(edit title) SFI - personal number loop... Anyone found a way out? Options

[edphillis]

I am an EU citizen and have some work in Sweden for ABF although I am here for 'sambo' reasons.

This is the second time I have applied for and been turned down for a personal number with Skatteverket. The people who organise SFI say 'come to Sweden, learn Swedish, we give you nice bonus even if you are from the UK'. I can't do an SFI without a personal number, I can't get a personal number without work and therefore if i manage to get work I wont be able to do an SFI. So there are very specific criteria that allow you to do SFI - refugee, married to Swede? Has anyone come to Sweden and managed to get a personal number without a full time job. I have some teaching English work with ABF but its just two groups until April which apparently isn't enough for Skatteverket. I can understand this up to a point but then i dont understand why SFI advertise this course without this restriction. Also why should I pay Swedish taxes if I have no entitlement to anything? I am wondering if I can be employed as a UK contractor and bypass this 'kafka-through-incompetence' system. Has anyone done this?

regards

Ed

[Puffin]

You have to apply for a sambo permit - then you can get a personal number, start SFI without having work

[JulieLou40]

Yes, that's what I did too. I'm a Brit, living with Swedish sambo. I got a personal number and am doing sfi.

[Bender B Rodriquez]

If you are here as a sambo you should have a personnummer.

Tell the morons at Skatteverket to shove it!

[Swinglish 1]

Welcome to the way of the Swedish crazy system!

Persevere and you'll get there in the end it just takes a little time!

There are some use full topics in here with regard to learning Swedish in the mean time!...i think it was under a subject like top ten tips or something??

[Bender B Rodriquez]

Welcome to the way of the Swedish crazy system!

It is not really the system that is wrong; it is the incompetent people that is the problem.

[Swinglish 1]

Agreed....my bad!...

[JulieLou40]

It is not really the system that is wrong; it is the incompetent people that is the problem.

Agreed. When my son and I moved to Sweden, the idiot case handler at Skatteverket refused us personummers at first because she said I needed permission from my son's father (who has never given a hoot what we do and is not involved in our lives) to bring him here. I had clearly stated that I have sole legal custody from the start.

Thanks to some warning from the lovely lovely Princessp on here/MIS who had a nightmare with the same problem (only I believe hers was with Migrationsverket), I was confidently able to insist that as EU citizens, all we need to show Skatteverket were passports, and to politely tell her to go and check with their lawyers. Surprise, surprise, she called back later, grovelling apologies and muttering something about "Oh you weren't married, so that's ok". And said our personummers would be in the post the next day.

I think with public authorities in Sweden you have to be solid on your facts and then just beat them about the head with said facts until they realise they are wrong. They're not used to that-they're used to Swedes who accept what they're told and don't question if it might be wrong

[edphillis]

Thanks very much everyone although if you look through the legalities I think they are probably in the right. Also I met my girlfriend in Sweden which means that I didn't move to sweden for 'love', obviously I moved here to 'steal' from the 'wonderful' welfare system - you know, paying to see the doctor on top of paying incredibly high taxes. I have to say I think the Swedes are slightly brainwashed about their 'model'. Britain is in a right kerfuffle but manages a superior welfare state with 8 times as many people.

So according to the law: no work, no 15k in bank each month, met sambo in Sweden = no right of residence, no personal number. I think there is a way I can get a weird tax code for foreign workers staying here less than a year but that puts me in a different and incorrect category. I haven't read anything to suggest that my understanding of the law is wrong. Its confounding but I dont think its wrong.

[JulieLou40]

..If you didn't meet your girlfriend here and had no work here, then why did you come to Sweden in the first place? You surely know you have to fit into one of the boxes for registering your right of residence or you apply for a sambo permit like I did. So...if you didn't qualify under any of those, why come??

[laviniutza]

It's hard to get a personal number without going first at Migrationsverket office. There you have to apply as a person moved to a swedish citezen and write down the nature of your relation and say that you live at his/her address. After months of waiting (6 my case) they will grand you the permit called uppehållstillstånd. Cos ''sambo'' cases only get uppehållstillstånd. After the decision from Migrationsverket you go to Skatterverket and register for the numbers. And then they will arrive in 4 to 6 weeks. Now I'm waiting for them.

