Six steps to starting out in Sweden

Now, about four months down the line, I thought it a good time to offer a round-up of what I have learned during the move here and initial weeks of settling down to life in Sweden. 

1. I think the most important tip I can give is to learn the language. I know that everyone says this over and over again, but the importance of being able to join in a conversation and not be left standing around like Billy-No-Mates cannot be overestimated. If you are able to, sign up for language classes before you leave, as this will give you a good grounding for your arrival. This is one piece of advice that I did follow – although I did not stick with it so well after I got here – but it certainly helped that when I arrived I could handle the basics of conversation.

2. Sort out immigration issues as early as possible – even if you have the easier time of it as a citizen of an EU country. If you are, you can apply online before you arrive, and then you can make one more tick on your checklist. Once Migrationsverket have approved your application, you are on the road to beginning your new life in Sweden, because then you can…

3. …register at Skatteverket for your personnummer (folkbokföring). Nothing, and I mean nothing, can happen in Sweden for you until your have these magical 10 digits. So get thee to a Skatteverket office with your papers and apply for this as early as you can.

4. The first door that opens when you have a personnummer is the ability to order “personbevis” on the e-tjänster area of the Skatteverket website. These documents are sent to you through the post and allow you to set up a pension, apply to SFI language school, or order an ID card…

5. …which is the next step. I went to Nordea to apply for mine, taking a friendly Swedish citizen (my boyfriend) to vouch for me. Unfortunately, you will need to get yourself back down to a Skatteverket office beforehand for your “sponsor” to pick up their special personbevis for this purpose. About four weeks afterwards you will have your shiny new ID card. My biggest piece of advice here is to use a photo of yourself that you like – you show the ID to so many people in so many places that you really want not to be embarrassed by it.

6. The final piece in the admin puzzle is to register with Försakringskassan, the state health insurance providers. The best way to do this is to phone them up, give them your personummer and ask them to send you an application form. Of all the processes and forms when I arrived, this was proved the most challenging. But now, five phone calls and two submitted applications later, I am registered. I think that means –crossing my fingers and toes – that I have now signed up, applied and registered for everything that I need for my life in Sweden. But hey, you never know…

Now that you have reached this stage, it’s time to take the SFI personbevis that you applied for and, if you live in Stockholm, to get yourself down to Hornsgatan on Söder for the SFI placement test. SFI stands for Svenska För Invandrare (Swedish For Immigrants) and is a free language course offered by the Swedish government. The classes, teachers and times vary by location, by all accounts, but it is free, making it a good place to catch up with your Swedish after practising on all those application forms.

Of course, some stages of the process will be easier than other, and some were simpler for me because I come from an EU country. I heard horror stories about immigration from my Australian friends living in Denmark, but Sweden does not seem to provide the challenges for newcomers. Or perhaps I am just blissfully unaware of how challenging it can be? Has anyone had a dramatically different experience?

Technorati tags: moving relocation registration Sweden

Back to reality with a bump

Now that everything is unpacked and I have begun to find my feet in the new office (although, luckily, not a new job), I have found that I am in a similar situation to seven years ago: starting over again in a new country and knowing very few people.

Alright, this time I am here because I came with someone, but he has been in Copenhagen for the past three years and many of the people he knew here have come and gone.

So I just need to get out there and meet people; hence, this weekend's main activity of searching for social groups here in Stockholm and signing up for any and everything that seemed even slightly interesting. Back in Copenhagen, the only one that I stuck with was one for young women that had attracted me with its regular cafe evenings and cocktail nights. The majority I have found for Stockholm, however, fall into two categories: business networking, or serious expat organisations with committees and annual membership fees.

Here are some that I have found:
English Speaking Community Club: a social and cultural organisation that has a couple of events coming up soon. (200kr annual membership fee.)
Eurocircle: a number of European networking groups in a large number of cities. I am not sure how active the Stockholm group is though...
Expat Contact: four expat groups (Paris, Los Angeles, Milan and Stockholm) for professionals aged 21 to 45. Another that might or might not be active.
International Friends of Stockholm: a forum for discussions on topics such as issues when moving to Sweden, out and about in the city, meeting up, resources, and tips on learning Swedish. (Registration required.)
Lost in Sweden: Another forum with similar topics but also a debate forum. A couple of the topics can be viewed by visitors, but the rest require registration.
Swedish-British Society: A cultural society founded in 1919. Has a Youth Section for 18 to 35 year olds. (250kr annual membership fee, plus a 100kr joining fee for new members.)

The last piece in the admin puzzle?

