Photo by Chelsea Bowen, suitcases, passport, dalahäst

Exploring a new city, navigating a foreign language and culture, starting at a new university or job – these are all things to consider when moving abroad. Why this topic for this week’s blog? Because I myself am in the process of moving abroad – to Sweden, and it’s all I can think about!

As I’m sitting amongst moving boxes, piles of donation items, and trying to eat the last of what’s in my fridge and freezer, I’m thinking about my checklist for moving to Sweden and all the things I’ve done to get to this point. Below, I will outline my process for moving to Sweden in 6 steps and we’ll stock our vocabularies along the way.

*Please note, this is in no way a comprehensive guide to moving to Sweden. Consult the proper Swedish authorities for the details, I link to some of them below.

Jag ville flytta till Sverige, så här gjorde jag / I wanted to move to Sweden, this is what I did:

att flytta      to move
→ flyttar → flyttade → har flyttat

1. Jag sökte intressanta jobb. I looked for interesting jobs.

Arbetsförmedlingen is the Swedish Public Employment Service and is a great place to look for work. With their job board Platsbanken, you can look for work via keywords like ort (city) and yrke (industry). I used LinkedIn’s job board too and set alerts for jobs in my field in major cities Stockholm, Göteborg, and Malmö. In most cases, you’ll need a heltidsjobb (full-time job) to justify a work permit.

Jag gick på anställningsintervjuer och till slut fick jag ett anställningserbjudande.
I had job interviews and in the end, got an offer of employment.

2. Jag ansökte arbetsvisum och uppehållstillstånd. I applied for a work visa and residence permit.

Migrationsverket is the Swedish Migration Agency and the folks who process all study, work, and residence visas. Their website has loads of information on what steps to take when moving to Sweden. The U.S. is utanför EU (outside the E.U.) so my arbets- och uppehållstillsand (work and residence permits) needed to be submitted and approved before entering Sweden.

Tillsammans med min nya arbetsgivare ansökte jag arbetstillstånd och uppehållstillstånd via Migrationsverket.
Together with my new employer, I applied for a work permit and residence permit via Migrationsverket.

3. Visumen är klara, dags att packa resväskorna! The visas are ready, time to pack our bags!

Jag och min partner packar väskorna och säljer våra möbler. Vi behåller inte så mycket.
My partner and I are packing our bags and selling our furniture. We’re not keeping very much.

…if it doesn’t spark joy, we’re not keeping it. Ever heard of Swedish dödstädning ( death cleaning)? It’s a very pragmatic way to think about your life and your clutter because you can’t take it with you when you’re gone, right?

När vi landar i Sverige måste vi…once we land in Sweden, we have to:

Photo: by Tushar Mahajan from Pexels

4. Besöka Migrationsverket / Visit the Migration Board

Vi måste lämna fingeravtryck och bli fotograferad.
We have to give our fingerprints and have our photos taken. Once that is complete, we’ll get our uppehållstillståndskort (residence permit cards).

5. Folkbokföra oss på Skatteverket / Complete our Population Registry at the Tax Agency

Om man ska bo i Sverige ett år måste man bli folkbokförd.
If you’re going to live in Sweden for a year you must join the population registry.

After that, you get a personnummer, your Swedish ID number. Skatteverket’s website has a series of short Ny i Sverige films explaining this process in more detail.

6. Hitta boende / Find a place to live

Finding a place to live in large Swedish cities can be difficult. Many people end up getting an andrahandskontrakt (a second-hand contract), and subletting a place from someone else. Blocket.se is a great online marketplace to find bostad (housing) and the möbler (furniture) to fill it.

Have a better idea about what moving to Sweden entails?

Great! Now that I’ll be living in Sweden, I’d love know what type of content you want to see more of. Let me know in the comments below!