To be allowed to live legally in Sweden you must have a residence permit, unless you come from one of the Scandinavian countries or from a country within the European Union, EU.  Here are the countries.

I come from an EU-country. Am I allowed to live in Sweden?

Answer: You can live in Sweden for three months. If you want to stay on after that period, you must have a place at a school or college, or a chance to get a job.

I come from a country outside of the EU. Can I live in Sweden?

Answer: If you need to move to Sweden to join your family or because you have received a place at a school or college, you can apply for a residence permit, but you must do that before you travel into Sweden. You apply to the Swedish Migration Board. It tells you how to do this on its web site, www.migrationsverket.se.

I’m already in Sweden and I’m afraid to go back home. What should I do?

Answer: If it’s dangerous for you to travel back to your home country, you can apply for a residence permit even though you are already in Sweden. This is called seeking asylum. If you are under 18 and seek asylum without your parents, the Swedish Migration Board will arrange for you to live somewhere and go to school while they investigate whether or not you can be allowed to stay in Sweden.
It’s difficult to get a residence permit. Most people who seek asylum receive the answer “no”. Usually the Swedish Migration Board thinks that it’s best for children who seek asylum without their parents to go and stay with their relatives in their home country. If you are under 18, you won’t need to travel to your former country until there is somebody there who can take care of you. But if you have travelled through another EU-country or received papers from that country, you can be sent back there alone. It’s even more difficult to get a residence permit if you have been in Sweden for a long time without papers before you decided to seek asylum, or if you have committed a crime.

I want to go home but I don’t know if there will be a problem!

Answer: There are organizations that try to help bring families together and solve other problems. It may be possible to find adults in your home country who can help you. The Red Cross is the main organisation in Sweden that deals with these issues. Here are some Red Cross phone numbers that you can call in order to find your family or get help in returning to your country of origin.

The Scandinavian countries and the EU-countries  are:
Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Greece, Ireland, Iceland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, The Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Great Britain, The Czech Republic, Germany, Hungary and Austria.