SHARE
COPY LINK

CHILDREN

Förskola to Systembolaget: How I survived moving to Sweden with kids

Victoria Martínez moved to Sweden with her Spanish husband and their two children this year. Little did she know she would be in for the ride of a lifetime.

Förskola to Systembolaget: How I survived moving to Sweden with kids
Victoria Martínez and her two children. Photo: Private

Five months ago, when I imagined what our new life in Sweden would be like, it almost always involved glorious snowy days, my husband and myself drinking warm glögg from a sleek Bodum thermo jug by a cozy outdoor hearth while our two young children, warmly and adorably bundled, played cheerfully on sleds.

What I failed to consider in my happy fantasy was that, contrary to what I envisioned before my children came along, parenting is messy. Parenting in a new country is even messier. And, as I quickly discovered, not even previous experience as an expat completely prepared me for the realities of making a new life with my family in Sweden.

When I was young and single, I made the adventurous decision to leave my corporate job to travel, research and write in England. By chance, that is where I met the man who would become my husband, a Spaniard who shared my sense of wanderlust. Together, we lived for a time in Scotland before marrying and settling down in my home country, the United States. In time, American suburbia was traded for a new life in Spain, which neatly coincided with the arrival of our children, now two and four years old.

Although raising children in a country not my own wasn’t exactly easy, at least my husband was a native Spaniard and I had visited the country many times before moving there. For the children, life in Spain with the occasional holiday to the United States was all they knew. Sweden was uncharted territory for all of us. And as my husband went off to start his job with a good knowledge of Swedish, I felt like an inexperienced and poorly-equipped Sherpa guiding two very erratic and impulsive little mountaineers up Mount Everest.

As if the horrors of bringing the children on trips to Skatteverket and Försäkringskassan, the Swedish tax and insurance agencies, weren’t bad enough, I still have nightmares about all those early trips to the supermarket with them in tow. Never in my life have I seen a larger selection of dairy products than in Swedish supermarkets. And who knew there were so many types of flour? Without any knowledge of Swedish, just buying basics like whole milk and all-purpose flour required a translation app and ten minutes of googling. A situation made more stressful when my four-year-old spent that mostly unsupervised time racing around deliberately bumping into people so she could practise saying “förlåt,” while my two-year-old pulled things off shelves and incessantly screamed, “caca!” to try and get my attention.

READ ALSO: Sweden named best place on earth for international families

It should come as no surprise that with episodes like this occurring on a regular basis, the Swedish term for children's day care, förskola, became my favourite word, and every day I waited with anticipation for our application to be accepted. In any case, it was time. After spending most of the last few years being a stay-at-home mom, I was ready to get back to doing my research and writing. More importantly, we all needed to work on integration and I needed child-free time to focus on things like learning Swedish and getting my Swedish driving licence, not to mention setting up our new home. Just buying ceiling lights and privacy blinds for our entire apartment, in addition to lamps for each window, was turning into a part-time job, and every parent knows that children and lamp stores are not a good combination.

But when the children were finally offered a place in a wonderful förskola, my dreams of leisurely supermarket trips and casual browsing of lighting were interrupted by the reality of children’s regnkläder and vinterkläder, rain clothes and winter clothes. Unlike in Spain or Texas where you plop your kid in a raincoat and boots on a rainy day, and any warm coat, hat, scarf and gloves on a cold one, this was a science. Rain jackets and trousers: should I buy lined or unlined? Winter jackets and trousers: winter is coming. Fleeces: including hats to go under other hats! Gloves: knit, rain AND winter. Don’t forget to buy two of everything, one for förskola and one for home (three is even better if your children are as rough on clothes as mine are). Oh, and put their names on EVERYTHING.

Enter two new Swedish words into my vocabulary: Systembolaget and loppis. Thanks to them, my local mega store Smålänningen, and two new Swedish friends, my children did not have to start förskola wrapped in blankets and trash bags sealed by duct tape, and I kept my sanity mostly intact.

