Swedish court backs citizenship-registration refusal in surrogacy case
Sweden’s Supreme Administrative Court has upheld a refusal to register a US-born child as Swedish following an overseas surrogacy arrangement. It stressed that the registration decision does not determine whether the child is a Swedish citizen.
The child was born in 2018 after a US court recognised a Swedish woman as her legal mother. A Swedish court recognised that parenthood order in 2023, when the child was five.
The Tax Agency refused to enter Swedish citizenship in the population register because it was unclear whether the later recognition meant the child had acquired citizenship at birth. An appeal court ordered registration, but the Supreme Administrative Court overturned that decision on Thursday.
The court said registration must rest on clear conditions and readily established facts. It found arguments both for and against treating the recognised mother as the child’s parent from birth for citizenship purposes, with no legislation or guiding precedent settling the issue.
Its ruling concerns the register, rather than a blanket denial of citizenship to children born through surrogacy. Where citizenship is uncertain, the Migration Agency can consider an application for a declaration that a person is Swedish.
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