. Some jobs must meet the standard 90% threshold, jobs on the exemption list can meet 75%, and two occupations are shut out from work permits altogether.

Those two excluded occupations are personal assistants and forest berry pickers. Sweden named them as roles that will be excluded entirely from work permits, rather than moved to the lower salary band.

The legal constraint on forest berry picker permits is narrower and more specific than the occupation label first suggests. Work permits for forest berry pickers cannot be granted at all under Chapter 6, Section 2 of the Aliens Act, while the exemption can still apply to other roles inside the broader berry-picking category if that category is invoked.

Sweden also carved out four applicant groups that do not have to meet the standard 90% rule. They instead fall under the 75% of median salary level, even when the case turns on the applicant’s status rather than the occupation title alone.

One group covers former students applying from within Sweden. Another covers people with foreign qualifications who seek Swedish licensure as a pharmacist, doctor, nurse, or dentist.

A third category covers people granted residence permits with or after temporary protection under the EU Temporary Protection Directive who apply on the basis of employment. A fourth applies to employees at certain tech or life science companies that are in the start-up phase, are under five years old, and have fewer than 100 employees.

The occupational exemptions show where Sweden has chosen to ease the new salary bar without removing it. Engineers and technicians in chemistry and chemical engineering appear on the list, as do laboratory engineers, IT operations technicians, IT support technicians, systems administrators, and network and systems technicians, etc.

Care work also features heavily. The exempted roles include assistant nurses in home care, home healthcare and elderly care homes, assistant nurses in habilitation services, assistant nurses in healthcare and specialist wards, assistant nurses in outpatient reception services, childcare assistants, ambulance care assistants, and care assistants.

Primary production and manual trades are also covered. Sweden listed breeders and caretakers of farm animals, other animal breeders and animal caretakers, crop growers and animal breeders in mixed farming, forestry workers, drivers of agricultural and forestry machinery, welders and gas cutters, structural steel erectors and heavy sheet metal workers, maintenance mechanics and machine repairers, and electrical distribution technicians.

The food and processing side of the labor market appears on the list as well. Butchers and meat cutters, machine operators in meat and fish processing industries, other machine operators in the food industry, and other operations technicians and process monitoring operators can also meet the lower 75% threshold.

That design leaves the new salary policy broad in reach, but uneven in how it applies. Occupation title, legal category and applicant background now all affect which salary floor controls a case.

An employer hiring an exempted worker will need to determine whether the case belongs under the 75% standard tied to the final exemption list or under one of the separate applicant-category exemptions. Cases outside those categories remain subject to the standard 90% of median salary at the time of application.

The timing point in the rule is also explicit. Sweden tied the salary floor, whether 75% or 90%, to the country’s median salary at the time of application.

That means the first question in any case is no longer salary alone. The first question is classification: whether the job is exempt, excluded, or subject to the standard rule, and whether the applicant falls into one of the separate categories that also qualify for the lower threshold.

The treatment of berry-picking work shows how that analysis can split inside a single occupational area. Berry pickers and planters, etc. appear among the exempted occupations, but forest berry pickers cannot receive permits at all under Chapter 6, Section 2 of the Aliens Act.

Applicants and employers therefore face a narrower legal reading than a simple occupation label might suggest. Sweden’s framework allows a lower threshold for some roles in the category, while barring permits for the forest berry picker role itself.

The exclusion of personal assistants sits differently because Sweden identified the occupation as excluded entirely from work permits, without linking that exclusion in the same sentence to the Chapter 6, Section 2 bar that governs forest berry picker permits. The result is the same for applicants in that occupation: the work-permit route is closed.

Employees at qualifying start-ups add another layer to the system. Sweden limited that category to certain tech or life science companies in the start-up phase, under five years old and with fewer than 100 employees, placing those workers under the 75% salary level rather than the standard 90% threshold.

People seeking Swedish licensure in regulated health professions received similar treatment. Pharmacists, doctors, nurses and dentists with foreign qualifications can also fall under the lower salary floor while they pursue licensure.

Former students applying from within Sweden and people holding residence permits with or after temporary protection under the EU Temporary Protection Directive complete the four non-occupational exceptions. Those categories show that the new work-permit salary threshold does not depend only on what job is offered, but also on who is applying and under what status.

Sweden’s publication of the final exemption list closes one part of the uncertainty around the new salary regime, but it also puts more weight on careful sorting at the application stage. A case now turns on whether the role sits on the exemption list, whether it falls into an excluded occupation, and whether the applicant belongs to one of the groups that can still qualify at 75% of median salary.

Applicants and employers will need to check the occupation title against the final exemption list, identify whether the case involves excluded roles such as personal assistants or forest berry pickers, and read the relevant Migration Agency guidance alongside Chapter 6, Section 2 of the Aliens Act before filing.