It’s now the Sunday of my first complete week in Sweden.
I hoped I’d have sorted more out than I have. After being offered a job last week, I got the contract through on Tuesday and went straight down to Skatteverket to register and get a personnummer.
This seemed to go well, as the person there said we’d brought down more than enough evidence. As Sofia & I have lived together for the last few years, I was eligible for a personnummer on two counts. First because I have a job in Sweden, and second because me and Sofia have lived and do live together. The person at skatteverket gave the same estimate as she gave to Sofia when she reregistered as being in Sweden – upto two months! However Sofia got reregistered within a few days, so I’m hoping it goes quicker for me too. I’ve read online people in the last month getting their number through within a week, so perhaps something may arrive next Monday or Tuesday….
What is a personnummer?
A personnummer is essentially like a national insurance number in the UK, however whilst in the UK it only really is used related to tax and benefits, in Sweden it’s used for absolutely everything.
After going to Skatteverket we went to a bank to try and get a bank account, however was told that I can’t do that without Swedish ID. This seems to be slightly incorrect, as the law apparently is like the UK where they need to be able to confirm my identity. As the personnummer is used for everything, an ID with this on confirms my identity. However, it does seem that it should be possible without a personnummer and just using my EU passport.
We may go down again next week and try again.