Sweden5 min read
Moving to Sweden as a student: housing queues and the personnummer
The Draimo team
Short answer
In Stockholm, student rooms from SSSB go to whoever has queued longest, so join the queue the day you apply to university: it costs nothing and every day counts. If you will study in Sweden for at least a year, register with the Swedish Tax Agency (Skatteverket) after you arrive to get a personnummer, which you need for a bank account, BankID and much of daily life.
Try it in Draimo
Ask about your move to Sweden
- I start at KTH in August. How many days in the SSSB queue do I need for a corridor room, and what else can I do?
- How do I get a personnummer as an international student on a two-year master's?
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Stockholm's housing queue
SSSB, Stockholm's largest student housing company, lets rooms by queue days. You collect a day for every day you are a member, apply for the rooms you want, and the applicant with the most days is offered the room. Joining costs nothing, and after 90 days SSSB checks that you are a student in Stockholm and a member of a student union.
Corridor rooms often need around three months of queue days, and popular areas such as Lappis far more. That is why the day you apply to university is the day to join. Other cities, such as Lund and Uppsala, have their own student housing companies, and some universities reserve rooms for new international students.
The personnummer
If you will live in Sweden for at least a year, register with Skatteverket in person after you arrive. Bring your passport, your residence permit card if you are from outside the EU/EEA, your admission letter and proof of your address. The number usually comes within a few weeks.
Students on shorter programmes get a coordination number instead, which covers some but not all of the same uses.
Where Draimo helps
Ask Draimo in Swedish or English what your university offers new international students, what Skatteverket needs from you, or how the queue works in your city. Pick KTH or Lund and Draimo answers from that university's own published pages. With Agent Mode on a monthly plan, it reads the housing company and agency pages too, and cites them. Draimo does not apply for you.
Questions people ask
- How long is the student housing queue in Stockholm?
- SSSB rooms go by queue days. Corridor rooms often need around three months of days and popular areas far more, so join the day you apply.
- Can international students get a personnummer?
- Yes, if you will live in Sweden for at least a year. Register in person with Skatteverket after you arrive, with your passport, permit, admission letter and address.
- Does it cost anything to join SSSB's queue?
- No. Joining costs nothing, and you start collecting queue days immediately.
Sources we checked
- SSSB: Stockholm student housing
- Stockholm University: Swedish personal identity number
- Skatteverket: moving to Sweden
Checked 30 September 2026. Dates and amounts change every year. Draimo reads the current pages when you ask.
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