Scandinavians Part 2

[Scandi 4,166]

I went to the clinic in Göteborg and Einar (the doctor) told me there were a couple of vaccines I would "technically" need for the AOS that I didn't already have. He then went on to specifically ask me if I wanted to pay an extra amount of money for those shots or if I wanted him to simple just check the "complete" box and be done with on spot. He said USA likes the Swedish vaccination program and that missing those shots won't give me any issues when I apply for AOS, as long as it's marked complete.

 

And he was correct, no issues at all.

[Scandi 4,166]

11 hours ago, Paul & Mallory said:

It was Dr. Einar - I remembered after chatting with Liz in another thread.

 

Yeah, at the time we didn't think much of it. Paul said he was very casual and laid back about it, which at the time made him comfortable and trust his judgement. But now we're confused and frustrated. I feel like this has become more complicated than it should be. He's wishing he asked more questions at the time.

 

We found out we can submit AOS without this for now, and just note that medical is pending, and it'll be verified later. But since AOS is taking so long now (over a year for some), my new concern is if we do that... will his medical be considered outdated by the time we reach that point in AOS, since it's not being submitted upfront, and he'll wind up having to redo the entire medical. Now we're wondering if it's worth it to hold off on submitting AOS (which we are so ready to get over with so it can be pending and we can file his EAD/AP) in order to see a civil surgeon here to have his vaccination record reviewed, and possibly transcribed. I feel like either way, this will wind up taking longer than it really should and it's so frustrating.

You file for AOS asap, you already know it'll take quite some time to get through the whole process, absolutely no need to delay anything.

 

If they want extra vaccinations or a new medical, they'll ask for it later on. No rush with that right now. You might not even need to have a new medical or more vaccinations, so no point in doing any of it now and potentionally waste the money.

[COblondie 0]

Does anyone know of any forums/resources for emigrating from the US to Sweden? I am a USC, my husband is a Swedish Citizen. He came here on a K1 visa and we've been married/living in the US for the past 6 years. We're looking to move to Sweden, but the estimates we've seen for me getting a Swedish residency/work permit are an 18+ month wait!? That seems longer than it was even just a few years ago...

 

Looking for resources, blogs, forums, stories from other familiar with the current process. We've already looked at the main Swedish Immigration websites, which are helpful if vague... looking for a place to hear actual experiences, and Q&A.

 

Thank you!

[N-o-l-a 7,167]

44 minutes ago, COblondie said:

Does anyone know of any forums/resources for emigrating from the US to Sweden? I am a USC, my husband is a Swedish Citizen. He came here on a K1 visa and we've been married/living in the US for the past 6 years. We're looking to move to Sweden, but the estimates we've seen for me getting a Swedish residency/work permit are an 18+ month wait!? That seems longer than it was even just a few years ago...

 

Looking for resources, blogs, forums, stories from other familiar with the current process. We've already looked at the main Swedish Immigration websites, which are helpful if vague... looking for a place to hear actual experiences, and Q&A.

 

Thank you!

 

I mean, you could always move to Denmark first under his EU rights (maybe commute across the bridge) and then move to Sweden.  We had considered doing the reverse of that at some point.  I don't have any specific resources for you, but we knew people who had done that to get around the spousal visa laws.

[Scandi 4,166]

2 hours ago, COblondie said:

Does anyone know of any forums/resources for emigrating from the US to Sweden? I am a USC, my husband is a Swedish Citizen. He came here on a K1 visa and we've been married/living in the US for the past 6 years. We're looking to move to Sweden, but the estimates we've seen for me getting a Swedish residency/work permit are an 18+ month wait!? That seems longer than it was even just a few years ago...

 

Looking for resources, blogs, forums, stories from other familiar with the current process. We've already looked at the main Swedish Immigration websites, which are helpful if vague... looking for a place to hear actual experiences, and Q&A.

 

Thank you!

The rules also changed in 2016 regarding being able to support/provide for the foreign spouse and/or children (previously there were no such rules at all for Swedish citizens, they could bring in partners without being able to support them). That means that the Swedish citizen in most cases needs to move to Sweden, get a job and a place to live that is big enough for the size of his family. They also don't approve co-sponsors like they do here in the US, and even a ton of money in the bank won't help (I know of at least one couple that went to court regarding this, showed that they had enough money to immigrate, but were still not approved). The Swedish citizen has to have a stable job.

