St Patrick's Day 2018

17 March 2018

Ireland is here! To celebrate St. Patrick's Day. I enjoyed their band performance though I don't know how the men in kilts stand the cold! There were no foodstalls. Just a parade, band performance and a small concert after the parade.

Check the Irish Wolfhounds! They are half my height of 166cm! They are very tame, by the way.

Archipelago - Sandhamn

4 March 2018

Today, we explore my first archipelago - Sandhamn! The SL card offers free rides on ferries to selected islands from December till April. Yes, the winter months to encourage traffic. The journey takes 2 hours from the city. 1 hour by bus and 1 hour by boat. We took the bus from Slussen which brought us to Stavsnäs where we boarded the ferry. We arrived at Sandhamn at 11.45am.

The Stockholm archipelago is a cluster of some 30000 islands, skerries and rocks and begins just a few minutes away from the city of Stockholm. Source from Stockholm Archipelago.

Things to do to settle in Sweden

I shall start this new post of 2018 to explain on what I have done to get myself sorted in Sweden. With photos too. I have been procrastinating way too long for this post. It is a good way for me to reflect back on what I have done, and I can just direct anyone to read my blog. 

I arrived in Sweden on 1 June 2017 with a partner visa. The list-to-do is as below. The website Newbie Guide to Sweden really helped me a lot. I am not sure though if the below is the same if you come with a job visa, or education visa.

1) Visit Migrationsverket
Date of visit - 2 June 2017
Matter completed - 13 June 2017

I went to Migrationsverket to apply for my resident permit. I have made an appointment for 12.30pm on 2 June 2017 (from the website) to get my finger print and photo taken. I registered myself and my number was called 30 minutes after my appointed time. I got my photo and thumb print taken. Then, I asked the officer if I am allowed to work. He said yes.

You can see my blog post - Resident Permit Application, on it. The above is just a summary.

I got the reply from Migrationsverket on 13 June 2017, about 11 days after my application. The reply I got was my Resident Permit Card - Uppehållstillstånd - the permission to stay and work.

2) Visit Skatteverket - Tax Office
Date of visit - 15 June 2017

Matter completed - 23 June 2017 (ID number), 25 July 2017 (ID card)

With my Resident Permit Card, I can now head on to any Tax Office to apply for a Identification Card and Identification Number. Without this number, you don't exist in Sweden. I guess it is the same in any countries. I went to the Tax Office at Lindhagensgatan 76 on 15 June 2017. There was a queue waiting outside the office because only a certain number of visitors can go in. Thankfully, it was summer and I did not feel too cold.

I took a queue ticket (wherever you go, find for a queue ticket machine and take a number. Swedes queue) and waited for my turn. I showed my Resident Permit card and Migrationsverket approval letter (for me to come to Sweden) and requested to apply for an ID card.

The staff told me to wait for my ID number to come in the mail. It will take about 2 weeks but I got mine in 8 days on 23 June. After I got the ID number, I have to pay the fee of SEK400 for application fee for the ID card. Once I have paid (it was he who paid, not me because I don't have a bank account), I have to show the receipt / bank-in slip to Skatteverket (I visited Skatteverket again on 29 June 2017 after the payment was made). I was informed that the letter to collect the ID card will arrive in 3 weeks.

My letter to collect the ID card arrived on 23 July 2017. I brought the letter to Skatteverket on 25 July 2017 and I got my ID card.

So, ID number takes 8 days to come in the mail. ID card takes about 1.5 months to arrive in my hands.