UPDATED: The Swedish Sambo Visa in 2015/2016 Part 15: I'm Pregnant - Now What?! (An exhaustive guide to everything you need to know about pregnancy while waiting and moving to Sweden)

Here's a summary of this post (because it is a behemoth!) if you want to skip to a certain section:

1. General Intro
• Just me blabbing like I always do.
2. Pregnancy while waiting for your residence permit: What are your options?
• Notes about requesting priority
• Attempting an "Inifrån Ansökan" (doing your wait within Sweden)
• Giving birth in Sweden without a residence permit
• Other birth alternatives and options
3. Pregnancy in Sweden: After you relocate to Sweden
• How to get set up with proper appointments
4. The Swedish Pre-Natal process (terminology, Sweden's approach to pregnancy, what to expect, etc.)
• Terminology, abbreviations, and how the process works
• Things you need to know about ultrasounds, medical tests, childbirth classes, etc.
• Maternity leave, parternity leave, and barnbidrag
5. Tips and Advice: Joining Support Groups
• Oh god... from one support group to another! No but seriously, baby groups (especially Swedish ones) are a godsend in order to get you connected with people who are going through the process alongside you.
6. Tips and Advice: The Holy Grail of Buying Everything Baby-Related in Sweden
• An exhaustive guide of where to buy shit, online retailers (and what they are good or bad for) and my own product reviews of things I bought after obsessive research.  You know how I am.  
7. Product Reviews
• This is a list of a few key (mostly big-ticket) items I bought after months of research, and why I chose them over other competitors (which i will also list, along with links to certain product review sites which I found helpful).
8. Movies Streaming on Youtube (for free!) about the amazingness of fetal development
• It's random, but I'm a science nerd and I want to save these links somewhere!

The Swedish Sambo Visa in 2015/2016 Part 14: The New "Waiting Times Calculator", the April 2016 Prognosis Report, and a quick update on Maintenance Requirements

As I mentioned in my previous post, I have been a bit overwhelmed by life lately.  Settling into a new home that we are in the throes of remodeling by hand, trying to go through all the steps to get my PN and register for SFI, rushing off to pre-natal doctors appointments, trying to keep the spreadsheet in order... it's been insane.

But also, things were rather quiet on the Migrationsverket front; the waiting times were getting *slight longer* (decisions were coming through at around 13.5-14 months, instead of 13-14 months) and interview emails were following the same organized pace, so there wasn't much beyond the Sambo Summary to really publish.

BUT.  Things have now changed.  So, here it goes:

The Swedish Sambo Visa in 2016 Part 13: After the Decision ("Now what!?")

It has been an extremely long time since I last wrote!

I knew that moving would be a busy time, but I could not possibly have foreseen how insane my life would become. Quitting my job, rushing to doctor's appointments, packing/selling/throwing everything away, weighing suitcases to make sure I stay under the weight limit, trying to decide what is worth shipping and what should be donated.... saying goodbye to friends and family.... all while trying to train coworkers to replace me and taking care of the fetus growing inside of me!

I have never felt so desperate in all my life than the day I moved.  Life has never demanded so much of me over the past 14 months, and never have I had to cross over my "breaking point" so many times with no option for crawling into a hole and dying.  There were only 2 alternatives: 1) Keep pushing, or 2) Keep pushing.  I did a mixture of both. ;)

The moment I waited 13.5 months for: THE DECISION!

It has been a long, and over-joyously overwhelming week this week.  I feel like I have lived a full life just in the past 5 days!!

Monday February 29 2016, at 8:36am....

....a moment I have been waiting 13 months, 1 week and 6 days for finally came: Johan and I received our decision.  !!!  And I want to log every glorious, manic moment of this whole past week so that I can release it from my cluttered mind and revisit it when I am ready.

Earlier that morning...

The day started just like every other day of the previous several weeks: I woke up early (4:30am), picked up my phone, and scanned it for any signs of Johan screaming at me that we received the decision! (We had always assumed he would get an email or phone call at the same time as I would.) But, just like every other morning, there was nothing. Just a couple SnapChats and a few "I love you's".  My heart sank - just as it always would - that we didn't get any news; and I fell into the usual disappointment. I then scanned my phone and checked up on the 33 Facebook notifications I had, taking screenshots of all the decisions and interview email updates from the "I väntan på familjen" Facebook group so I could update the spreadsheet later in the morning when I logged onto work.

