EEA Spouse Enter Sweden Before residence permit decision

[skargardande]

Thanks for all your help. One last question: earlier I posted a link to this:

ECJ Case C-157/03, Commission v Spain [2005]; "Residence [Cards] must be issued within the required maximum of 6 months. No delay or extension is allowed."

Does this apply to Sweden as well? Is it realistic of Sweden to keep a married couple away from one another for 10 months?

[MSH]

Skargande, you are applying for a NATIONAL swedish residence permit and those are unlike EU residence permits allowed to take longer than six months.

Current waiting times are upwards of about 10 months unfortunately. you will have to be patient.

[skargardande]

Thanks for all the information, I was admittedly confused and I'm researching constantly.

@MSH; Where did you get this upwards of 10 months statistic from?

[MSH]

Thanks for all the information, I was admittedly confused and I'm researching constantly.

@MSH; Where did you get this upwards of 10 months statistic from?

From Migrationsverket (The Swedish Immigration Authority).

http://www.migrationsverket.se/info/3419_en.html

I live in Sweden as a EU-citizen exercising his right of free movement with a third-country national spouse.

YOU on the other hand, are NOT covered by the EU free movement rights, since your husband has never lived (with you) in another EU member state.

I wouldn't be too worried if I was you, the national rules for family reunification in Sweden are actually better in several areas than the EU rules. However, the non-national spouse is required to wait OUTSIDE Sweden until the application is approved.

On the other hand, once the application is approved, you will have everything already sorted out with regards to getting your Swedish ID-number for work, you will be offered free Swedish lessons and you will be eligible for a permanent residence permit after only 2 years as opposed to the five year waiting period for this priviledge under the EU rules.

All in all, I don't think it's too unreasonable to have to wait a little bit longer since the rights connected to your residence permit is better than those granted to union citizens and their spouses moving to Sweden.

[Directive/2004/38/EC]

ECJ Case C-157/03, Commission v Spain [2005]

This does apply to anyone from a different EU member state who resides in Sweden (and their family members), but it does not apply to a Swedish citizen who has not worked in a different member state.

[skargardande]

thanks everyone for the information! tack så mycket!