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INDIANS IN SWEDEN

‘Stateless’ Indian children in Sweden set to benefit from new guidelines

Earlier this year, Indian parents told The Local that they were waiting to apply for Swedish citizenship due to fears Indian citizenship rules would render their children stateless. Now, new guidelines from the Indian government have been issued to avoid this.

Published: 3 September 2024 11:05 CEST
'Stateless' Indian children in Sweden set to benefit from new guidelines
Under new rules from the Indian Ministry of Home Affairs, children should no longer lose Indian citizenship when their parents gain citizenship of another country. Photo: Isabell Höjman/TT

India’s Citizenship Act from 1955 has until recently been interpreted in such a way that any Indians gaining another citizenship had to renounce their Indian nationality and surrender their passport, with their children automatically losing Indian citizenship too.

Now, a new Office Memorandum from the Ministry of External Affairs has clarified how the act should be interpreted. 

Firstly, Indians no longer need to renounce their citizenship once they have gained citizenship of another country – the process happens automatically. 

“As prescribed u/s 8(1) of the Citizenship Act, 1955 Any ‘Citizen of India’ of full age and capacity can renounce Indian citizenship,” reads the memorandum.

“Accordingly, those foreign nationals of Indian Origin who have already acquired citizenship of any other country are not eligible to renounce their citizenship. In fact, their citizenship has already been terminated… by acquiring citizenship of other country,” it continues.

It goes on to list a set of circumstances in which the Indian citizenship of a minor is not affected by their parent becoming a citizen of another country, such as when one parent renounces Indian citizenship before the child is born (with the other remaining an Indian citizen), or in the case of a child born to one Indian parent and one foreign parent who has never held Indian citizenship.

It also clarifies that children’s citizenship should not be affected if their parents voluntarily acquire citizenship of another country and cease to be Indian citizens, writing that the act “does not have any provision of termination of citizenship of minors of such persons”.

In situations where one parent gives up Indian citizenship and the other keeps it, the child should not be affected, unless the parent with foreign citizenship gains full legal custody of the child. In that case, the child’s citizenship “shall be of that parent who has the legal custody of that minor child”.

Even in this case, however, the child may still be able to retain Indian citizenship.

The High Court of Bombay in Goa ruled in August that an Indian 16-year-old, the child of a mother with sole custody who gave up her Indian citizenship for Portuguese citizenship in 2015, should be allowed to retain her Indian citizenship. It wrote, in court documents seen by The Local, that the teenager is still an Indian citizen and “cannot be left stateless”.

The memorandum from the Chief Passport Officer at the Ministry of External Affairs, which was written after discussion with the Ministry of Home Affairs, also recommends that instructions for foreign citizens to surrender their Indian passport or renounce their citizenship be removed from official websites, as this is understood to happen automatically once they gain citizenship of another country.

When The Local checked the website of the Indian Embassy in Sweden, it had updated advice on renunciations, removing a section which previously stated that “every minor child” of someone renouncing their citizenship “ceases to be a citizen of India”, as well as a section stating that all Indian nationals who have gained Swedish citizenship must apply to renounce their citizenship and surrender their passport.

It has also added a section stating that Indians lose citizenship “with immediate effect” once they are issued with a passport or naturalisation certificate of another country, and are no longer eligible to apply to renounce their citizenship, as well as clarifying that a renunciation certificate is no longer required for any Indians applying for an OCI (Overseas Citizen of India) card.

Note: After publishing this article, a reader got in touch to say that the Indian Embassy in Sweden still maintains that Indian children lose citizenship when their parents become Swedish citizens, despite removing these sections from its website. The Local has contacted India’s Chief Passport Officer, the author of the Office Memorandum mentioned above, for clarification on this issue.

Member comments

    1. No, you’ll still need to apply for an OCI card, you just don’t need to show proof that you’ve renounced your Indian citizenship when you do so – it’s enough to show that you have Swedish citizenship. There’s more information on the Indian Embassy’s website, although I’d recommend reaching out to them first to double check exactly which documents you need: https://www.indembassysweden.gov.in/page/oci-cards/

  2. Thanks to the team at Local for following up on this story and researching the facts that provide clarity. So relieved to see this. Great work!

  3. I recently spoke to Migrationsverket about this issue of Indian children becoming stateless if parents were to apply for Swedish citizenship in this case. They mentioned that for Indian parents applying for Swedish citizenship, they can apply with the minor child as applicant in the same citizenship application. This has been recently changed in the Migrationsverket guidelines is what I was told but good to confirm that.

  6. Is it possible for you to share the link of this memorandum? I live in the Netherlands and I am going through the same challenge. Your article is gives some hope.

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FAMILY

How to use Swedish parental leave to spend three months with your baby back home

Swedes have long combined parental leave and holiday to spend three months or more with their babies on a beach in Thailand. Foreigners can use the same trick to return to their home countries.

Published: 5 September 2024 11:30 CEST
How to use Swedish parental leave to spend three months with your baby back home

Under Sweden’s generous system of parental leave, parents of newborns are allowed to take up to 30 so-called “double days”, when both parents receive parental benefit at the same time. 

This means that if each partner also takes a month of parental leave solo, with the other taking their full 25-day holiday entitlement at the same time, couples can enjoy a full three months of paid leave away from work to be with their infant.

This is such a common thing to do that Swedish schools have even been established in some of the most popular resorts in Thailand, so that parents can bring school-age children with them on their breaks, which are the subject of envious reports in the Swedish newspapers. 

If you still have days left for another, previous child, you can add in these too, stretching your paid time off from work even longer.      

