Removals UK to Sweden

Sweden joined the EU in 1995. So it follows the EU Transfer of Residence customs rules, not Norway's separate Tolletaten system. That has two results:

• Swedish customs uses the standard EU rule that you must have owned your goods for six months (not Norway's 12 months).
• Goods going from the UK to Sweden do not need a T1 EU External Transit Declaration, because the whole route runs through EU countries (France or Belgium, Germany, Denmark, then Sweden).

Three things make Sweden different from the other EU countries in this series. It has its own customs authority, the Tullverket. It has its own residency registration system, the Folkbokföring. And it has unusual geography. Sweden is the longest country in mainland Europe, stretching 1,574 km from Malmö in the south to Kiruna in the far north. Deliveries around Stockholm need very different planning from deliveries in northern Sweden.

Sweden is also one of the biggest destinations in this series for British tech, engineering and academic professionals. It has many world-famous employers: Ericsson, Spotify, Volvo, IKEA, Scania, ABB, Sandvik, H&M, Klarna and King. Add strong universities and the Øresund Bridge, which links Malmö to Copenhagen, Denmark's capital. Together, these make London to Sweden a busy route for professional moves.

Our wider services abroad are described on our international removals page. For AIM accreditation, visit our About Us page.

Swedish Customs Clearance: Tullverket, MOMS at 25% and the Transfer of Residence Framework

Sweden's customs authority is the Tullverket (Swedish Customs). Swedish MOMS (Mervärdesskatt, the same as VAT) is 25%. That is the highest rate in the EU, shared with Denmark. It is well above Germany (19%), the Netherlands (21%), France (20%), Austria (20%), Luxembourg (17%), Italy (22%) and Portugal (23%). On a household declared at £60,000, a failed Transfer of Residence claim means a MOMS bill of £15,000.

The Tullverket is Sweden's own customs authority. Sweden is in the EU, so the standard EU Transfer of Residence rules apply. Goods you have owned for at least six months, and import within 12 months of becoming resident in Sweden, come in duty-free. But the Tullverket applies these rules with its own processes and paperwork.

For Transfer of Residence, the Tullverket's main requirement is a detailed goods inventory (varuforteckning). It must list every item by description, quantity and second-hand value. You also need proof that you live in Sweden and proof that you lived outside Sweden before.

Swedish MOMS at 25% is the same as Denmark's and the highest in the EU. So if a Transfer of Residence claim fails on a household declared at £60,000, you owe £15,000. That is the highest possible bill of any EU country in this series.

That is why the Tullverket checks inventories closely. Inventories for Swedish customs must be detailed and accurate. If an inventory looks incomplete or does not match the declared value, the Tullverket can open and inspect the shipment. So before we prepare the Swedish customs paperwork, we check your full inventory and update its second-hand values.

What the Tullverket Needs

For Tullverket clearance and duty-free Transfer of Residence relief, have these documents ready. Every move to Sweden includes the forms, help filling them in and a check before departure.

• Passport copy, to show your identity and nationality to the Tullverket
• Varuforteckning (goods inventory): an itemised list giving the description, quantity and second-hand value of every item in the shipment. This is the Tullverket's main document for Transfer of Residence
• Proof of your Swedish address: a rental contract, property deed, or written confirmation of your address from the Skatteverket (Swedish Tax Agency) after Folkbokföring registration
• Folkbokföring confirmation, proof that you are registered in Sweden's National Population Register at the Swedish Tax Agency (Skatteverket). You need it to prove legal Swedish residence to the Tullverket
• Personnummer confirmation (if you have it). This is Sweden's personal identity number, issued by the Skatteverket after Folkbokföring registration, and almost every Swedish admin process needs it
• Proof that you lived in the UK before: council tax bills, bank statements or employer letters covering the qualifying period before you became resident in Sweden
• A signed statement that you have owned and used the goods for at least six months, and will not sell or transfer them within 12 months of import
• Your signed customs authorisation, so RMV can represent you directly with the Tullverket
• The CMR note, filled in by the driver at UK collection

Get boxes and wrapping for your move to Sweden from our Packing Shop.

Personnummer, Samordningsnummer and Folkbokföring: Sweden's Residency Registration System

Sweden's Personnummer (personal identity number) is the most central ID system of any country in this series. The Skatteverket (Swedish Tax Agency) issues it when you register in the Folkbokföring (population register). You need it to open a Swedish bank account, register with a healthcare provider (Vårdcentral), sign a lease, use public services and file a Transfer of Residence customs declaration with the Tullverket.

