I’ve heard so many stories about Skatteverket taking a really long time to respond to personnummer applications. Well, I can now say that they definitely don’t take their time if they want to reject you! I visited them on Monday evening, yesterday I received a letter from them to say no! I was pleased that I found work here more quickly than I did in Finland, but it seems it’ll take me much longer to get a personnummer here than it did in Finland, which was pretty easy once I had a work contract – incidentally, a short term, temporary work contract.
I was expecting this – I was concerned about the length of my work contract anyway, the man who helped me at their office mentioned that this might be a problem – but the reality of it actually happening is very frustrating. I’ll now have to make a second application for a temporary number, which will enable me to pay tax in Sweden, and basically nothing else. I won’t be able to open a bank account, or do any of the other things a personnummer enables you to do. It’s certainly fortunate for me that my employer is able to pay my wages into my UK bank account, otherwise I’d be in an extremely difficult position.
The thing that really irritates me about this situation is that whilst Sweden is more than happy to take my money away from me in the form of taxes, I will not be allowed to benefit from this at all. One particular thing going round in my mind is what would happen in a few months if I needed medical attention – I have an EHIC card issued by the UK, and in September was told at Skatteverket that I’m only entitled to use this for 6 months if I’m living permanently in Sweden. After that the card is basically invalid as I no longer live in the issuing country, but I’m quite sure there’s no way I could apply for another card issued by Sweden when I’m not officially recognised as a person who lives in Sweden!
In this country you can apply for a personnummer if your partner qualifies for one, hence why I applied for both of us on Monday. This surely means that there are a lot of foreign people here with Swedish partners, or partners who have other grounds for being given a personnummer here, who have their own personnummers but don’t work or bring anything to the table in this country - and I’m sure in some cases have no intention of working or contributing in this country – who are treated equally to Swedish people and can fully live their lives here, whereas I work for a living, pay taxes, and contribute to this country but see no benefit whatsoever. That seems rather unjust, and quite frankly, really, really pisses me off. I briefly considered not even applying for the temporary number, but I believe this is used to work out the “correct” amount of tax I should be paying, so not doing it could hinder me financially. I say “correct” because I think the correct amount should actually be zero – if I contribute my money to the system I think it’s only fair that the system gives me something back. But obviously that would be far too easy.
The thing that makes it more complicated for me is that in general my workplace just offers short term contracts. I met someone yesterday who has worked here for 5 years, and has had 7 different short term contracts in that time. I believe she studied in Sweden before starting work, so her situation is probably a bit different, but in theory could they take taxes for that long and still claim you’re not entitled to a permanent number? Someone else told me that they’d taken short term contracts adding up to a year to Skatteverket and they still weren’t happy! The letter I received yesterday seemed to imply that they needed to know you would still be here a year into the future, which suggests to me that if you only had a contract for a few months into the future they could still say no, regardless of how long you’d lived and worked in Sweden up until that point. But then, in September they also told me that it’s necessary to have a personnummer if you’re here for at least one year. When I apply for the temporary number I need to find out at what point they will accept that I’m here for the long term, regardless of the length of my contract, because clearly there is the potential for me to work here for several years on short term contracts. Unless I get a new job with a long term contract, or Kai gets one, allowing me to apply as his partner, it seems like the earliest point this could be resolved is a year from now, which is ridiculous!
It makes me so angry that it’s really easy for someone from another EU country to move to England, when it’s so difficult for me to go the other way. If a Swedish person decided to move to England all they would need to do is make an appointment to get a National Insurance number – which basically involves showing their passport to prove that they’re from an EU country – and then they’re good to go. Plus seeing as National Insurance relates to paying tax, proving you’re allowed to work in the country, and literally nothing else, if you are unemployed or not intending to work it really makes no difference to your day to day life whether or not you have this number. Whereas here I am, working in Sweden, paying taxes in Sweden, but not recognised as a resident of Sweden, not entitled to open a bank account, or even join a gym! I’m wondering if this will be an issue with trying to rent a house in a few months, unless it’s a private contract with a landlord who is just satisfied that I am employed. Thankfully we are moving somewhere new today so we have a while before we need to worry about that, and hopefully our circumstances will have moved along a bit by then.
In a way, I don’t even know why I’m shocked by this situation. I remember in Finland being expected to pay €50 to register as a foreign resident of Finland. €50 for “the right” to live in a country I allegedly already have the right to live in as an EU citizen. Freedom of movement within Europe means absolutely nothing, it just means I can go on holiday to another European country without needing to apply for a visa, and here it just meant I didn’t have to bother getting a residence permit from Migrationsverket.
The past couple of weeks have been full of highs and lows – I think when you’re in a strange environment with little support you feel things more strongly. A small success can make everything feel better, a small setback can make everything seem worse. I’ll try not to worry about this too much until I can get some more information from Skatteverket about what I can expect in the future if I have to continue with short term contracts. I’m a bit concerned, but more angry at how unfair this system is. I feel like I’m contributing and integrating, but at the same time I’m on the fringes with fewer options than others. I hope that this is not the start of a problem that will go on for years.
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