Now, winter is upon us and life in Sweden is almost like I imagined. The children are certainly warmly bundled. Somewhat haphazardly, perhaps, in a vast array of both new and used outerwear (all of which already seems equally well-used) and not-quite-matching accessories (they’ve each already lost or destroyed at least one pair of gloves). The sleds are bought and ready for them to cheerfully enjoy – but mostly fight over – on the next snowy day. As for my husband and me, at the moment we are happy drinking warm glögg generously ladled out of a pot on the stove. After all, Bodum is a Danish brand, so it never really belonged in my Swedish fantasy anyway.

Victoria Martínez is an American historical researcher, writer and author of three historical non-fiction books. She lives in Småland county, Sweden, with her Spanish husband and their two children.

Would you like to write a guest column for The Local? E-mail us at [email protected].

For members

MOVING TO SWEDEN

Reader question: How can I retire to Sweden?

Although Sweden may be a less popular retirement destination than other European countries like Spain or Portugal, there are many pensioners who plan on retiring in the Nordic country. What are the rules for foreigners?

Reader question: How can I retire to Sweden?

Nordic citizens

Perhaps unsurprisingly, it’s easiest for Nordic citizens to retire in Sweden, as they enjoy unrestricted rights to live and work in any of the Nordic countries without the need for any kind of work or residence permits or EU residence documents.

This means that citizens of the Nordic countries can essentially just move to Sweden and register their arrival at the Tax Agency upon their arrival, bringing with them a passport or national ID card, as well as documentation proving their civil status (married, registered partner, single or divorced), and the birth certificate of any children moving with them.

EU citizens

The situation for EU citizens is similar to that of Nordic citizens. 

EU citizens also report their move to the Tax Agency upon arrival in Sweden, and will need to show identity documents (such as a national ID card or passport), provide their full address in Sweden, including four-figure apartment number if applicable, as well as the name of whoever they are living with if they are living in someone else’s home.

They will also need to prove that they have EU right of residence. This can be done in a number of ways, including proof of work or proof of studies, but the relevant path for most retirees is proof of self-sufficiency, which essentially means documenting housing costs, including electricity and home insurance, and showing that you have some means of covering these financially, such as via a bank statement with a high enough balance, confirmation of a pension of a sufficient size, or an employment contract and payslip from another country, if the applicant is not planning on fully retiring straight away.

It’s also possible to prove self-sufficiency by providing a document or letter confirming that someone else can support you financially, along with a bank statement to back this up. There’s no application fee.

EU citizens may also need to provide proof of their civil status, whether they’re moving alone or with someone else.

Non-EU citizens

As a general rule, it’s not possible to retire to Sweden as a non-EU citizen unless your partner is a Swede or an EU citizen, or unless you’re a long-term resident of another EU country (if that applies to you, see below for details of these routes).

This is due to the fact that non-EU citizens need residency permits to live in Sweden, and these are only granted due to work, studies, or moving to live with someone who already has the right to live in Sweden.

If you don’t have a Swedish or EU partner but you have plans to retire to Sweden at some point in the future, you could in theory get a work permit in Sweden and work until you qualify for permanent residency, which usually means working in Sweden for at least five years.

Note that Sweden’s government is planning on reforming the permanent residency rules, so it’s likely that applicants choosing to do this would have to take language and civics tests in order to qualify for permanent residency in the future. 

It is also likely that the residence requirement for permanent residency could be extended or otherwise altered within the next five years, so be prepared that the rules could change in the future if you do decide to go down this route.

What if only one of us is an EU citizen?

If you’re planning to move as a couple but only one of you is an EU citizen, the non-EU citizen should be able to qualify for a residence card as a family member of an EU citizen.

This allows the non-EU family member to live in Sweden as long as their EU citizen partner fulfils EU right of residence rules (by documenting self-sufficiency as explained above, for example). There is no application fee.

