Kazemipour and Joubeh, both assistant nurses, had been ordered to leave from Sweden by December 22nd, along with their two children, after a government decision to abolish the rule which allowed them to stay in the country.
The couple told The Local of their struggle before Christmas, complaining that they faced deportation despite having done everything that had been asked of them.
Kazemipour and Joubeh, originally from Iran, work as assistant nurses in Sweden despite being overqualified: Joubeh is a doctor with 20 years of experience and Kazemipour is an operation nurse and a midwife with 15 years of experience.
They originally applied for asylum in Sweden nine years ago, later switching to work permits under the spårbyte rule which has now been abolished.
In April 2025, the government, led by the Moderates, Christian Democrats and Liberals with the support of the Sweden Democrats, abolished the ‘track changes’ pathway. This did not just close the door for people planning on using this pathway in the future, but also meant that people like Kazemipour and Joubeh, who had already used the pathway, would be unable to renew their work permits in the future.
The decision sparked major protests among their colleagues at Södersjukhuset Hospital in Stockholm, but the family will be allowed to stay in Sweden temporarily as a new review has been granted, according to TV4.
On the advice of the Migration Agency, the couple, who arrived in Sweden in 2016, then applied for work permits in Sweden under the spårbyte or ‘track changes’ rule.
READ ALSO: 'Sweden is my children's country' - Health professionals ordered to leave after years of work
“It was a law. We didn’t do anything illegal. They recommended that we did this, so that’s what we did. We switched tracks to work permits," Kazemipour told The Local. "Then it took seven or eight months for them to say ‘yes, you can stay here through work’.”
Under the new rules, anyone whose asylum application has been rejected must leave the country and apply for a work permit from abroad.
"We are to leave the country on 8 January, when I finish my studies at Karolinska," Zahra Kazemipour told SVT on 23 December.
But the family will be allowed to stay in Sweden temporarily as a new review has been granted.
You can read The Local's full interview with Zahra Kazemipour and Afshad Joubeh here.
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