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BREXIT

Brexit: What changes for Brits in Sweden now?

After more than three years of delays and limbo, the UK has left the EU. Here's a look at some of the questions that might be on your mind.

Published: 8 January 2020 16:35 CET
Updated: 1 February 2020 08:08 CET
Brexit: What changes for Brits in Sweden now?
A member of protocol removes the UK's flag from the atrium of the Europa building in Brussels. Photo: Olivier Hoslet/Pool Photo via AP

Why is January 31st important?

This is the date that the UK exited the European Union. While other Brexit deadline days have come and gone due to delay after delay, this one actually happened.

That's because there was both an agreement with the EU and a parliamentary majority for British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, and the agreement was passed by the UK and European parliaments. So the UK left the EU at midnight (11pm GMT) on January 31st under the terms of the Withdrawal Agreement.

So what changes after January 31st?

When the UK left the EU at midnight under the Withdrawal Agreement, in practical terms for British people living in Sweden, not a lot changed straight away.

At that time all UK citizens who do not have dual nationality lost their status as EU citizens, but a transition period has begun, during which they will largely continue their lives in the EU as they have done previously.

There was no paperwork or permit that needed to be completed before this in order to remain in Sweden during the transition period, but there may be things to do to prepare for the end of the transition, which we'll explain below.

What do Brits need to do now?

The transition period will give people time to sort out their status, and it's best to start preparing as soon as possible.

All Brits should try to get as much information as possible about their post-Brexit residency rights. The framework of the Withdrawal Agreement gives anyone who is legally resident in Sweden before the end of the transition period the right to stay.

But being legally resident is not the same as simply living in Sweden; for example, as EU citizens, Brits are currently able to move to Sweden as a job-seeker for up to six months in total. After those six months were up, they would no longer meet the requirements to be legally resident in Sweden (unless they had met residency requirements in another way, for example by moving in with a Swedish or EU partner).


Photo: Lars Pedersen/TT

So anyone who has not yet done so should make sure they are in Sweden's population register if possible, by applying for a personnummer. And for Brits who are employed in Sweden, it may be worth speaking to your company's HR department to clarify your position.

There is no way to apply for a residence permit as a Brit in Sweden (there are some exceptions if you are moving to join a partner in Sweden) until the UK actually leaves the EU, and it's not yet clear how this process will work in Sweden.

What we do know is that Brits who have spent five years legally resident in Sweden will earn the right to permanent residence, while those with less time accrued by the end of the transition period will be allowed to remain in Sweden under the same conditions as today until they are eligible for permanent residency.

The Swedish government hasn't announced a timeline or an explanation of the process, but it will be an application rather than a registration, and will either be free or cost no more than applications for similar documents (such as a passport or ID card).

It might well make sense to start getting paperwork in order so that the process will be as smooth as possible. That means collecting things like tax returns, employment certificates, tenancy or mortgage agreements, and other documents that can be used as proof of legal residence in Sweden. Brits can continue living in Sweden while their application is in process.

Brits resident in Sweden by the end of December 2020 will have six months from that date to submit their applications for permanent residency. In other words, the application deadline will be June 30th, 2021.

What about my driving licence?

Rules on driving licences will remain unchanged until December 2020, under the Withdrawal Agreement. That means people with valid UK licences can continue driving in Sweden and those with valid Swedish licences can drive in the UK.

The Swedish Transport Agency told The Local: “According to current rules the UK driving licence is valid in Sweden as long as it is valid in the UK, and both residents and non-residents of Sweden can use it for driving. There is no time limit when a Swedish resident must exchange it.”

It is not possible to register a non-UK address on a UK driving licence, but the DVLA has confirmed to The Local that licence holders are not required to update their address after moving overseas in order for it to retain validity. 

How long does the transition period last?

The transition period is currently set to end on December 31st, 2020. That's just 11 months, even though it was originally intended as a two-year period for the UK and the EU to negotiate their future trading agreement, due to repeated Brexit delays.

This is also the time for people living in Sweden, or hoping to, to get their future plans sorted. It is likely to become harder for Brits to move to Sweden once the UK is out of the EU, but those who move during the transition period can move under current EU freedom of movement rules. 

There is an option to extend the transition period up to a maximum of two years (so until December 31st, 2022, at the latest) but that would need to be agreed by June 2020. Trade experts say making a deal in just 11 months will be extremely difficult, but British PM Johnson is adamant that he will not ask for an extension.