I done your way, first Skatteverket, without any permit/right of residence and they denided me. Now after i showed the decision from Migrationsverket they havent asked for extra documents except my passport, as they did previously and cos of which they denided me. I got stuck with health insurrance. But this second time they havent asked for any insurrance.

If you wanna learn swedish without waiting all this time until you are eligible for SFi i recommend Folksuniversitetet. Or practice with your sambo

[Puffin]

Thanks very much everyone although if you look through the legalities I think they are probably in the right. Also I met my girlfriend in Sweden which means that I didn't ... (show full quote)

Thanks very much everyone although if you look through the legalities I think they are probably in the right. Also I met my girlfriend in Sweden which means that I didn't move to sweden for 'love', obviously I moved here to 'steal' from the 'wonderful' welfare system - you know, paying to see the doctor on top of paying incredibly high taxes. I have to say I think the Swedes are slightly brainwashed about their 'model'. Britain is in a right kerfuffle but manages a superior welfare state with 8 times as many people.

So according to the law: no work, no 15k in bank each month, met sambo in Sweden = no right of residence, no personal number. I think there is a way I can get a weird tax code for foreign workers staying here less than a year but that puts me in a different and incorrect category. I haven't read anything to suggest that my understanding of the law is wrong. Its confounding but I dont think its wrong. ... (hide full quote)

SFI is only available for registered residents
- when I came to Sweden I did SFI with refugees from the War in Bosnia - most of whom had been forced to wait 2-3 years in a camp to get their residence approved and start SFI
- non EU ctizens have to get their permit approved before setting foot in Sweden
So you you have a lot of priviledges as an EU citizen that you you can just turn up!

You surely realised that you cannot just roll up to live in another country with no means of support?

You have the right to be here for 3 months to look for work without any registration but also no right to education services and benefits etc (although if you were claiming JSA in the UK you may be able to transfer it)

After you have been here for 3 months you have to register a ground to remain

For and EU residence card you can register on the basis of
- a job in Sweden that allows you to support yourself
- studies in Sweden - tuition is free but you need to pay living expenses + a comprehensive private health insurance
- own funds - if you have cash that means you need no funds + your own health insurance)
- relationship with a citizen of another EU country but not Sweden

Or you can apply for a UT/PUT on the basis of a relationship with a Swede

I don't think there is any reason that you couldn't now register a sambo relationship with your OH - but of course they would need to be willing to support you

[edphillis]

I came here to work on organic farms as part of a career break and I was heading to a friend in Tromso Norway before returning home. Sorry is that kind of 'outlandish' behaviour illegal? Meeting someone here wasn't on my agenda but it happened and here I am. And of course you can just rock up to a country which is what I have done, isn't this the point of the European Union. Im now navigating the legalities thats all. I do have the means to support myself from a rental situation in the UK although it only affords a basic life so I am not asking anything from anyone except the right to involve myself in Swedish life, which by and large many people here in sundsvall are happy to help me with. I have ABF work, private guitar tuition work, Im rebuilding a website for a web dev company in Ornskoldsvik as well as some freelance internet work and managing a group of websites for a charity in the UK. I'm just glad im not tied down with this 'how dare you do things that are outside of the norm yet entriely feasible' attitude.

kind regards

ed

[Micardo]

Its just the mafia at skatterverket and migrationsverket. You get lucky and find the right person and its no problem. Sorry to say this but i think they are "racist". I am white and from the EU and they made me feel that I was trying to get something for nothing and that i had no right to be wanting to work in "their" country. Other people I know just got a number by filling in a form so I have no idea how they are trained ? WTF!

[DaveN]

If you just want the number for SFI, then I wouldn't worry too much.You sound like a positive and enthusiastic person, in which case you may be sorely disappointed with the SFI experience. Sitting there trying your best to learn a new language, surrounded by lazy bums and inept teachers, will probably sap all the energy you have. Sure, you may get lucky, but there's every chance you won't.

My advice, buy some cd's, speak to the missus, buy some study books, and do it yourself in the comfort of your own home. At least then you won't be interupted by mobile phone calls, everyone chatting to each other in arabic, people late to class, people not doing homework, forgot their dictionary, and so on.