(edit title) Submitting passport with ciitizenship application Question regarding application Options

[Sleepless In Malmo]

Hi, I have a quick question. Yesterday, I went down to the Migrationsverket office in Malmo to ask whether I needed to submit my passport along with the application. The guy at the Information Desk categorically said that I DO NOT need to submit my passport with the application. They only ask for the passport once a decision has been reached to award you citizenship. Then they ask for your passport so that they can cancel your PUT.

This morning, I attempted to fill the application online, and on the website it says that I have to submit my passport along with the application. So I'm rightly confused now. I can't afford to mail in my passport as I travel very frequently on business. (Tried to call the Migrationsverket helpline only to be greeted with "All our officers are busy now. Please try again later.")

Does anyone have any recent experience with this? Any help/information will be appreciated. Thanks in advance.

[gplusa]

I applied for, and received, citizenship last year. You are quite correct in saying that the on-line application says that you have to submit your passport, together with a printed out copy of your on-line application. Unless something has changed since August 2011.

What I was told to do, when speaking to a Migrationsverket by telephone is this: Send your passport and printed application in. They open the envelope and check that you have sent in everything.

You then wait a few days and phone them, telling them that you need your passport returned as you have to be out of the country. You don't have to give them any travel bookings as proof, just tell them that you'll be leaving the borders. They do that, and they say that you'll have your passport back within 48 hours. Their official policy is that you should return your passport as soon as you are back in Sweden again. Unofficially, according to the Migrationsverket officer, you can hold on to your passport. As soon as your application comes up for assessment, the handling officer will contact you and tell you that they need your passport back in order to complete the process. As the person you spoke with said. At that point you will only be without your passport for as long as it takes them to physically process your application and put everything in the post. Which is typically no more than a week.

All that being said, I was without my passport for a total of 4 weeks from the day I sent it away with my application until the day it arrived back with my citizenship certificate. So all things in perspective.

[Sleepless In Malmo]

Thanks a lot for that information. My next trip abroad is around the 15th of June. So I'll do as you've suggested...mail the app in along with the passport and then ring them to send it back to me after a week or so. Cheers for that.