I finally got my residents permit through this week. Being a EU citizen in employment it was always a given but you can never tell when it comes to government.
This mean I could now apply for the personnummer. Without this number you are nothing in Sweden. Its used for everything from Tax to loaning library books. In fact you only have to give this number and the person asking does not even need to ask for your address. It also serves as a way of credit checking someone.
In fact the other day I tried to buy some books online with a Swedish firm and they required a personnummer as well as credit card details.
So this morning I went to Skatteverket, yes the Tax Man to apply for my Swedish PN. I had been told to expect a two hour wait, so I went armed with a book. I was given a form to fill in, took the obligatory queue number from the machine and set about answering the form. I really had to rush as my number was called pretty quickly.
I gave the woman behind the desk my best smile and started off in Swedish. She was obviously impressed and when it got to the point where I had to go into English she pleaded with me to keep up with the Swedish. Nice I thought, not many people can charm a tax official.
The only issue was I had to put down on the form how long I expect to live here. To be honest I have no idea. I have only agreed to do a six month stint but if I tell the authorities that then they wont give me a PN, which means I cant get a bank account which means I will have to continue to pay 2 quid everytime I use my bank card. Sod that.
I smiled at the woman but she insisted that I had to put something down or they couldn’t process the form. So I stuck 3 years down.
In fact I am sure I will stay further than 6 months but I don’t want to commit until much nearer the deadline anything could happen and nearly did at the bank.
The SEB bank requires you have to residents permit to get an account. Some colleagues were recommending Swedbank so I thought I would pop in and see about opening an account with them.
I cant say they were helpful, they actually refused to help me until I have a PN. I then asked them why I should bank with them and what could they offer me and they basically said come back when I have PN. Not exactly selling themselves are they.
I have to admit I swore under my breath as I walked out. Its moment likes that you think about jacking it in and going home. I have a decent job with decent income and decent savings, I just want a bank account ffs! I calmed down by the time I got to the office but still not overly impressed, I wonder what the next excuse will be when I have my PN number, maybe I need to be able to recite the Swedish National Anthem or something….
Tomorrow we move to our new office..I cant wait to get out of this place.
Todays Swedish of the Day is förbannad -pissed off/cheesed off…not too polite apparently.
Filed under: Our Man in Stockholm | Tagged: Personnummer, Skatteverket, Swedbank, Swedish Bank Account |
ohh great! look what Ive got to look forward to.
I thought you get your PN, then a job then the residency permit then bank acc etc…
You’ll have to let me know the correct process once you’re all sorted.
Hows the new office?
If I was you I would apply for you residency permit now, get that out of the way and then you can go straight down the Tax office when you are here and get a PN, about one to two weeks wait apparently.
You will save a lot of time if you get your residents permit now though mate.
I think I need a contract of employment before I can apply for my residency permit.
Had been looking at my gf parents putting me down as working for their consultancy agency but its too expensive for tax reasons.
Big game for the Pilgrims today! You making the Hammarby game?
Ah yes forgot about that or you have to show them proof of your savings. Cant blame them I guess they dont want spongers coming over, shame the UK wasnt a bit more stringent on that score.
Wish I could help Jamie but I dont have much of a network here yet.
I went to watch Hammarby play for a bit, it was cold, wet and windy. I took a few snaps so will write a post on it next week.
Suffereing from a flu thing at the moment so only watched the first half.
Well we’ve actually recently revised our acceptance criteria which will affect mostely non-Europeans. I think its loosely built on the Australian format but nowhere near as stringent.
Dont worry about not being able to help. I dont like to rely on other people but its nice you’ve thought about it.
Good luck with your man flu mate, I hate the sutff
The weathers nice and sunny here at the moment albeit a bit windy.