Jag bor i Malmö. Jag flyttade från USA för tre månader sedan. (Det finns ingen igelkottar i USA.) Jag vill att see en igelkott på vild. Var kan jag se en igelkott?
(i am trying my best to learn swedish, so please don’t mind the mistakes.)
i’ve been in sweden for a few months now and i wanted to share my timeline of how i navigated all the administrative stuff in sweden. i saw someone post something similar in the comments on a post and it helped me, so i thought this might help someone else. if you have suggestions or you think i missed something, please let me know!
for some context: my husband and i are american, but i have citizenship in a different country in the EU.
T-10 weeks: HR applied for coordination number.
T-2 weeks: Completed “moving to Sweden” forms.
T0: Officially moved to Sweden into a second hand apartment found via qasa.
T0 + 2 days: Appointment with Skatteverket; notified by my work that a coordination number was assigned.
T0 + 5 days: Received personnummer and information about vårdcentral.
T0 + 2.5 weeks: Appointment for ID card.
T0 + 3.5 weeks: Husband applied for residence card and SFI.
T0 + 4 weeks: Received ID card; visited Handelsbanken to submit application. Husband’s application was rejected by the teller because he “had no purpose.”
T0 + 4 weeks + 1 day: Submitted application to Nordea.
T0 + 4.5 weeks: Husband submitted application to a different Handelsbanken branch.
T0 + 5.5 weeks: Nordea called to schedule appointment for bank account.
T0 + 6.5 weeks: Appointment with Nordea; opened bank account and got Swedish phone number. Sent out application for Försakringkässan.
T0 + 6.5 weeks + 1 day: Handelsbanken texted both of us that we could make an appointment for a bank account.
T0 + 7.5 weeks: Signed up for Swish.
thoughts & lessons learned…
i wish that i had submitted my application to nordea sooner and then just rescheduled the appointment if i hadn’t received my ID card yet. i wasn’t able to receive my first salary payment and dealing with the check they administered me was a nightmare.
i also wish my husband submitted his application for residence card sooner — he submitted the wrong one originally, which is why there was a delay. my husband is still waiting for his residence card and the estimated timeline when he submitted was 7 months, though the EU rules state he should be given this card within 6 months. 🙁 we were hoping to travel this summer, but looks like we will have to stay in sweden since his 90 days will be up soon.
i’ve been learning a lot of swedish via immersion, but i plan to sign up for SFI or swedish lessons sponsored by my work soon.
our next goals are to get bikes and my husband wants to get a driver’s license. my husband is also searching for a job. he’s hoping to find literally any job in malmö or lund (let me know if you have any leads), but as everyone knows it’s a v tough job market, especially for immigrants.
my legal name is alexandra, but I go by sasha (very normal nickname in my language, less intuitive in english). I’m starting a new job in a new country (english is the primary language in our work place) and trying to figure out how to handle my email signature professionally without making it awkward or confusing.
in my previous country & job, i just changed my email and preferred name in our system to sasha, but this is not possible here.
right now I have:
Alexandra “Sasha” Lastname
should i just sign off as sasha and have my signature read
Alexandra Lastname?
curious what other people with less-obvious nicknames do in professional settings.
my partner & i moved to sweden about a month ago. originally we had some affordable summer plans mapped out, but because he is waiting on his residence card he will not be able to leave the country until it arrives (and the current wait time is about 7 months 😭).
i have 3 weeks of paid vacation to use and we are based in malmö.
any advice or ideas are very appreciated!