(EDITED) The Swedish Sambo Visa in 2015 Part 6b: The Ending of "Priority Requests"

EDIT (5 Nov 2015):  For those of you just reading this, it has been explained to us by Migrationsverket that the reason for disabling priority requests was so that they can focus all of their man power on clearing out all of the oldest cases with no decision yet. Since all of us have our cases viewed in the order they are received, this will shorten the wait times for all of us. MV has said that since the wait times have gotten so long, EVERYONE has been requesting priority, which has caused a huge administrative mess -- MV was spending too much time investigating if people qualified for priority, which took a lot of time away from them processing applications in the queue.  As a quick reference, they will not consider pregnancy for priority - we have seen several cases of pregnancies being refused priority already.

As a means of keeping this blog as current as possible (given how many of us are waiting in the wings of a situation that seems to grow more dire by the day), I thought this update was important to share because there is not much press about it.

"It's OK to not be OK."

True story:  I have been terribly sick for a couple weeks now, and between that, exhaustion, and stress, I had a total meltdown on the phone with Johan last Friday. He and I both are dealing with some extremely difficult things in our work and family lives, and I just couldn't find the strength to keep myself together in the moment. In a fit of worry over me, Johan quasi-threatened that he was going to email Migrationsverket the following Monday and request priority because of these certain ongoing stresses in my life.  Of course, we both knew that we wouldn't actually get the priority, so I had surmised that he was just venting his frustration for being separated from me.

Except, that he wasn't just venting.

On Wednesday of this week, Johan and I spoke and I could tell he was extremely upset. I came to learn that he was indeed on MV's website researching how to request prioritization, when he happened upon the fresh new announcement that priority was no longer an available option.

I was slightly shocked at this, and also had some selfish thoughts too.  During the tenure of my wait, I've heard a lot of people ask the same question: If I get pregnant, can I get my permit faster?  I always get so angry at people who want to have Visa Fetuses.  It's not fair to the child, it's not fair to everyone else in the system, and I personally think it ruins the chances for a normal and healthy relationship by thrusting spawn into the picture so haphazardly.  But anyway, for as shocking as this development was, I somehow forgot about it; I was too busy stressing about other things, I guess.

But then on a thread on The Local, one member had let us all know that after waiting 13 months, he had received his residence permit! And then he mentioned how relieved he was, because his wife was 3 months pregnant and MV rejected their request for priority treatment.  It brought the issue right back to the forefront of my mind.

So tonight, I went onto the Handläggningstider site of Migrationsverket to see if there was any official mentioning of this new update, and there it was, in its full glory:

People with illnesses, people who are pregnant, and others requiring urgent or necessary contact with their partner, used to be able to request priority and cut the line of everyone in queue.  But now, that is no option.

MV has essentially taken away the one final hope for those of us separated from our loved ones, and in turn given that priority to processing asylees who are already in the country, safe from harm, and fully cared for courtesy of MV's own budget. (reference page 23, for instance)

Am I angry? Yes. Will I get over it?  Eventually. Is it probably easier for me to handle given that I already have 9+ months of waiting under my belt?  Not really.  An individual from the same aforementioned thread on The Local had spoken to a Migrationsverket case worker in Jönköping today, and this was their comment:

Date: 21.Oct.2015, 12:06 PM

I just got of the phone with a case officer in Jönköping. She told me that we should not expect a decision until 14-15 months after we applied. 

We applied in Januay 19th and have no case officer assigned to our case yet. So after what she told me we should not expect a decision until April-May 2016! 

That's just breaking my heart!

With regard to the waiting time, there is something that has become abundantly clear to me during this process: Until you have surpassed at least a year of waiting, you cannot begin to trust the wait times listed on Migrationsverket's website - and almost always expect to wait the longest time within the range they list.  

I believe the way they list wait times is a bit backwards, because it offers false hopes.  Instead of listing a wait time that is the projected estimate for someone who has applied today, instead they appear to list real-time results.  That is to say, if the website says 6-12 months of processing time for the "middle bucket", that is how long people who are receiving their decisions today have had to wait -- and for those of us who applied much more recently than 12 months, we can very much expect to wait longer than the times currently listed.

***Everything beyond this point is just me rambling***

As I've said before, I have already accepted 14 months of waiting long ago.  It took a few months; we still were in denial, or thought something might change, or that we would qualify for an easy decision.  But when reality sunk in, we chose to accept the worst case scenario, because anything short of it would be a gift.  To hear the 14-15 month quote for those of us who applied in January 2015 therefore is not so devastating, except that intuition tells me it will surely be worse than that.

It brings to mind a frightful memory of when Johan called MV two weeks after my interview, as our Vice Consul had advised us to (our Vice Consul made it sound like we should hear something back about our case as soon as 2 weeks after the interview).  But when Johan called, the woman at MV he spoke to laughed at his face and told him we would have to wait 12 months.  He was too angry to clarify if she meant 12 months start-to-finish, or 12 months from the date of the interview; but surely we had assumed the former! Looking at the situation now, however..... it actually makes sense that we may end up waiting a full year after our 8 July 2015 interview.

I feel like Johan and I have these milestones where we think, "Once we get there, we'll almost be done!" But by the time we arrive at those milestones, the projection for hope is pushed out another 3 months.  9 months was supposed to be a happy time, but now we look forward to celebrating 12 months.  And even that date holds a sour taste in my mouth, as I know once we arrive there, we'll have to project another 3 months down the road in hopes of a decision.

It is vicious, this wasteland we all are in.  It's been a safari of emotions, where hope turns out to be a mirage, peppered with moments of sanity and acceptance.  Focusing on the big picture is a struggle when the pain you feel is so real, and when the one person you have in life to rely on feels the same pain and anger, just as acutely. 

But just as I said when I injured my back a couple years ago - something good will come out of this pain.  It will make me stronger, it will make my relationship stronger, and I will immediately forget it all once I have my decision and can move on with my life.  But until then....