Applying for Swedish Sambo Visa (as a Taiwan Citizen) 申請瑞典同居簽證

I’ve decided to share the timeline and some details about my application for sambo resident permit, and I’ll keep updating for future references.

Before the application

Probably due to having read the conditions of visa application in other countries (e.g., Australia), I had always assume the Swedish one would be difficult as well and I didn’t realise I could’ve started the application since April 2018 when Marcus moved to his own apartment. And I thought I would not be able to visit him in Europe that year if I applied and was waiting for the result. Well I was trapped in the military back then anyway so wouldn’t have had much time to do the preparation for paperwork and writing.

As it turns out, it isn’t hard to be eligible nor make the application per se (as simple as doing it online and pay), it’s the documents and information to put in that take a lot of effort and time to prepare:

End of February:

Got my job offer in Taiwan so at least I knew where I’d be and what I’d be doing for the upcoming months. Finally decided to check out Migrationverket’s website, as well as some blog posts of people who have applied in the past few years, to find out what it takes to apply. And, it looked easier than I thought! All I needed were (as a Taiwan citizen):

Being outside Sweden

A valid passport (if the passport is expiring soon, the validity of the resident permit will expire on the same date)

A legal document proving I was not married

Filling out a lengthy questionnaire online

1500 SEK to be paid online

I was glad I learnt these information two weeks before I started my new job, otherwise I wouldn’t have time to run errands for the paperwork.

2019/03/04

Went to my local Household Registration Office to apply for a household registration extract in English. I got the individual instead of the family one so I needed to show them three passports (mine and my parents’) to confirm transliterations of names. The first copy is 100TWD and after that, 15TWD each. I asked for 5 and I’ll explain why. The application form said it would take 6 working days but I ended up getting them on the third day.

2019/03/05

My old passport was going to expire in June 2019 (it was valid for 5 year because I hadn’t done conscription at the time of issuance) so I also got it renewed. I was actually excited to get a new 10-year-valid passport, with the beautiful mugshot I took and facetuned myself.

2019/03/06

Got the call from HRO saying the extracts were ready for pick-up. Went there and paid for the documents. I was a bit concerned as there’s not mention of my marital status; I guess if you don’t a spouse it’s just plain blankness. It turned out alright anyway.

2019/03/07

Went to a notary public’s office near me (I could either go to a district court or a notary public, the validity and fees are the same. The office was closer to me though, as I read someone mentioned the district court charges you for application forms and photocopies. Anyway the NP office I went to did have excellent service!) There were only the NP herself and a guy who I assume to be her assistant, and they were friendly. I told them I needed notarised copies of my affidavit of single status in English and they knew exactly what to do and asked me for the relevant documents (household registration extract, national ID). She typed and printed out copies of a bilingual affidavit for me to sign, stamped and stapled them with each household registration extracts, and it was done in 15 minutes. The charge was 750TWD for 1-5 copies of the same documents, hence why I got 5 extract copies instead of one.

2019/03/11~2019/03/31

Started working a daytime job and got my new passport, now I had all the documents required. I created an account on Migrationverket’s website, clicked on applying to move to someone in Sweden. The application pages are available in both Swedish and English, just make sure to choose either interface before logging in as you cannot change languages midway. I filled in most of the blanks except for some information of Marcus’s family members, as well as the infamous ‘essay questions’ where you basically have to write mini-biographies of yourself and your partner, e.g., how you met, where/when/how you ended up together, all the places you two have been to, your plans for the future, blah blah. I only typed some bullet points for each question because I wanted to get to the end of it to have an idea of the whole questionnaire. After all the questioned have been answered, the website would generate a PDF of your application that you can review and download. By this stage you can go back to make changes or chick Next to attach copies of your passport and other documents.

Most Taiwanese applicants I read about said they went to the consulate-general in Hong Kong for the interview, but I couldn’t find it in the list (strangely even the embassy in Pyongyang was listed). Therefore I chose one where I can travel to from Kaohsiung by budget airlines. Singapore, Bangkok? Nice but a bit far. I didn’t want to go to China. So that leaves Hanoi, Tokyo, and Seoul within 3 hours’ flight. Vietnam requires a visa, Japan feels expensive, so Seoul it is!

Then it were the days of editing the stories as well as gathering information from your partner, since the questionnaire you have to fill in is very detailed and very long. You need details of family members of both you and the Swedish partner, including their full names, birthdays, ID numbers, where they live, etc. Then came the long essay questions. Of course you can get it done in a couple of hours if you already have the information (having the partner on video call helps too I guess), but I wanted my stories to read more easily instead of rushed out. Besides, I also wanted them to be personal and thought out, instead of like academic theses, so I spent days editing them in a Word file and wrote them in a novel-like format, with dialogues, figure of speech, and a few personal touches, as if you’re reading my dairy. And I actually spent some time at work doing this while pretending to work on something important on the computer, hope my bosses aren’t reading this.

2019/03/30

Copied and pasted the content from Word to the web application. (Word would autocorrect some punctuations such as quotation marks, some of which aren’t accepted by the webpage so I ended up having to make adjustments.)

2019/03/31

I was broke and still awaiting my first pay a month away. So I gave Marcus my username and password as well as sent him the scanned copies of my passport and affidavit of single status + household registration extract. He logged in under my name, attached the files, and paid with his card.

I received the 3 emails right away: the payment confirmation, the confirmation that my application has been received, and an email addressed to Marcus and CCed to me, telling him someone (me) applied to move to Sweden with him and that he had to fill out a questionnaire online within 2 weeks.

2019/05/07

Get 2 emails from Migrationsverket: one instructing me to log in and attached photos of me and my partners and passport stamps showing us travelling together, the other telling me to make an appointment for interview at a Swedish embassy/consulate. 
I quickly made a PDF file showing us in the 10 countries we've been to together even though the instruction (with more than one misspelt words considering it came from a government authority) said 5 photos of different date/location would suffice. I also made another file showing both our passport pages with common entry/exit stamps. And yep I did them while pretending to be at work.
The appointment booking was disappointing though. I emailed both the HK consulate and the Seoul embassy to inquire the interview time. The embassy in Seoul replied and asked me if I chose them by mistake because the Bangkok embassy now handles Taiwanese applicants. I explained I wanted to choose a closer city but they simply said they could not handle my and that I had to go to Bangkok. The HK consulate replied that they don't handle migration anymore and directed me to the Bangkok embassy webpage. Looks like I had no choice so I wrote to the embassy in Bangkok and got a reply on the same day that I had been booked for an interview 8am on 16 August in Bangkok.
(It looked like they really were downsizing as on the webpage of the embassy in Bangkok it said Malaysian and Filipino applicants were also redirected to Bangkok even though there are  Swedish embassies in KL and Manila)
Well now I have to look at flights/get a Thai visa/try to ask my boss for leave (maybe get married before that so I can be entitled to my workplace's marriage leave)

TBC...