Getting To Sweden... No Walk in the Park

Trials and Tribulations

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Covid initially delayed my study abroad journey beyond the original departure date of September 2020. Honestly, I doubt my study abroad experience would have been as enriching if I was stuck inside during the midst of Europe's covid shutdown as well; so I took the school year to write my master's thesis and get a ton of experience student teaching - all virtually. Prospects were looking up in June, so I submitted an application for a Residence Permit (which is basically a visa for Sweden) with an intended start date of September 15, 2021... A full year after my original intended start date. Then I took the summer for some fun vacation and backpacking.

I got approval for my visa on August 25, 2021

Despite reaching out to numerous resources, including the Swedish Immigration Agency, in regards to my submitted visa application, the Swedish Embassy in Washington D.C. in the USA was the only response I received. The Swedish Immigration agency did not email me back or email me to let me know my visa had been approved on August 6th. So the moral of the story is to reach out and pester, pester, pester!

On top of that, the University of Washington in Seattle hadn't yet approved my request to study abroad (they had a ban on all study abroad programs due to the corona virus). This meant that I couldn't technically get the funds from my scholarship. On the advice of my advisor though I decided to go ahead and buy health insurance through the UW Study Abroad program (required for all study abroad) and just plan on being in Sweden on September 15, 2021 for at least 9 months.

I frantically started searching for housing and joining "Americans in Stockholm" Facebook pages. I messaged about 35 people all told between August 25 and September 15th and only 6 people responded with legitimate interest. I bought a plane flight and I printed my visa and got two negative covid tests. I had my handy dandy white CDC vaccine card. I went to Sweden 3 weeks after I heard my visa was approved.