I waited for the clock to run down until I knew Johan could talk, and then I called him to say good morning.  I still had hope that maybe he had good news but was waiting to share with me when I woke up.  But - again - he did not.

"Still nothing?" I asked him.
"Well, I have good news and bad news." He said.  "The bad news is that we don't have a decision yet.  The good news is that I called Örebro again today and talked to the team leader.  She said that while she cannot tell us what day, she told us we would definitely be getting our decision this week."

Surprises, Fatigue, and Updates On Our Case... oh my!

Surprises

At 8.5 weeks <3

Now that we are close to being out of the "danger zone" I am beyond thrilled to report that I am pregnant!!  Officially 10 weeks and 2 days :) 

This was a planned event; Johan and I have been talking about it for almost a full year. We decided when I was with him for a month over the holidays, that we should give it a try.  Due to a few health factors, I have been told that my chances for natural conception and carrying a pregnancy full term are quite low.  I turn 33 this year and I'll be damned if Migrationsverket takes away our chances of having a child.  My doctors told me it could take years to conceive, so you can imagine our shock when, on my last day before flying home, Johan brought the pregnancy test into the living room with a look of wild shock and shouted, "IT'S POSITIVE!" Ahhhhh what a moment.  He was as pale as a ghost and couldn't stop saying, "What the f*ck? What the f*ck!" in a mixture of shock and excitement and more shock.  I jumped off the couch and grabbed him and starting laughing and crying at the same time and just kept saying, "I knew it! I knew it!!"  We ran all the way in the middle of the night and in a snow storm to the farm next door where Johan's parents live, and declared the happy news.  And then I called my sister while he called his sisters, and it was just... a night I'll never forget.  My sister started to cry instantly, and that whole final night we spent together was magical.  It was exactly our 1-year application anniversary, and now immortalized even more by learning we had created a new human :)

The Swedish Sambo Visa in 2015/2016 Part 12: The Sambo Summary Publications

UPDATE (16 July2016): As I settle into my new life here in Sweden and enter the final months of my pregnancy, my ability to create the Sambo Summary will continue to decrease.  We have so much going on over here, and it's hard to find time to dedicate to producing these pieces.  Also, I have decreased how involved I am in the support groups (also because of time constraints) and, as such, I will eventually get to the point of not being up to date with all the latest news.  The Maintenance Requirements law will soon go into place (latest update on that is that it will take effect on 21 July 2016) and it will be difficult for me to closely monitor how that will affect overall waiting times in the long term.

Nonetheless, I will continue to do my best to produce these reportssporadically.  So far, we don't see much change in the trends other than that interview emails have started to go out at a normalized pace (about every 4-6 months), and average decision waiting times have actually crept down slightly (by about half a month, give or take).  Everything else is seeming to hold steady.

These reports are PDFs uploaded to Google Drive, and can be downloaded and used as necessary. They are based off of the data we collect and track on  the spreadsheet.

Happy Viewing!

Dreaming of a Decision: Life beyond 12 months of waiting

A lot has happened since I last wrote a "thought piece".  I think one thing that has been super helpful in surviving the past 6 months, has been to remain active in the support groups.  There is something very beautiful about being consoled by perfect strangers who understand exactly what you are going through without you even having to explain it. There is also something very gratifying about helping other people.  It makes you feel useful, and like you're able to bring a little bit of good to a super fucked up situation. 

Maintaining the spreadsheet has taken up a good deal of my idle time, but it's self-serving:  I know it is a powerful tool for other people, but it is extremely meaningful to me as well.  I have no problem confessing that I am a control freak, and the chaos of this sambo process has really pushed me to the edge.  Having the spreadsheet has been a gem to me, to be able to see exactly where we are in the process.  I can't even begin to say how many people were told (after waiting 13 months!) that the wait times are "up to 21 months".  If someone told me that and I didn't have the spreadsheet, I would have just jumped off a bridge right there.  But the spreadsheet says 13-14 months to us still; until that picture changes, I will trust the spreadsheet and invest my feelings and sanity into it alone.

