It's Official!!

I am a permanent resident of Sweden!!

My temporary visa was approved on October 13, 2008.  It was valid for 2 years (so expiring next month).  So 2 weeks ago I went to go and renew it.  We went to the immigration office in Västerås, and spent about an hr there.  We turned in our application for renewal as well as additional documents.  Spent 200 kr the night before getting passport sized photo's taken, only to discover they don't use those anymore.  Now there is this biometric machine thingy that takes the picture for your visa's and passports and stuff.  Then we find out it was more then 30 days until my visa expired, so they couldn't issue me a decision then.  So we would have to come back another day (closer to the expiration date) and do our "interviews" and get our decision.

So we went back today since it's less than 30 days to expiration.  We met with a case worker, who had to ask us some questions.  He made my sambo leave the room, asked me the questions (and we chatted about life and stuff for a bit and about or latest family addition), and then had my boyfriend come back in and asked him the same questions to make sure our stuff matched up. Some questions such as:

• Are we still in a relationship?
• Do we still live together?
• Do we intend to keep living together?
• What are some future plans?
• What does each do for work (or school)?

We passed.  He said he believed we were in a serious and real relationship and had no problem issuing me a permanent visa.  And he told me that Sept or October next year I can come back and apply for citizenship and after a passport.  :)  So I'm all kinds of happy and excited!

So now Sweden is stuck with me!

It has been a fabulous day!

-FXA