We asked Anna Stenhoff, an executive at the Swedish Social Insurance Agncy, how the system works. 

READ ALSO:

What’s the maximum amount of time you can be abroad on parental leave? 

There are different rules for the 390 days that you are paid at sickness level (80 percent of salary) and for the 90 days paid at the minimum level of 180 kronor a day. There are also different rules for stays inside and outside the EU. 

Under Sweden’s rules, sickness level parental leave is a work-based benefit. This means you remain entitled to it for as long as you are employed in Sweden and have a child resident in Sweden. 

In practice, this generally means you and your child can stay outside the EU and collect sickness level parental leave for up to a year, so long as you do not, say, decide to work for a new employer in the country where you are working, or are not made redundant from your job in Sweden. 

“So long as you keep your job, you can take that leave abroad,” Stenhoff told The Local. “But for parental benefit specificially the child has to be a resident of Sweden, so that’s why the one year kicks in, because typically after a year, the child would no longer be a resident of Sweden, which is a qualificiation for the benefit.” 

The 90-days paid at the minimum level, however, is a residency-based benefit, which under Sweden’s rules can only be collected ouside the EU for up to six months, so long as you are still considered resident in Sweden. 

“Normally, if you travel abroad on holiday, that’s not an indication of changing residency, but if you moved abroad, you would lose this benefit from day one,” Stenhoff said.

This means you risk losing the benefit at minimum level if you, for instance, inform the Swedish Tax Agency that you have moved to a country outside the EU, or changed your official address to an Indian address, or changed a child’s school to an Indian school. 

The rules on residency-based benefits are, however, both more generous and more complicated for stays in another EU country, with the general rule being that you can be in another EU country for up to a year and still receive the benefit. 

“It’s more open in the EU, but it’s also more complicated,” Stenhoff said, adding that as the rules changed, for instance, depending on your job and whether you have family members in the other EU country, it was “always a good idea” to ring the Social Insurance Agency to discuss your situation before you leave. 

How will a stay abroad affect work or residency permit extensions? 

If you only have temporary residency in Sweden through a work permit, you may need to be more careful before taking parental leave outside the EU.

In theory, you can be out of Sweden for six months or more without causing issues when you later apply for an extension, as both being on parental leave and taking the holiday you are entitled to in your job are seen as “an acceptable reason to interrupt your employment” under work permit rules. 

This is not the case, however, if the time you have been away from work greatly exceeds the time you were actually working. 

“If you have not worked at all, or have only worked for a very limited period of time, your application for a permanent residence permit may be rejected,” the Migration Agency warns on its website. 

It’s a good idea to ring the Migration Agency before departure to check that your planned stay will not affect your chances of receiving a new work or residency permit, permanent residency, or citizenship. 

What do you need to do before you go abroad?

Even if you are travelling outside the EU, EEA or UK, it is not obligatory to inform the Swedish Social Insurance Agency or request permission to take your leave internationally, Stenhoff said. But she nonetheless said it was a good idea to ring to check that everything you planned to do is within rules. 

You should also keep documents or print-outs from the Swedish Social Insurance Agency and also from your employer of the days you have taken of parental leave and holiday, as you may need to send these to the Migration Agency when you apply to extend your work permit. 

The Swedish Board of Health and Welfare recommends that parents planning to travel abroad with a baby also inform the childcare unit or barnavårdscentral (BVC) that they are registered with of their plans at least a few months before they depart, so that they can ensure that your baby has all the vaccinations they need to travel safely abroad. 

In Sweden, BVCs normally invite you to around 13 visits during the child’s first year, so if you plan to be away for three to six months of this, they may also wish to carry out some essential checks before you go. 

Which bank account can I be paid into? 

If you are receiving benefits abroad, it is easier to have them paid into a standard Swedish bank account. It is, however, possible to have them paid into a foreign bank account, so long as it is in the name of the beneficiary and it has passed the money-laundering and other anti-fraud checks run by the agency’s payments division. You can register a new bank account by logging into the Social Insurance Agency here.  

What about if I have a child at school or day care? 

There is currently no requirement to send your child to daycare in Sweden, but many municipalities automatically take away your place at preschool if your child is away for two months or more without a good reason.

You may well be able to get around this if you are away for three or four months by explaining your plans to the preschool head. If you want to keep your child’s place you will have to continue paying the monthly fee while you are away.  

It is compulsory in Sweden for all children between the ages of 6 and 16 to attend school, however. This means that if you are planning on taking your child out of school for two or three months, you need to convince the headteacher that you have “extraordinary reasons and special circumstances” to do so.

READ ALSO: Can I take my child out of their Swedish school during term time?

Whether they say ‘yes’ depends on how liberal they are, but you are quite likely to have your request denied, particularly in Stockholm, Gothenburg and Malmö, where the municipalities face a recurring problem of chldren being taken out of school without permission. 

Acceptable reasons include family celebrations such as weddings and funerals, and important religious festivals. You are unlikely to have a request accepted for a holiday. 

For periods longer than a few months, you will need to apply to your municipality for a temporary exemption from compulsory schooling. You can find the application form for Stockholm here, and the city government’s explainer on taking your child overseas here.  

The chances are that if you take a child away for longer than a few months, they will be declared no longer covered by compulsory schooling, meaning they will lose their school place and you will have to reapply on your return.

There is no statutory regulation saying what counts as a long or short time overseas, but in Malmö, for example, any journey longer than 10 days needs to be approved by the school head, and anything over six months is very likely to lose you your school place.  

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