 

So yeah, you could potentionally be apart for quite some time because of those new rules as you don't have the right to actually move there until you're granted temporary residency. If you were an EU citizen it would be different, but I assume you're not?

 

Swedish immigration is much cheaper than US immigration, but often much slower too.

[Scandi 4,166]

2 hours ago, COblondie said:

Does anyone know of any forums/resources for emigrating from the US to Sweden? I am a USC, my husband is a Swedish Citizen. He came here on a K1 visa and we've been married/living in the US for the past 6 years. We're looking to move to Sweden, but the estimates we've seen for me getting a Swedish residency/work permit are an 18+ month wait!? That seems longer than it was even just a few years ago...

 

Looking for resources, blogs, forums, stories from other familiar with the current process. We've already looked at the main Swedish Immigration websites, which are helpful if vague... looking for a place to hear actual experiences, and Q&A.

 

Thank you!

I don't know if you guys have facebook, but if you do, there's a group called "Swedes back home" with about 2000 members. The group is for Swedish citizens who live abroad and who wants to move back to Sweden with their foreign families, or Swedish citizens who used to live abroad and already made the move back to Sweden.

 

Not all of the members there are US/Swedish of course, but many are. I'm sure you can get some good info there. Heads up, quite a few posts are in Swedish, but shouldn't be an issue for your spouse.

[Unidentified 2,930]

11 hours ago, Scandi said:

I went to the clinic in Göteborg and Einar (the doctor) told me there were a couple of vaccines I would "technically" need for the AOS that I didn't already have. He then went on to specifically ask me if I wanted to pay an extra amount of money for those shots or if I wanted him to simple just check the "complete" box and be done with on spot. He said USA likes the Swedish vaccination program and that missing those shots won't give me any issues when I apply for AOS, as long as it's marked complete.

 

And he was correct, no issues at all.

Attached is the required vaccines that you need depending on your age group. Most of us Swedes should only need the tetanus refill unless your parents said no to vaccines given to you by your school. 

 

Why would they require one set of vaccines for the medical for K1 and one for AOS? I got my tetanus and got my complete box checked and I got through AOS.

 

Does people really need vaccines that are for children, the elderly and pregnant women too for AOS and the Stockholm doctor just skips that or is Einar trying to scam people into getting more vaccines to make more money?   Something smells fishy. 

 

[Scandi 4,166]

3 hours ago, Unidentified said:

Attached is the required vaccines that you need depending on your age group. Most of us Swedes should only need the tetanus refill unless your parents said no to vaccines given to you by your school. 

 

Why would they require one set of vaccines for the medical for K1 and one for AOS? I got my tetanus and got my complete box checked and I got through AOS.

 

Does people really need vaccines that are for children, the elderly and pregnant women too for AOS and the Stockholm doctor just skips that or is Einar trying to scam people into getting more vaccines to make more money?   Something smells fishy. 

 

According to the pic you posted Hepatitis is needed for AOS? I have never had one of those in my life.

 

He sure didn't scam me, like I said in my post - he told me that if he just marks my medical "complete" it will do fine, even if there's shots I still need. So I never paid a single krona for any extra shot, and the medical itself was waaaaay cheaper than in Sthlm.

 

So if you ask me, Einar is the way to go if you want a cheaper medical and get through AOS without needing any extra medical/vaccines stuff. 

 

I have no idea what happened in the case above, only thing I can imagine is Einar gave the guy the same option as he gave me and everyone else, but the guy declined not knowing better?

Edited June 7, 2018 by Scandi

[fdhs 9]

17 hours ago, LizM said:

Dr. Einar apparently recommended Paul to have his Tdap shot later abroad because it would be "easier". That's definitely not true so I wonder were that came from, but anyway, it's the Tdap that he's missing. 

Hmm...my wife had her medical with Dr. Einar yesterday. He didn't seem too bothered with the vaccines then either...Swedish protocol is for the Td booster to be given every 20 years, not 10 like the US, so that might be why he didn't care about that (my wife had her last td 10 years ago this August, so we thought that he might make her have another now...). However, he did say that if he was going to be pedantic, she should have the meningococcal-but that she could take it in the US if it caused problems. This confuses me because according to that table, meningococcal isn't needed (my wife is definitely older than 18)...  

