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Brits in Sweden: Have you been affected by closures of UK bank accounts?

As the end of the Brexit transition period approaches, some UK banks are closing down accounts for their British customers who live in the EU.

Brits in Sweden: Have you been affected by closures of UK bank accounts?
People queuing outside a UK branch of Lloyds, which expects to close thousands of accounts. File photo: Paul Ellis/AFP
Options for opening up a UK bank account are already limited for customers who are resident overseas, but until now it has been possible to keep existing accounts open after moving, which many use for savings, pensions, mortgages and loans linked to the UK.

The Local is contacting banks to find out more about exactly how customers in Sweden will be affected. In the meantime, what we know so far is summarised in the article below:
If you have been affected by the changes, please fill in the quick questionnaire below and share your experience. 
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IMMIGRATION

More than 20 British citizens ‘absconded’ after orders to leave Sweden

More than 20 British citizens are feared to be living underground in Sweden, after failing to secure their residency following the UK leaving the European Union, Swedish border police have told The Local.

More than 20 British citizens 'absconded' after orders to leave Sweden

According to Swedish police statistics, there are currently 38 cases open regarding UK citizens with an expulsion order, of which 24 are cases that have been passed to the police by the Migration Agency after the person’s applications for residency received their final rejection. 

“Twenty two persons from this category have absconded, meaning they are avoiding the authorities,” Irene Sokolow, a police press spokesperson, told The Local, adding that in the other two cases, the police know for certain that the person remains in the country.

Almost 4,000 British nationals have been issued orders to leave by EU and Schengen area countries since Brexit, with Sweden responsible for about 1,185 of that number. 

Brits nonetheless represent less than a tenth of the 36,000 people given expulsion orders in Sweden from the start of 2021 until the end of 2023, according to Eurostat numbers collated by the Europaportalen website, of whom about 24,000 are known to have left the country. 

Currently, an expulsion order from Sweden expires after four years, something Sweden’s Migration Minister Maria Malmer Stenergard said last month should be changed as it creates an incentive for those ordered to leave to go into hiding and then reapply for residency after four years. 

“This of course contributes to the fact that many individuals go underground, which as a result makes return efforts more difficult and less efficient,” she said after receiving the recommentations of a government inquiry

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