Well over four years
now, I still remember the first time meeting Lina. I was a 19 year
old American sailor, fresh off the ship and ready for an adventure. I
was touring on a bus in New Zealand when
the guide announced we would be picking up two Swedish girls at the
next hostel. My first memory of her was embarrassingly walking down the
aisle after being introduced to the bus by our driver. She
was strikingly beautiful and ever since that moment I've been hooked
on her.
Over
the last four years, I've slowly been working my way over into
Sweden. After meeting Lina in New Zealand,
I spent some time in school and then worked another tour. I decided
one night floating in the Pacific that after
that tour I would be going to Sweden to meet Lina again. I flew over
in the spring of 2012 to spend a few weeks seeing Lina again and
meeting her family. I had the opportunity to walk in and see
Swedish life and it has been the single best
opportunity of my life. My first impression was how impressive it was
that so many Swedes could speak perfect English. I loved their
curiosity about the similarities and differences between our cultures
and who could forget their first tangle with surströmming. It
was such an incredible time, I felt very welcome and comfortable
here. That experience and my love for Lina set the idea in stone, I
was going to move to Sweden and live with Lina.
Sweden
has been an incredibly rewarding challenge. I received my two year
temporary residency in the spring of 2013. I quickly enrolled
in Svenska för Invandrare and began learning Swedish. Right about
that time Lina decided to pursue her dreams of becoming a midwife,
she was already a nurse but wanted to fulfill her life long goal.
Being a sailor I had the opportunity to go back to the United States
and work on cargo ships for a few months at a time. The competitive
pay helped to finance ourselves while she was going to University. We
contacted Migrationsverket to see how long I could spend out of the
country before I left so I wouldn't jeopardize the opportunity of
losing my permanent residency in two years.
Sailing
on ships were challenging times, anyone who has been in a long
distance relationship knows the toll spending months apart can take.
To get through those times, we worked hard together and relied on
each other for support. I cant tell you how many dropped calls I've had
sailing around the Great lakes. When we did have a
good connection we got through those times by dreaming about our
future together. While we were apart from each other we
realized two
things. One was that we knew our futures were going to be together,
and two was that I couldn't keep sailing in the future. Not only was
the time apart was an obstacle, but the physically
demanding lifestyle was taking it's toll on
my back. Lina encouraged me to start looking at University in Sweden.
I
always wanted to go to college. The great recession was in full swing
when graduating from high school in 2009 and options were slim. The
American University system was incredibly expensive and at that time
I wasn't sure what I wanted for my future. I made the difficult
decision to go another route and went to a trade school and became an
engineering US Merchant Mariner. Through hard work and dedication I
was able to quickly rank up to a high paying career. At young age I
was able to make more money in a month than I ever dreamed of. They
were great times but I always knew I wanted more out of my life. With
Lina's encouragement I realized business school was where I wanted to
be.
We
planned it out together, when she finished school to be a midwife I
would give up the life at sea and pick up the pencil. This way we
could work our future here in Sweden without experiencing financial
stress. We slowly made solid achievable goals and we have been
accomplishing them one by one. With each passing goal it became clear
I would marry Lina. I proposed a few days before Christmas in 2013.
She said yes.
In the
spring of 2014 Lina finished school and I was accepted to the
Jönköping International Business School. I spent the summer
of 2014 working on my last ship. I had a wedding to pay for and
college immediately starting after so I worked ever hour of overtime
I could. I was proud, I was marrying the girl of my dreams and going
to college. Together we were financially
independent and it felt amazing. I started believing for the
first time in my life that any goal that Lina and I set we could
accomplish. It wasn't easy to pull off but our wedding was beautiful.
15 American friends and family members made the journey to Stockholm
and then up to Örnsköldsvik for the marriage. Lina's
family and really all of the Swed's have
been incredibly kind showing my family around and making them feel
welcome. I was really excited that I could show my family my
new life and share my experience.
After
the wedding, Lina has worked at the Jönköping hospital
delivering babies and I have been studying economics. The
school has sparked my desire to follow my families footsteps of
entrepreneurship. Any of my friends and especially my wife could tell
you that I am always cooking up some plan and I'm confident one day
we will start a business here. It recently hit me that I was living
my American Dream right here in Sweden. Never
had I ever thought I would fall in love with a beautiful girl and
move to Sweden but now that I am here I wouldn't change it for the
world.
This
January I closed in on living officially in Sweden for two years so I
began applying for my permanent residency. The time has flown by and
it's been remarkable to think of all the opportunities I've had in
Sweden. With all of the experiences of success and opportunity I had
here I was really surprised and shocked when I received my response.
Migrationsverket had denied my permanent residency. When I received
the letter with the response it was very confusing to understand and
it became clear that Migrationsverket left out a page.
After
traveling to an office and requesting another letter of my decision,
the forgotten page was the page with the explanation of the rules I
violated. The missing page revealed the reason for my denial was
because I had spent too much time outside of Sweden. This came as a
shock because in 2013 we talked with Migrationsverket and
specifically asked how much time I could be outside of Sweden. We
were told that four months a year was the amount of time for an
individual with my type of residency. I left to sail for two ships
over the last two years, 2013 was three month tour and 2014 was four
month tour. I decided I should gather my evidence and make an
appeal.
Lina
had saved the email from Migrationsverket stating the guidelines in
case we ever needed them. When Lina married me she changed her last
name as well as her email address. Unfortunately the email was lost
in the exchange. Undeterred we sent a letter to Migrationsverket and
asked them again how long someone in my circumstances could be out of
the country and still eligible for permanent residency after two
years.
The
response we got surprised the both of us, it stated I could be out of
the country for up to six months and usually be able to get
permanent. That left me with a sour taste in my mouth. They explained
that they also look at what you have been up to over the last two
years. I couldn't think of a better reason to leave Sweden then to
help financially support your partner while she was in school. Over
the last two years I married a Swedish girl, finished SFI and now am
going to College. I rationalized that if I wrote an appeal and
explained my case that I followed what I was told by Migrationsverket
on how long I could be out of the country and what I have been up to
over the last years that I could get my decision overturned.
After
about a month after filing my appeal and no response I found out by
calling in that my appeal had been denied without explanation and my
case had been forwarded to the migrations court in Gothenburg. My
case was quickly thrown out there because there wasn't a specific
rule allowing my type of case to be appealed. I am now here writing
to you as I have no further options. Becoming a permanent resident
symbolized to me earning my right to call Sweden home. Lina and I
have worked very hard to make this happen and denying my permanent
residency with out proper justification has been a huge setback. Over
the last few years Sweden has become my home. I love my life here, I
have my beautiful wife and she given confidence to accomplish my
goals.
We
will continue to keep working hard but I hope by sharing my story
with you that you can help us. I know the people at Migrationsverket
work very hard to do the best that they can. However, I feel that my
case fallen through the cracks. I've run out of options to pursue so
I am sharing my story to raise awareness in the hopes that people
working hard to become Swedes don't get sidelined in the future. I
want to thank all of you for taking the time to read my story and
more importantly for allowing my the opportunity of coming to live my
life in Sweden.