Life in Linköping

One of the fun things about moving to a new country is how the bureacracy is different but still oddly the same.

There are always at least a few hoops to jump through. For Sweden I spent a while trying to work out what the hoops are:

• Get a 'right of residence' — which is actually a document
  
• Use this to get the magic personnummer — used by the government and many businesses to refer to you - from the tax office
  
• Use the personnummer to open a bank account, so I can get paid
  

As it turns out I didn't actually need to wait for the 'right of residence' to start getting my personnummer, but it will take a week or two before I get one.

Somebody at Swedbank originally told me I needed a personnummer before I could open a bank account, but that wasn't strictly accurate. Today they opened a bank account for me with only my passport and a letter from Opera saying I work there.

Now I have to wait and see what surprises the Migrationsverket and Skatteverket have in store for me...