Anyway, I have to say: there has yet to be a more beautiful moment to me in this whole process than celebrating our 1-year application anniversary.  I have read a lot of people mourn this time.  They grieve over how long they have had to wait.  For me, it was such an incredible time to celebrate! I just so happened to be in Sweden celebrating the holidays with my love when our 1-year application anniversary came around, so we were popping champagne and reflecting on what a long journey we have been on, and how happy we are to put one whole year behind us.  Maybe it's because I've been working on the spreadsheet for so long and have known and accepted for a very long while that nothing would happen to our case for 13-14 months; but mostly, it was just knowing that we are closing in on the end. 

The Swedish Sambo Visa in 2015/2016 Part 11: Can I visit while my permit is processing?

YES.

I am going to share with you now the "real deal" about visiting Sweden while your permit is processing.

It is not "new news" that Migrationsverket can be quite inconsistent with their answers to our questions.  Furthermore, they often times give incorrect information. That has been the single most frustrating part of this experience; it has even been worse than how long the waiting time is.  The constant stress, fear, paranoia, confusion, lack of trust, and inhumanity felt by conflicting and wrong information has made what is already a trying time, unbearably impossible to deal with.

If there is one thing that we can do to help ease the searing pain of separation, it is to be able to visit our loved one. So, let's go through the stages of grief as you research whether you can visit your love while you wait.

The Swedish Sambo Visa in 2015/2016 Part 10: The Sambo Manual (FAQs and Resources)

Warning: This is an "Information Overload" post!!

It's been some time since I last posted, because I've spent the past month in Sweden with my love for the holidays.  And we just passed a major milestone: 1 year since we applied for my UT!! WOO-HOO!!

For the past 2 months I have been planning my 1-year anniversary post.  I was going to make it all about our memories, things I had learned about myself and the world, sunshine, rainbows, and unicorns. :D But let's be real: we all need information right now, so I have put together the following masterpiece: The Sambo Manual.

I have already provided some extensive guides for the beginning part of the Sambo Visa process. You can find the topics at the following links: 

Part 1:  What is the Swedish "Sambo" Visa?

Part 2: The Application Process and Processing Times

Part 4:  The Interview 

Part 7b:  Current Application Timelines Statistics

Part 8: Understanding the New Immigration Laws (including Maintenance Requirements)

Those parts give a very detailed (in most cases) run down of each topic.  Now I would like to summarize some key points, questions, and offer resources for those trying to investigate this process for themselves.  The topics are organized in the following sections, color-coded for ease of identification if you want to scroll to a particular section:

Table of Contents

A.  Key Definitions and Acronyms 

B.  Application Process (including Quick Links)

C.  Overview of Processing Times (and your legal rights)

        1.  Processing Times

        2.  Your legal rights to a timely decision

D.  Technicalities, Loopholes, Options, and Applying for "Priority"

E.  Maintenance Requirements

F.  The Queue System

        1.  How it (is supposed to) work

        2.  "E3" and Technical Failures

G.  The Lifetime of a Residence Permit (from UT to Citizenship and the Appeals Process) 

H.  Supplying "additional information" to MV

I.  Other Resources 

J.  FAQs

Current Refugee Crisis Immigration Statistics (Latest update: 15 March 2016)

This post used to be part of my "New Immigration Rules" post, but that post was getting way too long and sloppy.  So, I have moved everything over here.

Here is just some ongoing information and statistics on the refugee crisis, to help you determine where Sweden (and the rest of Europe) is at in terms of being bogged down by immigration.  It is very important to read the definitions of what a Refugee, someone in need of Subsidiary Protection, and those in need of "Other Protection" are, in order to understand what rights are being granted.  All definitions (as well as the new immigration rules for asylum seekers) can be found in my blog post here.

Current Immigration Statistics - Q4 2015

*Red highlights are just to remind me what numbers need to be updated each quarter when new data is released.  Apologies for the annoyance*

For those of you who are statisticians like me, I pulled some EuroStat reports on the refugee crisis felt among the EU28 member states of the European Union.  Note that these stats are only currently available as of Q4 2015 (which would be as of 31 December 2015).  EuroStat has a 3-month lag, which means that this data was published March 3, but the numbers are only as of 31 December. I will update the info graphs as soon as new ones are available. The links to the EuroStat page are all imbedded in the titles of the charts below, in case you want to look into the source data, footnotes, etc. Click on the images to make them larger, or click the chart title link to be redirected to the source data.