In order to get an EU residence card, the non-EU citizen must have a valid passport, be able to show that they belong to the same family as the EU citizen (through, for example, a marriage certificate or proof of cohabitation), and the EU citizen must be able to show that they meet the EU right of residence requirements.

This doesn’t just apply to partners or spouses of EU citizens either – it can be used for children of either parent aged 21 or under, or other family members who are financially dependent on the applicant (including children over 21 and parents, or anyone the applicant takes care of due to serious health reasons).

You may also need to provide proof that you are either covered by the social insurance system in your country of origin, or proof that you have taken out full-coverage private healthcare insurance for your stay in Sweden.

Swedes are not normally considered EU citizens in this context, unless they were recently living with their partner in another EU/EEA country or Switzerland. See below for the rules for couples consisting of a non-EU citizen and a Swede.

What if one of us is a non-EU citizen and the other is a Swede?

The process for non-EU citizens wishing to retire to Sweden with their Swedish partner varies, depending on where the couple lived before retiring.

If the couple lived together in another EU country (this includes the UK if they lived there together before Brexit), they can apply under the route described above for non-EU partners of EU citizens.

If that is not the case, they can apply for a residence permit to move to a spouse or cohabiting partner in Sweden, sometimes referred to as a “sambo visa” (sambo is the Swedish word for a cohabiting partner).

In this case, the Swede must be able to support both themselves and their partner (which in 2023 meant having at least 9,445 kronor left after housing costs are paid each month), and have a house which is big enough – a home of at least one room with a kitchen or kitchenette, for a couple without children. The application fee is 2,000 kronor for an adult.

What about non-EU citizens who previously lived in Sweden?

In some cases, non-EU citizens who have previously held a permanent residence permit in Sweden are eligible for a new residence permit if they can prove sufficient ties to Sweden.

If they have been living abroad for three years or less, they must have lived in Sweden for at least four years in order to be eligible for a new permit. 

Non-EU citizens living outside Sweden for more than three years must usually have lived in Sweden for at least ten years to qualify for a “returning to Sweden” permit, or if they can prove sufficient ties to Sweden in some other way.

The Migration Agency will assess your application to determine how strong your ties are to Sweden compared with your home country or the other country you have been living in since you left Sweden, and factors such as where you chose to have a family or whether your reasons for leaving Sweden were out of your control will be taken into account.

If your permit is granted, your partner or any other family member wishing to come with you will also need to apply for a permit to join you in Sweden, most likely a residence permit to move to a spouse or cohabiting partner in Sweden.

What about non-EU citizens who have long-term residence permits from another EU country?

In some cases, non-EU citizens who have lived in another EU country for at least five years are able to move to Sweden under EU freedom of movement rules.

This particular route applies to holders of the EC/EU residence permit for long term residents. This grants them certain rights similar to the rights of EU citizens, including the right to move to other EU countries to work, study, start a business or live off a pension.

Not all EU countries issue these permits – Denmark and Ireland do not issue long-term resident status cards to their non-EU residents – and they have different names in different countries, but if you have one of these cards you will be able to move to Sweden as long as you also fulfill the self-sufficiency rules for EU citizens. You will need to apply for the card in your country of residence before moving to Sweden.

You cannot, however, register your arrival at the Tax Agency, like EU citizens, and will instead need to apply for a residence permit from the Migration Agency within three months of arrival.

You will need to fill in this form (Application for a residence permit for persons who have long-term resident status in another EU state and their family members, 137011), and either hand it in directly to a Migration Agency permit service unit or post it to the Migration Agency office responsible for EEA and long-term residence permits. The fee costs 1,500 kronor for adults and adult family members, or 750 kronor for children under the age of 18. 

What about Brits?

Brits moving to Sweden after December 31st, 2020 are subject to the same rules as non-EU citizens. This means that they will need to apply for a residence permit or a card proving right of residence as a family member of an EU citizen if they wish to move to Sweden, or will need to hold a EC/EU residence permit from another EU country.

SHOW COMMENTS