Last week I completed what I hope is the last piece of admin to be registered in Sweden by applying for my ID card.
I had heard all different stories about the paperwork needed both for me and the person supporting my application, who must be a Swedish citizen. There is also some confusion about whether an ID card from a bank is an "official" identification card, or if only those from Svenska Kassaservice are "official".
But I decided to take my chances on getting a card from Nordea. I took all sorts of paperwork with me - confirmation of my "right to reside", personbevis from the tax office (a form needed to apply for official items), work contract, personbevis for my boyfriend as my "sponsor" - but they only asked to see my personbevis and my boyfriend's ID card. It seems that the procedure varies from place to place and from person to person; it is better to take too much than too little...

Today's challenge...

...is to get the last of our things out of the boxes, carriers bags and piles where they currently reside - having been moved from box to smaller box to plastic bag to floor - and away in cupboards or stored down in the basement so that we start 2008 fresh.

It will be strange actually to start living again properly, after the past 4-5 months spent in limbo, waiting to move, but I am really looking forward to it.

This time next week...

...and we will be living in Stockholm.

Today we had lunch at a favourite place in the city, Les Trois Cochons, and then headed over to my apartment to pack up the last few bits and pieces. It only took a couple of hours, giving us the confidence that, despite both of us travelling with work next week, we should be packed and ready to go early on Friday morning.

It seems hard to believe how suddenly this week has arrived: it seems to have been autumn for so long, then out of the blue, winter arrives and it is December and we are heading off.

Seven days and counting...

Only a week to go now until we move. Feeling a little apprehensive, a little curious as to how different things will be compared with in Denmark, but most of all, I'm feeling excited about this new step.

All tied up in red tape

Well, it has been a while since I last posted, but it has been a busy few weeks packing up the first batch of boxes and dispatching them up to Stockholm in a van with the boyfriend, sorting out what to take and what to throw, filling in forms and taking them to various offices, finding out that I didn't need to be there and didn't have to fill the form in after all...

But now I am back and I have one piece of advice for those leaving Copenhagen to live in another country for more than six months: if you're moving to Sweden, Finland, Norway, Iceland or the Faeroe Islands, then all you need to do is register with the authorities in that country; if you're going to any other country than those, you need to get yourself down to Folkeregistret (Dahlerupsgade 6), fill in the form called "Udrejse fra Danmark" and hand it in to them.

Well, that is how things are now, but it seems to change frequently, so it is a good idea to check out the website (and in English); that way, you won't be making the same three unnecessary phone calls and visit to the office that I made.

Live and learn

Learning Swedish has just reinforced for me how challenging a language Danish actually is to learn. (Yes, it does seem easier!)

And this poem just highlights how confusing and nonsensical it can sometimes appear (in Danish only, I'm afraid).

Been a long time...

...but now I'm back online with the blogging. The late summer proved quite busy, with work and tidying up the apartment and a trip to the UK, but now I have had the place valued and it will soon be on the market and I am feeling a whole lot more positive about things, so here I am back again!

Lovely, lovely lists

The slightly oddly named Danish Enterprise & Construction Authority (Erhvervs- og Byggestyrelsen in Danish) has produced a fantastic page for those wanting to buy or sell property in Denmark. boligejer.dk (seems to be in Danish only, I'm afraid) even helps you create a seller's checklist, letting you know everything that you need to do as part of the sales process, depending on how involved you want to be and how much you want to leave up to your estate agents and/or lawyer.

The site also provides the equivalent information for those buying property.

Perhaps I need to get out more, but I find it fantastic that you can get all this info and create lists at the same time!

Cabin fever

After reading this in The Times, I feel a little more confident about the process of buying a property in Sweden; after all, if people can manage to buy a summer house from the UK, then it cannot be that difficult, can it?

Countdown

Today, I am starting the countdown to putting my apartment on the market. Now, I only need to put a couple more coats of paint on the sitting room wall and to finish off the bathroom and then I can get on with the final stage - tidying the place up and setting the scene before the valuations start.

So, the goal is to have the place up for sale by the beginning of September - can I manage it...? Watch this space.

Home, sweet home - part 2

One of my main aims this rainy Sunday is to finish off the painting that I started yesterday and finish tidying up the apartment a bit more so that I can set up some valuations with estate agents - exciting, but scary too. (Maybe that is why I'm sitting here at the computer, writing about it rather than actually doing the painting...?)


Anyhoo, mortgage provider Realkredit Danmark offers a quick online valuation guide on its website (Danish only, I'm afraid). It seems to be a very quick-and-dirty calculation, as all you need to put in is the postcode, the attractiveness of the property's location in the area, the size in square metres, number of toilets, type of heating, building year, year of any major renovation and the condition of the year. Press the button and, hey-presto, it comes up with a figure for you.

As I say, a very quick-and-dirty calculation, but as a guide it seems okay, given the price of similar places to mine on the market now. But let's see what the estate agents say...

Daylight robbery?

