When we first started thinking about moving back to Sweden I had looked into the application process for Chris' residence permit. William and I are citizens and Chris had a permanent residence permit last time around, when we lived together in Gothenburg 2000 - 2005. However, if you leave the country for more than one year, you lose the residence status, and have to reapply to return. Other than the hassle, we were not concerned about whether he could get the permit again.
As I looked into the process, it was clear to me that it would be very difficult for us to apply from the US, even though this is the main rule. I called the Immigration board and the lady I spoke to agreed; for our circumstances it would be much easier to apply from within the country. The main reasons for this is when you apply based on family ties: a) you need to apply to move to your family member who lives in Sweden and b) you send your application to the regional Immigration office of the region you are planning to reside in. Obviously a) was an issue, since I was not living in Sweden at the time - we were moving there together! And also b) was an issue in the early stages of our move planning, since we did not know where in Sweden we were to end up. This is why we ended up moving without the residence permit, hoping for the best.
Once in Sweden we tried applying online, but got stopped after the first question: "Are you currently in Sweden?" When answering yes, it said you can't apply online. You need to return to your country of residence to apply. I called the immigration office to ask some questions, and when I asked how long the application process might be, I got the answer "seven to ten months"!!!! I wasn't really buying it, but thought maybe half of that would be reasonable for a simple case like ours. The uncertainty of it, however, made it difficult to make any plans for Chris to start working. Obviously, you need the residence permit to be able to work. Without it, it didn't make much sense for Chris to even start looking for a job, since he wouldn't be able to set a start date. We figured we would be in limbo for a while.
It took us several weeks to get the application ready and in the mail. It wasn't until the first days of this year that we mailed it. About a week after, we got a letter inviting us to the Immigration office for a hearing on January 28th. That was fast!
During our scheduled visit, we had separate interviews. The immigration officer asked us questions about our time spent in the US, about our reason to move back and most importantly, whether we were aware of the main rule, to apply from your country of residence. She then asked what would happen to us, if they were to enforce this rule - forcing Chris to leave to apply from the US. It was obvious to me, she had to ask this, to justify granting residence to someone breaking the rule. The hearing took approximately 30 minutes. Two days later Chris got a letter in the mail granting him permanent residence permit in Sweden. Wow! That was easy! Never would I have dreamed it would take less than a month!
So here we are, ready to start living the Swedish dream, whatever that might mean...
No comments:
Post a Comment