- We will primarily contact you through your Swedish digital mailbox
- When will you decide in my case?
- What is the process after application?
- When we have requested additional documents
- When you want to submit additional documents after you have applied
- When we have notified you of a summary of findings (yttrande) from UHR
What happens after I have applied?
We process applications in the order in which they were received. You will be contacted if we need any additional documents or information. You can also submit further documents that we have not specifically requested during the processing of your case.
We will primarily contact you through your Swedish digital mailbox
The confirmation on your application, information, request for further documents and our decision in your case will primarily be sent to your Swedish digital mailbox (for example KIVRA. This is not the same as your e-mail address). If you do not have a Swedish digital mailbox, your decision will be sent through physical mail to your home address.
When will you decide in my case?
If you have applied with a foreign teaching degree, the processing time is approximately 8–16 weeks. Some cases are processed faster, and a few take longer.
The processing time in your case may be affected by the following factors:
- Which type of degree you have
- Which school forms, subjects, and grades you have applied for eligibility to teach
- Whether the Swedish Council for Higher Education (Universitets- och högskolerådet) has a reason to contact any agencies in your country of education
If we have taken longer than 6 months to decide in your case, you have the right to request a decision. The request must be made in writing, by mail or e-mail. You have the right to request a decision once and have your request reviewed within 4 weeks.
What is the process after application?
1. We register and review your application
If you submit your application by e-mail, we will register your case as soon as possible, most often on the same date that you have submitted the application. If you apply by mail, we will register your case on the same day that we receive your application. It can take up to a week before we register documents that you have submitted by mail.
You will receive a confirmation message when we have registered your application. The message will also contain your unique case number, a cover page to use when submitting additional documents, as well as information regarding the application fee. If we have not received your payment on time, we will reject your application.
We review your application to ensure that it is complete and that you have submitted all documents that are needed to assess your case. If we need further documentation, we will contact you with information on how to supplement your case. You will have two weeks to submit the documents that we have requested.
Once your application is complete, we send your documents to the Swedish Council for Higher Education (UHR) for assessment.
Your documents will also be archived with both agencies.
2. UHR assesses your foreign credentials
The Swedish Council for Higher Education (UHR) is the government agency responsible for assessment of foreign studies. UHR will review your case and determine whether your foreign credentials entitle you to a teaching qualification in your country of education and whether it corresponds to a Swedish teaching degree, preschool teaching degree, or recreation instructor degree (for the equivalent of the Swedish school form “fritidshemmet”). In certain cases, UHR will also be in contact with government agencies, places of employment or universities in your country of education.
Once UHR has assessed your case, they send a summary of findings (yttrande) to us. After receiving the summary, we will inform you about whether your foreign credentials correspond to a Swedish degree and whether you meet all of the requirements for certification. If we find that you do not meet the requirements, we may also request further documents at this stage.
If you submit additional foreign merits while your case is ongoing, we will send them on to UHR for assessment.
3. We conduct a comprehensive evaluation of your case
We conduct a comprehensive evaluation of the summary of findings from UHR regarding your foreign credentials, as well as your Swedish credentials. We will contact you if we need any further information or documentation.
4. We decide in your case
We decide in your case and the decision will be sent to you.
When we have requested additional documents
If any of the required documents are missing from your application, we will contact you and request them. In order to process your application, you must submit the following:
- A completed application form
- A copy of your teaching degree, preschool teaching degree or recreation instructor degree (all pages), in the language in which it was issued
- Your transcript of records: a list of the courses you have completed, including grades specified for each course, in the language in which it was issued
- Translations of your degree and transcript to Swedish or English. You do not need to translate documents that have been issued in Danish, Finnish, Faeroese, Icelandic, Meänkieli, Norwegian or Sami.
- A certificate of proficiency in Swedish
- A certificate of your teaching experience, if you have worked as a teacher or preschool teacher (in Sweden or abroad)
- Proof of payment of the application fee
In certain cases, we may request additional documents even if you fulfil the requirements above, for example if you have sent in documents that may lead to extended eligibility to teach.
Submit your documents on time
You have two weeks to submit documents that we have requested. We will not decide in your case before this deadline. If you are unable to submit your documents within the time frame, we are able to extend the deadline by one week, upon request. If you have not submitted your documents on time, you may risk having your application dismissed or not being granted eligibility to teach in all school forms, grades, and subjects that you are entitled to.
Submit additional documents
Skolverket
Box 758
981 27 Kiruna
Sweden
When you want to submit additional documents after you have applied
You are able to submit additional documents to your case, until we have made our decision. Please note that you should not send in a new application, but simply send in the documents that you want to add to your ongoing case. Use the cover page with your unique case number if you send the documents by mail.