[JennaL 151]

We just received our NOA2 recently and I am looking ahead to the interview at the Stockholm embassy. Does anyone remember or have access to "packet 3" or the checklist for items the embassy requires be brought to the interview? I can guess at the basics, but realize every embassy is slightly different and am not finding much in searching the threads here or on the Stockholm embassy's website.

[JennaL 151]

1 hour ago, LizM said:

Congratulations  Hopefully everything will go pretty quick from now on.

 

Here's a link to the embassy checklist. I don't think it's been updated since but just double check when you get yours. I would start getting the police certificate and birth certificate, as well as have your fiancé/e start to collect employment letter and similar financial evidence. Good luck!

 

 

Thanks @LizM, this is exactly what I was looking for  

[Paul & Mallory 1,398]

On ‎6‎/‎8‎/‎2018 at 4:39 AM, fdhs said:

Hmm...my wife had her medical with Dr. Einar yesterday. He didn't seem too bothered with the vaccines then either...Swedish protocol is for the Td booster to be given every 20 years, not 10 like the US, so that might be why he didn't care about that (my wife had her last td 10 years ago this August, so we thought that he might make her have another now...). However, he did say that if he was going to be pedantic, she should have the meningococcal-but that she could take it in the US if it caused problems. This confuses me because according to that table, meningococcal isn't needed (my wife is definitely older than 18)...  

The vaccination thing confused us soooo much! lol Paul and I spent a solid week stressing out over it badly. He felt like he'd failed to follow up on it somehow while he was still in Sweden. In the end, we just submitted a copy of his vaccination record (I know they are supposed to have that on their end, but we did it just in case) and opted not to complete the I-693 or see a civil surgeon yet. Worst case scenario, he may be asked to update additional vaccs at some point, but we figured that was better than wasting time and money unnecessarily, possibly, or having to redo them again for some reason.

[spacetofu 8]

Hi everyone! CEAC finally approved our documents, so now we are waiting for an interview date at the Embassy in Sweden. Any idea how long that could take? Also, can we book the medical exam now or should we wait for the letter in the mail from the Embassy about the interview date? 
 

[Unidentified 2,930]

2 minutes ago, spacetofu said:

Hi everyone! CEAC finally approved our documents, so now we are waiting for an interview date at the Embassy in Sweden. Any idea how long that could take? Also, can we book the medical exam now or should we wait for the letter in the mail from the Embassy about the interview date? 
 

They won't give you mail about an interview date you will have to schedule it by yourself. You will receive an email with instructions on how. As soon as you have the case number from NVC that should start with SE or something related to the county code of Sweden you can go ahead and do your medical exam. You can either call NVC and ask them about it or wait for them to send you a letter in the mail. I believe it should also be in your email from the embassy if I don't remember completely wrong. 

[SpidersWeb 16]

Hey, has anyone been examined and interviewed in Helsinki recently?

 

I finally have my case complete and I'm waiting to get scheduled for the exit interview. I read online that Helsinki and other not-so-busy embassies schedule within a couple of days to a couple of weeks. What's been your experience, even in the neighboring countries? Also, is it true that the ME costs €520 (or $605) in Helsinki?  My friend paid about half of this in England, and in other countries it's even less, although still high compared to private doctor visits...

 

At this time I'm trying to get my vaccination record together but I also have some additional requirements from my employer. They asked me to get titers for MMR diseases (measles, mumps and rubella) as well as varicella and hepatitis B (the last of which was taken care of years ago). I've received the appropriate MMR series as a child but I had no antibodies for measles, which surprised me. So instead of being administered only Tdap booster (Boostrix) today (as my country has preferred TD, i.e. without pertussis), I'll need to get the MMR as well  At least I don't have to get varicella vaccine because chickenpox gave me a good level of immunity.

 

Are there any tips or recommendations that you would give to someone in this stage of the process? Advice related to the ME and the exit interview, planning for the move, finances (credit, loans from home country?), anything.

 

I'd appreciate your insight - or just throw some links at me 

Edited July 27, 2018 by SpidersWeb