Photo: Marcus Ericsson/TT

What happens at the end of the transition period?

At the end of the transition period, whether that does turn out to be December 31st or some future date, the UK will begin trading with the EU on new terms – either under a deal agreed during the transition period or under WTO rules if no deal has been reached by then.

For UK nationals, this will also be when their freedom of movement ends.

This would also be the time when changes will be made to the requirements for British people hoping to move to Sweden. It's not currently clear whether these would be the same as the existing requirements for third country citizens, but if so, that would require Brits to go through the process of applying for a residence permit before being able to move.

The current advice from the Swedish Migration Agency is: “The Swedish government has not yet made a decision about what will happen after the transitional period. If the government does not decide to make specific arrangements for Britons, then as a British citizen the general rule will be that you must obtain a residence and/or work permit in order to be allowed to reside and/or work in Sweden.”

For those Brits who are currently living in Sweden, or who move before the end of the transition period, there should not be many changes to their lives in Sweden once this period ends. Brits in Sweden will continue to enjoy reciprocal healthcare, pensions will be uprated, and cross-border workers will retain the right to live in one country and work in another, for example.

The big thing is that Brits will need a residence permit in order to stay in Sweden once the transition period ends.

Some key things to look out for are that Brits would lose their rights if they spend time away from Sweden in the future – even after gaining permanent residence. If you, as a British citizen, plan to leave Sweden for up to two years, you can do this and retain your permanent residence permit if you inform the Migration Agency of your plans before you leave. If you want to live abroad for longer than this – or if you fail to inform the Migration Agency of your move, even if it's two years or less – your right of residence may be withdrawn.

We hope you found this article useful. If you have further questions about life in Sweden after Brexit, let us know.

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For members

BREXIT

British actor married to Swedish pop star gives up post-Brexit fight to stay in Sweden

Former Bollywood actor Kenny Solomons' imminent return to the UK after failing to get post-Brexit residency has made national news in Sweden thanks to his marriage to the singer from the band Alcazar. He tells The Local why he's leaving.

Published: 19 June 2024 15:29 CEST
British actor married to Swedish pop star gives up post-Brexit fight to stay in Sweden

The QX gala – Sweden’s glitzy, televised celebration of gay culture – is not the first place a man in his 20s would go to find a future wife. 

But that’s what happened to British actor Kenny Solomons.

Solomons, now 37, was already a well-known face in Sweden after playing the superhero in adverts for the internet provider Bredbandsbolaget. He was there to give out an award. Tess Merkel, singer for the nu-disco band Alcazar – one of Sweden’s most successful ever groups – was there to receive one.

“It was utterly insane,” Solomons remembers. “I had had a few drinks and then I woke up the next day in this typical Swedish apartment with kids’ toys everywhere. I was like, ‘what the fuck is going on?'”

“The kids were away with their dad, and Tess went off to work the next day and she left a note – as a joke – on the kitchen table that said ‘sorry I left you, but I took off to plan our wedding’. I thought it was a one-night stand. I was 25 years old and she was 17 years older. I didn’t expect to be married.”

The actor Kenny Solomons (right) arrives at the QX Gala in 2016. Photo: Anders Wiklund/TT

But in 2015 they got engaged and then in 2017, they married in the Indian holiday paradise of Goa, making it legal for Sweden with a ceremony in Stockholm City Hall the next year. 

By then, Solomons was so deeply embedded in Stockholm’s celebrity whirl that everything from the Brexit referendum to the deadline for post-Brexit residency had more or less passed him by. It was only when he took a trip to Greece in the summer of 2022, his first international trip since the pandemic broke out, that he realised the mistake he had made. 

“We flew back through Serbia, which is outside the European Union, so as we were coming in through the Swedish border, they said ‘hey, you do realise that you’re going to need to send in a whole load of information’, and I was completely shocked. I had no idea. I mean, to some people, I might sound like an absolute moron, but I just wasn’t aware of it.” 

In some ways his ignorance was unsurprising, given the Swedish authorities’ decision not to contact British citizens directly, even digitally, to inform them of the need to apply for post-Brexit residency by the end of 2021, although there was information published online.

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Unlike many Brits in Sweden, Solomons was at that point completely integrated, living in the upmarket Stockholm district of Hammarby Sjöstad, and speaking almost exclusively Swedish.   

“It wasn’t originally the plan to do everything in Swedish. It was after I started working and running a business here, that it just sort of kicked in,” he remembers. “After three or four years, I suddenly was like, ‘ah, OK, I’m speaking Swedish. My mother would be very proud, that me, a dyslexic boy from Southend-on-Sea in Essex, could speak even one word in another language!”

