Paperwork

I have now been in Sweden for almost two weeks. The time has absolutely flown by and to be honest, I don't have a real good time awareness right now. I am not really aware of the day of the week, or the time of the day for that matter. I really at this point have nothing I have to do, or to much that I can do until my paperwork is all completed.

Last week we went to the two offices that I need to register with. One is the tax office called Skatteverket, and the other is the migration office called Migrationsverket. Migrationsverket is where I had to go to get my green card. I had an appointment for 13:45 last Tuesday to go in and get my fingerprints and photograph taken for my green card. Not really knowing what to expect we arrived about an hour early and began waiting. Migrationsverket was the office that I had had so much difficulty with approving my green card to come here, so I was expecting the absolute worst from this experience. After waiting for 20 minutes there were no other people in line and I was up. I began speaking with the lady and she asked if I had an appointment. I told her that indeed I did have an appointment for 13:45. She looked at her clock, and then told me that I would have to wait because my appointment was not for another 30 minutes. This confused and upset me, because there were no other people in line. Defeated and frustrated I decided to go find the restroom. I was only gone for one or two minutes and when I returned my wife and daughter were in the cubicle getting my green card started and all I had to do was give my fingerprints, take a picture, and sign my name. This turned out to be one of the easiest things I have done for quite some time. My green card will be ready for me to go pick up this Thursday, and then I can go back to Skatteverket to finish applying for my person number.

The person number is by far the most important piece of paper in Sweden. Without a person number you basically do not exist. You cannot get a job, a bank account, utilities at your house, you cannot even rent a movie. I was told that my person number will take about four weeks for me to receive, so I am on a four week forced "vacation". Once I receive my person number I can enroll in my SFI classes to better learn the language, and also register at the labor office to get help finding a job.

So for the next four weeks I will continue to explore the area and work on my Swedish. I just hope that the time passes as fast as this first two weeks has.