The Swedish Sambo Visa in 2015 Part 3: The Great Wait

EDIT: Another reminder that the following information is for NON-EU CITIZEN APPLICANTS.  EU citizens have a whole different process.  Read more about it on MV's website here. 

As an American researching the Swedish sambo visa for the first time, you likely first encountered a plethora of dated blogs online (The "Olivia Blog", the "Skinny of the Sambo Visa" blog, or the late "An American in Stockholm" blog which was recently taken down and deleted). These blogs are helpful indeed, but the problem is that they are all written by applicants who applied and moved in 2013 or prior -- a time before the European Immigration Crisis and the events that led up to it (which are described in more detail in Part 7), which caused asylum applications to boom.  This severely log-jammed Migrationsverket, and their ability to process applications speedily*. Prior to this time, uppehållstillstånd (or, a residence permit) was much quicker to procure; four months, in and out.  This has led several of us to false hopes in the beginning of our own applications, thinking we could expect a speedy turn around too.
* For added proof, please review the second-to-last paragraph of page 9 of this 2013 EMN Policy Report re: the beginning of increased times due to asylum seekers.  And again, in the middle of page 11 of this 2014 EMN Policy Report re: increased processing times.

It is, as you might imagine, quite a different story for applicants today.

While I cannot speak for everybody, this is our story.

Leg 1 of The Great Wait:

Johan and I applied for my UT residence permit on January 17, 2015.  At the time we applied, we surely thought the process couldn't take more than 3-4 months (even THAT seemed devastatingly long!).  So, you can understand the confusion we had when we kept seeing "14 months" being thrown around.  In January 2015, that was the average processing time being quoted on the Migrationsverket website. 14 months.

This couldn't be... surely, this couldn't be?  I mean.... not for us?

As mentioned in my previous blog post about Johan's and my relationship, we had 5 years of a fully documented relationship, I was coming from a non-problematic country, with enough money to support myself for a couple years, AND a job that said I could work from a distance. I'm healthy, already college-educated, no criminal history, and perfect credit.  He had a home and land in the countryside large enough for us to live and grow in, and permanent employment.

We thought, in the beginning, that all of these factors would actually mean something; we couldn't possibly have to wait over a year in order for a government to give US a stamp of approval? Surely not us!  ....right??

"Au contraire, my little capitalist friend," I ended up saying to myself months later. The first thing Johan and I had to accept together, was that no one has an advantage over the other. As an American, my second immediate thought was, "Where is the webpage where I pay the extra couple-hundred-dollar fee to expedite my application?" But alas, that idea was shot down just as quickly as our hopes for a swift reunion were.  In Sweden, everyone is on a level playing field, and we must simply accept the universal lot: to sit and be patient and wait your turn.  Skynda långsamt, in many respects, translated to "culture shock" for me in that moment.

I had remembered needing to choose "Washington DC" on my application when selecting an embassy to do my interview at, which worried me.  I'd have to fly from LA to Washington DC??  After a little research, I located the phone number to the Swedish Consulate of San Francisco, which redirected me to a one-woman Consulate-General in San Diego.  Her name was Katarina, and she is a very kind woman, who confirmed I could do my interview in San Diego.  I proceeded to ask her incredulously:

"Surely we have misread the website; we can't possibly be facing a 14 month wait??"

But to our dismay, it was confirmed.  The Consulate General could not assist us in explaining why exactly it was so bad, but the wait times had rapidly increased (just a few months prior to our submission, the wait was "only" 11 months estimated wait time).  Also, some people only needed to wait about 4 months in order to get their invitation to do their interview, while others had to wait much, much longer.

And so it was: We accepted that we were in the first leg of the Great Wait.  4-6 months and we would hopefully have our email invitation to schedule an interview.

In that time, we did the best we could from a distance.  I made this video for Johan on Valentine's day, summing up our relationship:

And this one, when I heard the song and felt it speak to the deep parts of my heart:

I booked an early trip to visit Johan for a couple weeks over summer while ticket prices were cheap, and I decided to move back home to save an extra $1500 a month. I sold everything I owned, adopted my cat out to her Kitty Godmother (my former roommate), and bid adieu to my beloved apartment.

Johan came and visited me for a week over Easter, where he officially proposed!  It was a beautiful moment in our relationship, and we spent that week just holed up in the house playing board games, watching movies, eating junk food, and just having quiet time together.

And then, after what felt like an eternity (but was "only" just about 4.5 months* after application submission), Johan and I received our email to book an appointment!!

My flight to visit him was scheduled for late June, so we booked my appointment on 8 July 2015 to ensure we complied with all the rules of being outside of Sweden post-interview.

My summer trip to Johan was as amazing as ever.  At the end of the trip, we threw a 4th of July party for us and his friends, and on my return flight home, I was comforted by knowing that the very next day, I would be having my interview.  

At Tollered, on our way into Göteborg for a day of exploring :)

On the party bus back to Göteborg after the 4th of July party back at home  in Herrljunga <3

*My original blog post said "4.5 weeks", which was a typo, and his since been corrected to "months".