Because he only hung out with Swedes and rarely met other Brits, he had simply not heard about the Brexit deadline. 

“All of my friends are in the industry. I socialise among those who also work as artists here in Sweden,” he explains. “When you work as an entrepreneur or an artist, there is nobody to give you that little nudge and say, ‘hey, there is a thing going on called Brexit and it’s going to affect your status here in Sweden’. I had absolutely no idea that it would affect me in this way, and would still be affecting me four years on.”

Looking back, he remembers spending much of 2020 and 2021 desperately trying and eventually failing to save his chain of barbershops and hair-replacement therapy centres from bankruptcy due to the pandemic.

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When he did apply for post-Brexit residency – nearly a year late – he was rejected as the Migration Agency does not treat ignorance as “reasonable grounds” for missing the deadline. He appealed the decision to the Migration Court, but this month decided he had had enough of waiting, given that rejection was “inevitable”. 

“It’s now 19 months since I sent in my appeal to the Migration Court, and the pressure of not knowing, every day, and the pressure of having to say ‘no’ to career opportunities outside of Europe, and the pressure of not knowing with 100 percent certainty that I can live and work in Sweden in the long run was just affecting my health, and my mental health as well,” he says.

“I hit the wall, was suffering with anxiety, and was incredibly unhappy. So I made the decision.” 

He’s now going to return to the UK and apply for spousal reunion with Merkel. As he has no young children of his own, there is little chance of getting granted the right to do this from within Sweden.

Since he left the UK as a young man, his mother has died, and his 60-year-old father has left their childhood home in Essex and moved to Chester on the other side of England, somewhere he has never been. 

“I guess I’ll go and sleep on his couch,” he says. “I can moan and be upset and say all these awful things. But I have my health and I have a place to go. There are people in a similar situation that don’t have any connections or ties left in the UK any longer, so I’m very grateful to at least have a couch to crash on while I figure out this next step.” 

His father got married in the middle of June, and Solomon’s plan is to return for the wedding party on August 24th, handing in his application for spousal reunion in Sweden within days of arrival. He has no idea if he will then have to wait six months, or two years, before he is granted the right to live again in Sweden.  

“My wife and I, we really always try to make the best out of a bad situation, whatever it is, so when I leave Sweden and start my process from my dad’s I want to continue to be able to give back to this country.” 

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His next plan is to return to India, where he spent several years before coming to Sweden working as an actor in Bollywood films. 

“You’re gonna think I’m completely nuts. I want to fly to the most northern part of India and run from North India to South India, the whole way, and raise money for Läkare Utan Gränser [the Swedish arm of the global medical charity Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF)].” 

He says that one of the silver linings to his situation is that as someone involved in Swedish showbusiness, his case has received media coverage, unlike hundreds of other British citizens who have been victims of Sweden’s strict application of the EU Withdrawal Agreement. 

“It’s a very, very great luxury and something I don’t take for granted that I have a platform that can be used for to spread my thoughts and my opinions,” he said, adding that he has also enjoyed sharing information with and trying to help other British people in the same situation. 

Tess Merkel’s band Alcazar performed at the Eurovision Grand Final in Malmö in 2024. Photo: Jessica Gow/TT

Now he’s looking forward to returning back to the UK, where family and friends were in May blown away by the surprise appearance of Merkel and the rest of Alcazar at the Eurovision Grand Final. 

“I had to keep it a secret from my family in England. I couldn’t tell anybody because Alcazar had written a contract with Eurovision,” he remembers. “So my family didn’t know, and they were just shocked when they came on. They Facetimed me just afterwards and said, ‘they really made fun of Alcazar. I felt really sorry for them’.”

But Alcazar, he said, had no issues with being made the butt of a joke about their ‘reunion’ not quite being the hoped-for Abba appearance. The are, he says, “a playful band”. 

“She is that person in real life. She’s absolutely fantastic. She’s an absolute gem. She’s my best friend,” he said of Merkel. “She might say to you, ‘it will be quite nice to have a bit of a break from Kenny. He’s a pain in the ass’. But taking this step is like losing my right hand, because we are so co-dependent on each other – in all the best ways.” 

Membership+ subscribers can listen to the full interview with Kenny Solomons in the Sweden in Focus Extra podcast, which will be available from Wednesday, June 26th.   

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