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Taking family vacations like native Swedes: Bringing our B-team to a Championship game

Learning to holiday like the locals comes with a sometimes very specific set of challenges, writer Victoria Martínez has learned.

Taking family vacations like native Swedes: Bringing our B-team to a Championship game
How to holiday like the Swedes. Photo: Victoria Martínez

When you’ve moved to a new country, learning how to vacation like the locals can be a lot like going from playing baseball to playing cricket, or from American football to rugby, or – to use a good Swedish comparison – ice hockey to innebandy (floorball). The game is similar, but the turf is unfamiliar, some of the equipment is new to you, the terminology is a bit foreign, and occasionally you find yourself going in the opposite direction as everyone else.

This has certainly been our experience from the moment we arrived in Sweden late last July. Flying in from Spain along with seemingly half of the Swedish population, I realized that we were already quite literally at cross purposes with Swedish holiday makers. Since my husband is Spanish and we had just lived in Spain for nearly four years, the chances that we're going to vacation in Spain anytime soon are almost nil.

Then there was our first experience in a Swedish hotel. Our very late arrival meant that we carried our two sleeping children, two cats and mountains of luggage from the car to the hotel room in absolute anonymity. The following morning, I realized that the peace of the previous night had belied the fact that the hotel was full of Swedes. I knew they were Swedes for the same reason they must have known we were not: they, unlike us, were almost universally quiet, reserved and physically distant.

I have since come to realize that my first impressions were only partly sweeping cultural generalizations. While Swedes can certainly be all the things I initially observed, they are quite capable of being the opposite. In contrast, my family’s combination of Spanish and American characteristics possibly renders us incapable of conducting ourselves in a quiet, reserved and physically distant fashion, especially while our children are so young. This sets us up for some interesting cultural assimilation challenges in Sweden, including our ability to act more like native Swedes than foreign tourists when we vacation here.

READ MORE: Read all The Local's stories about family life in Sweden


Learning to vacation like the locals comes with very specific challenges. Photo: Victoria Martínez

Fortunately, we have been in what I would call pre-season training for our first summer holidays in Sweden. Every outing, day trip and weekend away is serving to prepare us for what lies ahead. Like any team new to a competition, we’ve had our share of successes and failures in this process.

Our first big test, a multi-day excursion to Gothenburg for Christmas at Liseberg amusement park was a mixed bag. Planning was easy (we booked a package) and preparation was thorough (I am methodical about these things). Travel was as good as can be expected with two preschoolers wide awake in the back seat for significantly more than ten minutes. Our expectations of everything we went to see and do were met or exceeded. So far, so good. Except that during our time at Liseberg, I couldn’t help but notice that our children were the only ones not meticulously dressed in full winter attire and my husband and I appeared to be the only parents loudly calling and frantically chasing after their children.

In retrospect, I prefer to judge myself less harshly than I did that day. Rather than criticize myself for miscalculating weather conditions when dressing the children, I like to think that the other parents put their young children in bulky snow pants and winter boots not due to weather, but rather to impede their movements. This would helpfully explain why my children were the only ones bolting at every possible opportunity; and that, in turn, would justify why my husband and I were forced to draw attention to ourselves by running after them while shouting in a combination of Spanish and English. Lesson learned: When traveling in Sweden in winter, always dress your children in their full complement of winter clothing, even if the weather doesn’t seem to call for it, if only to save face.

READ ALSO: Are you as Swedish as a four-year-old?


Always dress your children in full winter clothing, even if the weather doesn't call for it. Photo: Victoria Martínez

I’m happy to say that we redeemed ourselves during our most recent trip to Halmstad where, over the course of three days, the children and their winter gear were rarely parted. Although I’m sure our family and friends in other parts of the world found the resulting pictures of our well-bundled children at the beach somewhat incongruous, I can report that we had no escape attempts followed by parental running and shouting. As a result, I do believe we passed most of that trip virtually unnoticed.

Conversely, we are unlikely ever to live down our one epic failure: having to be rescued after we got lost in the snowy woods on a freezing cold winter day while out for what was meant to be a short, easy and fun hike. Or, as I like to spin it: That time we made the regional news for our pioneering use of location technology.

All in all, I think we’re making progress. What worries me is that if trying to vacation like Swedes is anything like trying to compete at innebandy against Swedes (said to be the best in the world for the simple reason that they know the rules better than anyone else), we’re in serious trouble.

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.

Read more from her family column on The Local here.

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.

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