After taking the decision to move up to Stockholm, I signed up with Hemnet to receive emails whenever a new apartment was put on the market in the city. Now is the quiet period of the year and the emails are averaging 2 emails with one or two apartments a week rather than daily with up to 20 as was the case earlier in the year.

But of this morning’s two newly available apartments, one really caught my eye as the price tag seemed a little steep. When I clicked on the link I found that it was actually even steeper than I had first thought – the price is fixed at Skr 10,300,000m (around €1,125,000m) but the apartment is only 128 square metres. So, despite only having one bedroom (two if you converted the dining room), the place is on the market at Skr 80,469 (around €8,785) per square metre! Given that most apartments in that part of town are already on the market for a not-inconsiderable Skr 40,000-50,000 per square metre, you can understand my surprise.

Book review – Modern-Day Vikings

I recently finished reading Modern-Day Vikings: A Practical Guide to Interacting with the Swedes by Christina Johansson Robinowitz and Lisa Werner Carr. The book provides a brief history of the country and sets out to explain Swedish social democracy (‘cradle to the grave’ system) and cultural concepts such as lagom and jantelagen.

The book is aimed mainly at people moving to and doing business in Sweden from the USA, so perhaps they would see the cultural differences as more extreme than someone from elsewhere in Europe. Nonetheless, it seems to be a very useful guide that offers some insight into the country and its culture.

For me, reading it was a positive experience too after all the depressing statistics I had seen in previous weeks, as it suggested that maybe things will not be as complicated as I have made them to be in my head: my protection mechanism of always thinking through what the worst case scenario could be, so there is always upside – I guess I am a ‘glass is half empty’ girl then…

Back to the book: in one way I cannot say how useful the book actually is until I come to rely on what it is told me and put it to practical use next year but it was an interesting read. I would recommend it anyway, just for its descriptions of lagom and jantelagen – two rather complicated concepts for those who have not grown up in Scandinavia – and of the Swedish social system and culture.

Useful packing tips?

I found some tips for packing up ahead of the moving day. However, they are not the most useful – downright obvious might be a better way of stating it:

• Use packing cases
• Buy a large roll of tape
• Don’t pack all books in one box
• Wrap glass and china items in clothes or paper before packing
• Load the vehicle carefully so accidents don’t happen during the move.

Hmmm, glad they are there to help us out.

Home, sweet home

One of the main considerations for us ahead of the move is when to put my apartment on the market. Initially, we had planned on the summer, but then time ran on and now it is summer…

This very useful tool from BRFkredit (Danish only, I’m afraid) provides details about property values in different areas in Denmark (price per square metre (and the consequent value of my apartment), the % change in property prices since the last quarter and the number of properties sold. And, unluckily for me, prices in my area have declined 7% on the last quarter, but I guess that is the way that it goes with the property market. And the most important thing is to sell it before we leave or there will be extra t-a-x [shudder].

DanBolig also has a useful page (also in Danish, sorry!) where you can put in the size of your property and type, location and how much you would like for it and they will let you know how many people are seeking such a place.

Now just comes the simple task of selling the place.

The whys and wherefores

This move is the opposite of the one that I made to Denmark in a number of ways. Firstly, as I say in my profile, that was made for work and this move is for love. Secondly, the decision to move to Copenhagen was made in split second and the time between that decision and arriving was not that much longer (six weeks, as I remember); this one will be a grand total of 15 months (if all goes to plan and we’re in Stockholm by Christmas). And thirdly, I have a little more idea about the country that I’m headed for this time around, rather than just some idealistic views garnered from work colleagues and Hans Christian Andersen…

The past eight or so months have been spent trying to keep quiet about my big news, and the month after I talked to work about it? Well, that has been spent trying not to worry. Once it was out in the open I started reading more and more websites about moving, particularly ones about moving to Sweden, and that is when I started to get nervous – there are a hell of a lot of statistics out there and not all of them make for positive reading. And that is the thing that does not make sense; this is not the first time that I am moving, so why am I getting myself so worked up about it not working out? Is it the time that I have to think about it, or that the move to here was initially just for six months, whereas this is permanent?

Too much time on my hands, methinks.

What it is all about

I know that there are a number of blogs out there written by those who have moved to Sweden, and so you may be asking "Why add another?". My only answer is that my aim is to offer a slightly different perspective - namely, mine.

I am in the lucky situation that I am not diving straight into the unknown of life in Sweden - six years in Denmark will, I hope, give me a slight headstart on life in Stockholm. I know, I know, Danish and Swedish cultures are quite different, but they are closer to each other than to that of Britain, which means that I have probably already taken the greater step with my move to Denmark.

Our move to Stockholm is planned for year-end, so the posts here for the first six months are likely to be about preparing, packing and panicking - as well as that other great feat: learning Swedish.

So that is my blog 'mission statement' out of the way; now, on with the posting.