A 6-month probationary Work Permit bars expats from many services
In June 2022, the Swedish Parliament made amendments to the country's immigration law. One of the amendments requires workers to include a signed work contract in their application for a Work Permit. Given that most employers have a six-month probation period, the Migration Agency (Migrationsverket) only initially grants a Work Permit of the same duration. Here's the problem: to get a Swedish personal identification number, expats from outside the European Union (EU) and European Economic Area (EEA) need a 12-month Work Permit.
What is this number, and why is it so important? It is a 12-digit number that's composed of one's date of birth and four other numbers in the format YYYYMMDD-XXXX. This is the number that allows expats and long-term international students (i.e., those studying for more than 12 months) to be identifiable in the population register and the tax agency (Skatteverket). Without this number, expats may not open a local bank account, receive their salary in krona on that account, join a health insurance plan, get a Swedish mobile number and get various subscriptions (e.g., gym, daycare for children).
Housing options are also extremely limited prior to getting the Swedish personal identification number. As the recruitment firm Mentor Talent Acquisition makes clear, non-EU/EEA expats may only sublet an apartment without this number. They cannot get a traditional lease.
On paper, expats should be able to renew their Work Permit before the probationary one expires. But in practice, the Swedish Migration Agency is being so slow and unpredictable in renewing Work Permits that expats are often left in a legal no man's land.
Waiting time of 6 months or more to renew a Work Permit
The waiting times that the Swedish Migration Agency gives at the moment is 3 months for a new Work Permit and 6 months for the renewal of a probational or expired Work Permit. However, expats' testimonies say it can be much longer than 6 months… it can be 9 months, 1 year or even over a year!
/r/TillSverige is a Reddit forum where newcomers in Sweden provide each other with useful information about the relocation process. In early 2022, an expat created a thread to complain about how his Work Permit renewal was still being processed 15 months after he filed his application. Other expats chimed in with similarly stressful experiences. Many called the Swedish Migration Agency's bureaucracy “a nightmare.” Another expat shared his experience of losing his Work Permit ID and trying to get a replacement. His email was answered only after 5 weeks, his calls were never picked up, and when he showed up at his local Migrationsverket branch, he was told he'd need to enter a long waiting list just to get his fingerprints taken again.
In the newspaper The Local, a Jordanian engineer by the name of Waleed Dajani expressed his exasperation as to how, in late 2022, the Migration Agency was still processing some applications dating back to… autumn 2020! He calls the system “unfair and unpredictable” and said it's impossible to know “when your case is going to be settled.”
The immigration firm Fragomen says that these unpredictable delays are creating work authorization gaps in the employment of many expats. It means there is a limbo of some months between the expiry date of their probationary permit and the delivery of a new one. Employers and expats are encouraged to submit the renewal applications early, but they're not allowed to apply more than 4 months before the expiry date. This limit doesn't help much because, as seen above, the waiting time can be much longer than 4 months.
Applicants who feel that their processing time is taking too long can also send a written request to the Swedish Migration Agency to speed up their application. The Migrationsverket's website says that the agency will then either fast-track the application or reject the emergency appeal within 4 weeks.
Unfortunately, the agency's director-general, Michael Ribbenvik, has rejected requests to inject more funding into the system in order to improve its overall efficiency. In 2021, he said that it would be an irresponsible expenditure in the middle of a pandemic, at a time the state is already spending a lot on healthcare and other essential services.
The Migration Agency's lack of transparency makes expats feel stuck and depressed
Many non-EU/EEA expats say that they love Sweden's culture and people but feel disillusioned by its immigration system. They are second-guessing their decision to come work there and feel that the country isn't valuing their contribution to the economy. Often, these are highly-skilled economic immigrants with sought-after expertise, especially in IT and other STEM fields.
In The Local, the Jordanian engineer Waleed Dajani says that, even if he loves the people, the lifestyle and the nature of Sweden, the country currently feels “like a big prison.” Currently, expats like him cannot travel out of the country until they receive their renewed Work Permit – and there's no estimated date for when they will receive it. If they travel internationally, even for urgent reasons, they will be denied entry back into Sweden. He was able to attend his father's funeral back home only after negotiating with the Swedish embassy in Jordan. However, he couldn't get the same exceptional travel permit to attend his brother's wedding.
Another non-EU/EEA expat in the same The Local article, Fady Sleiman, a programmer from Lebanon, says that the de facto travel ban makes him feel “humiliated” and “marginalized,” feelings which have driven him to depression. Amanda Herzog, an American expat in the same situation, describes experiencing “physical symptoms from stress” during her permit waiting period. On the Reddit forum /r/TillSverige, one expat was considering resigning from his job, not because he doesn't like the job itself, but because he was fed up with the anxiety about his immigration status.
These expats are having trouble explaining to their friends and families back home how they are facing this situation in a country with such a high standard of living. They also feel that the issue doesn't get enough mediatic and political attention in Sweden itself. They have started a petition on Change.org called “Allow Non-EU residents to travel back home” to fight for their case.