The Personnummer is a 10-digit number in the format YYMMDD-XXXX (often written with the full year, YYYYMMDD-XXXX). Getting it is the single most important admin step in a move from the UK to Sweden. Without it, you cannot:

• open a bank account (no Swedish bank will open one without it)
• register with a doctor
• use BankID, the digital ID system behind almost all Swedish online services
• complete some Swedish government online processes for residency and customs

To get a Personnummer, you give the Skatteverket proof of your Swedish address (a rental contract or property deed) and register in the Folkbokföring (the National Population Register). It usually takes 1–3 weeks after you apply.

Some British nationals cannot get a Personnummer straight away. For example, you may arrive before a long-term rental or purchase is finalised. In that case, the Skatteverket issues a Samordningsnummer (coordination number) as a temporary ID.

The Samordningsnummer works like a Personnummer for most official purposes, including some banking and customs processes. But it does not give you full residency registration. At the pre-move survey, our move managers advise on Personnummer and Samordningsnummer timings, because your registration status affects when we can submit the Tullverket paperwork.

The Øresund Corridor: Malmö, Lund and the Cross-Border Stockholm–Copenhagen Connection

The Øresund Bridge is a 16-km fixed link between Malmö in Sweden and Copenhagen in Denmark. It opened in July 2000 and created one of Europe's most unusual cross-border city regions. The Øresund region (also called the Greater Copenhagen–Malmö region) has about 4 million people. That makes it one of the largest urban areas in the Nordic countries.

For removals from the UK, the Øresund Bridge is the usual road route into southern Sweden. That covers Malmö, Lund, Helsingborg, Kristianstad and the whole Skåne region. The bridge runs between Copenhagen Airport's transport hub and Malmö's Hyllie station. Road traffic from the UK to southern Sweden normally goes through Denmark and over the bridge. So the van is briefly in EU territory (Denmark) before entering Sweden. But unlike Norway, no T1 transit document is needed, because every country on the route is in the EU.

Malmö and Lund each attract British movers for different reasons.

• Malmö is southern Sweden's largest city. It has a big tech sector (Game Duct, Axis Communications) and a university (Malmö University). It is also known as a cheaper place to live for professionals who work in Copenhagen.
• Lund, 15 km from Malmö, is home to Lund University, always ranked among Scandinavia's top research universities. Next to it is the Lund University Bioscience District (LUBD), one of Sweden's main life sciences and pharmaceutical research clusters.

British academics and postdoctoral researchers moving to Lund usually move small loads by part load or groupage. For the smallest research and academic moves to Lund, our man and van service costs less.

Sweden's Cities: Where British Professionals and Researchers Move

Most British movers to Sweden go to a few cities, shaped by big global employers, world-class research universities and the Øresund corridor:

• Stockholm has the most removals.
• Gothenburg draws car industry and maritime professionals.
• Malmö and Lund serve the Øresund corridor.
• Uppsala is a university city.
• Linköping and Västerås draw engineering and aerospace professionals.

Stockholm, Tech, Finance, Spotify, Klarna and the Nordic Startup Capital

Stockholm is Sweden's capital and the biggest destination for removals from the UK. It is Europe's most productive startup hub outside London. According to data widely quoted between 2019 and 2025, it produces more unicorn companies per person than any city in the world except Silicon Valley. That draws a steady flow of British tech professionals.

The big employers are household names:

• Spotify (founded 2006, headquartered in Stureplan)
• Klarna (Swedish fintech, founded 2005, Stockholm headquarters)
• King (mobile games, maker of Candy Crush, with headquarters in Stockholm as well as London and Barcelona)
• iZettle (bought by PayPal)
• Mojang (maker of Minecraft, owned by Microsoft)
• dozens of Series A–D startups across SoFo, Vasastan and Östermalm

Stockholm is also home to Ericsson's global headquarters in Kista (the Kista Science City tech park north of central Stockholm), Electrolux, H&M's global headquarters and Nordea, one of the largest financial groups in the Nordic region.

Most Stockholm deliveries are to flats, because most people in Stockholm rent apartments. Most British professionals moving there bring the contents of a one- to three-bedroom flat, by part load or groupage. Stockholm's Gamla Stan (Old Town) has narrow streets, like other historic European city centres.

