Forssell has cited the 19-day 'usual processing time' for a work permit time and time again, in an interview with The Local, in a debate article in the Aftonbladet newspaper, and in interviews with Swedish media.
"I also want to underline something that is sometimes forgotten about, and that is the fact that all of these people can apply for a work permit, just like everyone else," he told The Local.
"They have to leave the country in some cases, but the latest figures that I have seen tell me that it usually takes 19 days to get a work permit. I understand, of course, that this can be some trouble for these people, but 19 days is not a very long time."
Forssell is coming under increasing pressure for the government’s decision to abolish the spårbyte, or ‘track change’ law last April, which allowed rejected asylum seekers to switch to a work permit without having to leave Sweden.
When the law was abolished, it also meant that many applying for a work permit extension in the future – even if that work permit extension had been submitted before the law was scrapped – would no longer be eligible if they had at some point used the track change rule.
A result of this is that people who have been working in Sweden for years – people who have integrated into Swedish society, worked hard, learnt the language and generally done everything the government has asked of them – have been issued with deportation orders despite doing everything by the book.
In defence of his decision, Forssell is trying to suggest that the worst these people will suffer is a few weeks outside the country.
And sure, on paper, 19 days doesn’t seem like a very long time. In reality, however, that's far from the "usual wait time".
According to the Migration Agency’s own figures, just 75 percent of recently concluded applications for even ‘highly qualified workers’ were concluded within one month.
Most of those affected by the track change abolition will not fit into this category. Assistant nurses, personal assistants, and care workers (including those working in elderly care), preschool assistants - the jobs held by the most high profile track change cases - would instead fit into the “other” category.
These workers are not considered highly qualified, are not in a high risk industry, and are not covered by other special rules, and for them, the agency says 75 percent of recently concluded applications were handled within four months – that’s 120 days. Far above the 19-day figure cited by Forssell.
This means that as many as a quarter of “other” workers had to wait even more than four months for their application to be approved.
These are roles very often filled by immigrant workers – who in many cases are overqualified – for the precise reason that they often only require a relatively short study period, meaning that they provide a good opportunity for new arrivals to the country who may not be able to get their existing foreign qualifications recognised in Sweden.
Fereshteh Javani, a personal assistant who worked in tech before fleeing to Sweden from Iran in 2019, is one of these people. Zahra Kazemipour and Afshad Joubeh, the Iranian couple who were issued an order to leave due to this change in the law, are another example.
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Forssell has dismissed protests from the couple’s colleagues at Södersjukhuset in Stockholm, one of whom described Kazemipour as “one of our most skilled assistant nurses in the operating room,” giving off the impression that all they have to do is leave the country for less than three weeks before they’ll be allowed back in.
The real figures seem to suggest that they’ll be waiting much longer than that – indeed their last work permit application was submitted in December 2024 and wasn’t concluded until March 2025.
Even for someone who gets lucky and only has to wait 19 days, the situation is far from simple. They’ll have to find a country they can move to at short notice, which for many people is easier said than done. Many track changers moved away from their home country as they feared for their safety, and uprooting your entire life, family in tow, is not exactly the same as heading off on a three-week beach holiday.
They’ll also need to fund their time abroad while also paying their bills back home without a salary, as they’re not allowed to work if their work permit has been rejected. What percentage of the Swedish population would be able to fund a 19-day trip abroad at short notice, potentially having to extend it indefinitely to four months or more if the Migration Agency doesn’t conclude their application in time?
There are also questions about what a period of time away from Sweden would mean for future applications from permanent residency or citizenship. Would it be considered a break in the period they are considered residents in Sweden, effectively restarting the clock for them to qualify? With the government planning to tighten up the rules for these statuses, that could have a major impact on their futures in Sweden.
It also affects applicants’ families. Children who have to miss between three weeks and four months of school. Who lose their residence rights in Sweden and no longer know if they can apply for that dream gymnasium place or university course. Who aren't able to get permanent residency before they turn 18 and risk a 'teen deportation' when they grow too old to qualify for residency as a dependent of their parents.
How are employers meant to plan around this? How will they know if their assistant nurses will be able to work over the summer? How do they know how many people to hire? How can they budget or make sure that they have the number of workers they need? What about people with personal assistants, who have built trust with a specific person only to find out they will be left without help for 120 days or longer?
For track changers, their families, their patients and their employers, any amount of time where they are forced to leave Sweden to reapply for a work permit from abroad at short notice is too long, whether that’s 19 days or four months.
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