You’ve been granted the visa/ residence permit, you’ve arrived in Sweden. Now what? As mentioned in the previous post once you receive the decision you have two options. Option one – you go to the Swedish Embassy in your country to get fingerprinted, residence/ visa card, etc. OR if Sweden does not require you to have a visa prior to entrance in the country (US residents can stay 90 days without a visa), you can leave for Sweden as soon as you get the decision, and take care of the fingerprints, residence/ visa card, etc. when you arrive in Sweden. For the sake of this post we will assume you have arrived in Sweden with only a paper copy granting you the visa/ residence permit.

Upon arrival the very first thing you must do is visit the nearest Migrationsverket office. Follow this link to the Migrationsverket website, find you nearest office, and schedule an appointment. Once you have booked an appointment, you simply show up at the designated time, at the spot in the Migrationsverket office dedicated to residence cards. Here you will present your passport, visa papers, and any other documentation you have received up to this point in the process. They will ask a few simple questions confirming the information you have provided up to this point, you will then get your photo taken, and sign your name confirming everything is correct. After this has been completed you are done at the Migrationsverket office and you should receive your residence card within 2-3 weeks, delivered to your home address. The entire process at Migrationsverket was extremely simple and straightforward, taking no more than 5 minutes to complete the process.

The residence card is essential to the process and you cannot receive a person number, bank account, etc. without first attaining the residence card. Bottom line, as soon as you arrive in Sweden, or prior to arrival, book the appointment and get to Migrationsverket. In my experience, I received the residence card after about one week.

In the next posts I will be discussing the person number, SFI, working, and an ongoing commentary on life in Sweden. If you have any questions or comments please feel free to comment or send an email at movingtostockholm@gmail.com.

Cheers,

//Karl