Apply for approval to receive visiting researchers

The Act (2008:290) on Approval of Research Principals to Receive Visiting Researchers is based on the European Council’s “Visiting Researcher Directive” (2005/71/EC). The purpose of the Visiting Researcher Directive is to make it easier for researchers from countries outside the EU or EEA to enter, stay and move around the EU, and for the EU in this way to attract more researchers from the rest of the world.

The law means that the public authority, physical person or legal entity that conducts research activities and plans to receive a researcher from a third country for more than three months must get approval to do so. The Swedish Research Council is the public authority that tries issues relating to approval according to the Ordinance (2008:353) on Approval of Research Principals to Receive Visiting Researchers.

Act (2008:290) on Approval of Research Principals to Receive Visiting Researchers

Ordinance (2008:353) on Approval of Research Principals to Receive Visiting Researchers

The law entails a three-stage procedure

1. To receive a visiting researcher, the research principal has to be approved by the Swedish Research Council.
2. The research principal (a higher education institution or research institute, for example) and the visiting researcher shall enter into a reception contract that specifies the research project and certain other issues relating to the visiting researcher’s employment and other areas.
3. The reception contract forms the basis for the visiting researcher’s application for a residence permit to the Swedish Migration Agency.

Forms for reception contracts and applications for residence permit can be downloaded from the Swedish Migration Agency’s website.

Apply using a form

Our instruction VRFS 2013:1 lists the information you should attach to the application. It also states the amount a visiting researcher must have access to for subsistence. According to the Ordinance (2008:353), it shall correspond to the maximum amount a student may receive as study funding per week according to Chapter 3, Section 11 of the Student Aid Act (1999:1395); that is an amount equal to 5.07 per cent of the base amount for social security purposes, recalculated into a monthly sum.As from 1 April 2014, this amount is 9 700 SEK per month – according to VRFS 2014:1.

Please send the form to us by ordinary post.