University leaders in Sweden have warned that new rules that require applicants of work or residence permits to present their passports in person to Swedish authorities abroad before having their applications assessed by the Swedish Migration Agency may add to red tape and discourage students and researchers from considering Sweden as a study and research destination.
The Swedish Migration Agency announced the changes, which came into effect on 1 November 2022, on 10 October.
In terms of the changes, applicants of residence or work permits intending to come to Sweden from countries that do not require visas will be required to present themselves at an embassy or consulate abroad with their original passport before the agency assesses their application.
In terms of the previous process, visa-exempt applicants could submit their biometrics in Sweden once their application had been approved.
The new requirement affects both those applying for a residence permit for the first time and those who are applying for an extended residence permit. However, it applies only to people using a passport that has not previously been shown to the Swedish Migration Agency, a Swedish embassy or the consulate general.
Increased control
“The Migration Agency is responsible for examining people’s passports and identities either … [for] travel to or [to] apply for residence in Sweden. By increasing the control and with more education of our staff we are going to make better and more standardised control of all passports,” said Carl Bexelius, head of legal affairs at the Swedish Migration Agency.
Bexelius said people who made an application for a permit before 1 November will need to visit an embassy or general consulate or one of the Migration Agency’s service centres to show their passports.
“We are working at making the transfer to the new routine as smooth as possible and we really do not want people who come to Sweden to be affected negatively by this change, but the handling time at the migration agency might increase somewhat during the transfer period,” Bexelius said.
The changes come in the wake of an investigation by the National Audit Agency into the efficacy of identity checks at Swedish embassies and general consulates which uncovered cases in which people with false identities had managed to get through the checks.
When parliament received the report of the National Audit Agency, a recommendation that applicants would need to show an original passport was endorsed and parliament also made recommendations that the Migration Agency should be adequately staffed to manage the increased workload this might present.
Legally speaking, there is provision for the move. As far back as 2009, a Swedish migration court found that a third country citizen applying for a temporary residence permit for Sweden is required to produce a passport.
Warnings from academia
When the 10 October 2022 announcement entered the public space, the presidents of both the Royal Institute of Technology and Karolinska Institute in Stockholm issued warnings about the impact of increased bureaucracy on international talent on their blog pages.
In a 28 October blog headlined “Hastily introduced passport requirements risk preventing our ability to recruit cutting-edge expertise”, President of the Karolinska Institute Professor Ole Petter Ottersen, emphasised the hurried nature of the new requirements, considering the length of time since the 2009 court ruling, as well as their likely impact.
“In so short a time, to introduce so extensive changes in the routines for handling residence permit applications will have long-lasting consequences, not only for higher education institutions that are dependent on recruiting highly competent people regardless of where in the world they are living in order to perform our research and teaching, but also for our businesses and industry.”
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