Things you need to know when moving to Sweden to study: Personnummer

As promised, a summary of all those pesky things you might need to do once you get to Sweden for your studies.

In short, everything revolves around the Swedish Personal Number (personnummer). The process of applying for it differs if you are here for your studies or if you moved here for other purposes, as well as if you are a citizen of a EU country or not. Here I will describe the application from the point of view of a EU student, who is here for at least a year (unfortunately exchange students that are here for only one semester cannot obtain a personal number). To apply for it, you need to go to the Swedish Tax Agency (Skatteverket) bureau in person. In Lund, there is one in the center of town, and I’m assuming most university cities have one. The document you will need are:

1. a confirmation of registration from the university that proves you are officially enrolled
2. comprehensive health insurance (the European health insurance card)
3. assurance that you can support yourself during your studies

A few things worth mentioning: you must apply for your European Heath Card before you move to Sweden. Bear in mind that, depending on what country you are coming from, the process might be difficult and time consuming, so don’t leave it for the week before your leave. Officially, you can only obtain the confirmation of registration from the university when classes start on the 1st of September (and if you have been conditionally accepted, they also need to review your diploma and transcript), but I sent a few emails that sounded desperate enough, and they made an exception for me and gave them to me earlier. Regarding the financial assurance, the Skatteverket website states that if you are from the EU, you do not need to show any proof that you can support yourself (such as bank statements or scholarship confirmation), you just need to submit a self-signed assurance that you have sufficient funds for your support for the duration of your studies. Even so, when I submitted my documents, the guy gave me a very hard time and kept asking me for bank statements. Eventually he gave up when I showed him the official website, and sent my documents to be reviewed. Here is the website for more information: http://www.skatteverket.se/servicelankar/otherlanguages/inenglish/individualsemployees/movingtosweden.4.2b543913a42158acf800027235.html

Once you submit your documents, it can take up to a month to get your personal number, so be patient. I still haven’t received mine yet. The biggest problem is not being able to open a bank account without it, so be prepared to use a highly-taxed bank card from your home country for about a month or more. My bank card from Romania do not tax me when I pay online or in shops, so unless I take money out from an ATM, it’s not a huge problem. In Sweden you can pay by card in most places, even at the “hole-in-the-wall falafel” places. 

Hopefully I haven’t scared anybody with all this bureaucracy. Even though it sounds complicated, as long as you have some patience, it can be easily resolved. The university is here to help you, and they make sure everything else runs smoothly.

PS: finding a place to live is another complicated thing, so make sure you start inquiring early on!