Submit additional documents
You can submit additional documents to your case, until we have made our decision. Please note that you should not send us a new application, but simply submit the documents that you want to add to your ongoing case. Submit additional documents using our digital form or by mail. Please submit the documents as pdf.
Digital form
Länk till annan webbplats.
By mail:
Skolverket
Box 758
981 27 Kiruna
Sweden
Remember to use the cover page
When you submit documents by mail, we ask that you use the cover page containing your unique case number, which you received from us. You can find the cover page in the confirmation message we sent out when your application was registered, or in our request for additional documents, if you have received such a message. Please ensure that the cover page is at the top of your documents since they will be automatically scanned on arrival. Without a cover page, your documents may not be scanned correctly.
When we have notified you of a summary of findings (yttrande) from UHR
As a part of evaluating your case, your documents are sent to the Swedish Council for Higher Education (UHR) for assessment. UHR reviews your case and issues a summary of findings where your foreign credentials are compared to a Swedish teaching degree, preschool teaching degree or recreation instructor degree. If UHR has determined that there are requirements that are not met by your foreign credentials, we will inform you of their findings before we decide in your case. We will also inform you if there are additional documents that you can send in to show that you meet the requirements, for example certificates of experience or further university studies.
FAQ
We process a lot of applications and are unable to say when we will decide in your case.
We handle all applications in the order in which we received them. The processing time may vary depending on which type of degree you have and which school forms, subjects, and grades you want eligibility to teach. Sometimes, we also have reason to contact agencies or universities in your country of education, which may prolong the process.
For applications with foreign qualifications, the processing time is approximately 8-16 weeks. We need this time in order to contact other government agencies and universities to assess your case. You will be contacted by e-mail if we need any additional documents or information, so it is important that you have provided an e-mail address that you check frequently.
Read the summary from UHR as well as the accompanying message from the National Agency for Education carefully. If there is anything that you would like to comment on, clarify or add, you can submit a statement to us. You can also supplement your case with additional documents. If you do not wish to submit a statement nor additional documents, you do not need to do anything in response to the message.
You are not guaranteed certification, even if your evaluation shows that you have a teaching degree. In an evaluation of foreign degrees (utlåtande), UHR merely determines which Swedish type of degree the foreign merits most closely correspond to.
After reviewing your application for certification, however, we will send your documents to UHR where your qualifications will be assessed according to the specific requirements for Swedish teaching degrees, preschool teaching degrees and recreation instructor degrees. UHR will summarise their findings in a so-called “yttrande” to the National Agency for Education. Such a summary contains different information from an evaluation (“utlåtande”).
The Council for Higher Education (UHR) assesses your documents according to the specific requirements for a Swedish degree for the school forms, grades and subjects that correspond to your qualifications. After the assessment, they submit a summary of findings to the National Agency for Education.
Before we decide in your case, you have an opportunity to submit further documents or a statement with comments on the summary of findings. If you have no further documents to submit and you do not wish to comment on the summary of findings, you do not need to do anything in response to the message.
When you have received the summary of findings:
- Read the summary from UHR as well as the accompanying message from the National Agency for Education carefully.
- If there is anything that you would like to comment on, clarify or add, you can submit a statement to us. You can also supplement your case with additional documents.
- If you do not wish to submit a statement nor additional documents, you do not need to do anything in response to the message.
For example, we will accept a certificate from a swimming hall in your municipality or a similar provider of courses in lifesaving out of water. The important part is that you submit documentation showing that you have successfully completed training in lifesaving specifically out of water.
Contrastive competence means that you are able to teach modern languages or English from a Swedish language perspective. You do not need to have taught in Swedish, but you must show that you have taught the modern language or English based on the Swedish language perspective. You will need to submit a certificate of studies or experience in order to show that you fulfil the requirement.
The processing time varies depending on which type of degree you have and which school forms, subjects, and grades you want eligibility to teach. When your case has been registered, we categorise it into different queues depending on those factors. The queues vary in length according to the number of- and complexity of cases, which means that the processing time may vary between cases. Because of this, people who have applied within the same time period may not receive their decisions at the same time.
Use the cover page that we have provided when you submit additional documents by mail.
If you do not have a program that allows you to split PDF-files, you can instead use your device’s “print to PDF” function, which lets you choose which specific pages to “print”. A new PDF-document will be created, that will only contain the pages that you have selected. This process does not require an actual printer and works on many different devices (such as computers and phones).
The exact steps for how to print to PDF depend on which PDF-reader you are using (for example Adobe Acrobat Reader, your browser or another reader). We refer you to the documentation and support pages for your particular PDF-reader for more information and guidance.