Welcome to VisaCommunities

For non EU-citizens:

“If you have had a work permit as an employee and worked a total of four years in the last seven years, you can apply for a permanent residence permit. You must have worked for the employer and in the occupation for which you have received a work permit.” (Extending a work permit)

What does working mean? “your wages reached at least SEK 13,000 per month, before taxes”, your wages (and other terms of employment) can also not be lower than what is the norm (according to the collective agreements) in your industry, and your employer must be paying insurance covering health, life, employment and pension. These rules are set to prevent wage dumping and erosion of the Swedish social security model.

If you intend to be self-employed (eg. starting a company) the rules are somewhat different.

For EU-citizens you wouldn’t really be applying for a permit in the first place.

EDIT: This is all assuming your permit of residency in Sweden is because of your work. If you have gotten temporary residency for some other reason and have been working at the same time … well the time needed might be different.