Our storage service is often used to cover gaps between Stockholm rental contracts. Sweden's rental queue system (bostadskö) makes it hard to get a lease starting on a set date, and storage gives you flexibility.

Gothenburg (Göteborg), Volvo, Volvo Cars, SKF and the Automotive Corridor

Gothenburg is Sweden's second-largest city and its centre for the car industry and shipping. It is the headquarters of:

• Volvo AB (heavy trucks, buses and construction equipment)
• Volvo Cars (passenger cars, now listed separately after Geely restructured its ownership)
• SKF (the world's largest bearing maker)
• Stena Line (Europe's largest ferry operator)

Gothenburg is also one of Europe's biggest cargo ports and a major maritime technology centre. British engineers, designers and car industry professionals move there steadily for roles at Volvo or SKF. AstraZeneca's large research site in Mölndal, just outside Gothenburg, also employs many scientists. Scania (trucks and buses, part of the Volkswagen Group) is based in Södertälje, south of Stockholm.

Gothenburg moves are usually bigger than Stockholm moves. More people live in family houses in the suburbs, rather than flats, so full loads are more common on this route. Our removals service handles full-load family moves to Gothenburg, and our handyman service assembles and places furniture at your Gothenburg home.

Uppsala, Uppsala University and Life Sciences

Uppsala is 70 km north of Stockholm, 25 minutes by express train. It is home to Uppsala University, Scandinavia's oldest university. It was founded in 1477 and is always ranked among the world's top 100 universities.

The Dag Hammarskjöld Centrum and Uppsala Science Park, next to the university, bring together many life sciences, pharmaceutical and biotech research jobs. British academics, postdoctoral researchers and pharmaceutical scientists moving to Uppsala usually bring the contents of a studio or one- to two-bedroom flat, by part load.

Linköping and Västerås, Aerospace, Defence and ABB

Linköping, south-east of Stockholm, is the headquarters of Saab AB, Sweden's main aerospace and defence company. Saab makes the Gripen fighter jet and employs many British defence and aerospace engineers. Linköping is also home to Linköping University's Institute of Technology, which supplies Saab with a steady stream of engineering graduates.

Västerås, 100 km west of Stockholm, is the historic headquarters of ABB (Asea Brown Boveri), the global power and automation engineering group. It is a major centre for electrical engineering and energy technology jobs. British engineers moving to Linköping for Saab or to Västerås for ABB are a small but steady group on this route.

Transit Times to Swedish Cities

Typical times from London to your door in Sweden, including Tullverket clearance. The usual road route passes through France or Belgium, Germany and Denmark, then into Sweden over the Øresund Bridge or on the Helsingborg–Helsingør ferry.

• Malmö / Lund (Skåne), full load 2–3 days; part load 4–6 days
• Helsingborg (Skåne), full load 2–3 days; part load 4–6 days
• Gothenburg (Västra Götaland), full load 2–3 days; part load 4–7 days
• Linköping (Östergötland), full load 3–4 days; part load 5–8 days
• Västerås (Västmanland), full load 3–4 days; part load 5–8 days
• Örebro (Örebro County), full load 3–4 days; part load 5–8 days
• Stockholm (Stockholm County), full load 3–4 days; part load 5–8 days
• Uppsala (Uppsala County), full load 3–4 days; part load 5–8 days
• Sundsvall / Mid-Sweden, full load 4–5 days; part load 6–10 days
• Umeå / Northern Sweden, full load 5–6 days; part load 7–11 days
• Luleå / Kiruna (far north), full load 6–7 days; part load 8–12 days (road conditions above the Arctic Circle depend on the season)

For guides to moving to Sweden, Tullverket inventory rules, Personnummer application steps and 2026 moving checklists, visit our blog.

Your Complete UK-to-Sweden Moving Solution

RMV Storage & Removals handles your whole move from the UK to Sweden. That covers the pre-move survey, preparing your varuforteckning inventory, Tullverket customs clearance, help with your Personnummer and Folkbokföring, routing over the Øresund Bridge and door-to-door delivery to any Swedish address from Malmö to Kiruna.

• Our removals service handles the whole physical move.
• Our storage service covers gaps caused by the Stockholm bostadskö rental queue and mismatched UK and Swedish dates.
• Our man and van service handles academic moves to Lund, research moves to Uppsala and small Stockholm flat moves.
• Our handyman service assembles furniture at your Swedish home.

Boxes and wrap are available from our Packing Shop.