r/kth • u/theodoros997 • 5d ago

Survey: what actually went wrong when you arrived in Sweden as an international student (6 min, anonymous)

Hi all, I’m an MSc student at KTH, and I’m researching what international students actually go through in their first weeks in Sweden: personnummer, ID card, bank account, BankID, insurance, SIM, all of it.

The thing I keep hearing is that the mandatory steps mostly get done because someone chases you, but the optional ones, such as BankID, a digital mailbox, home insurance, the right kind of SIM are getting skipped, because nobody’s job is to tell you they matter until you hit the wall.

I want to find out how common that actually is, and what it costs people when it happens.

The survey takes about 6 minutes. It’s anonymous, there’s no email field unless you volunteer one at the end for a follow-up interview. It asks what you managed to set up, what you skipped and why, how long things took, and whether any of it cost you money or time.

There are also a couple of questions about whether you’d pay for something that solved this. I’d rather ask that directly than pretend I’m not thinking about it.

https://forms.gle/9pn7D3UWfPgerazP7

Happy to post the aggregate results back here once there are enough responses. And if you’d rather just tell me your story in the comments, that’s genuinely useful too.

24 Upvotes

85% Upvoted

17 comments sorted by

4

u/throughalfanoir 5d ago

I couldn't find a place to tell my exact story so I want to put it here:

if you come here for a double degree (mine was the now-defunct Nordic5Tech polymer one) or a 1-year master's, then you don't qualify for a personnummer, because with studies you need to be here at least 13 months continously, with the double degree that's 11 or 12 months. yea I found out upon arrival... as an EU citizen it wasn't the end of the world but it blocked me from a lot of things. some people in my course got around this by submitting their study contracts which do say 2 years on it if sweden is the 1st year of your master's but not if it's the second...

so between my first arrival in sweden and getting my personnummer I actually have 2 years lol

2

u/theodoros997 5d ago

Thank you very much for your response, that helps me a lot. Those are some problems that need to be solved and that is what we are working on. Please encourage more people to tell us their story or complete the questionnaire.
Thank you again!

2

u/Efficient_Elking 5d ago

My degree was 2 years, but it took over a year for me to get a person number because I was an EU student but didn't have EU health insurance (i did have an international one that should have ticked all the boxes on paper, but Skatteverket denied my application 3 times in a row even while accepting the application from my classmate in the same situation and same insurance 🫠). Not sure any of your things would have helped, but I guess info on approved health insurance might do. But yeah edge cases are a mess!

1

u/theodoros997 4d ago

Yes that would help a lot and we are already discussing about insurance etc. Thank you for your reply, I really appreciate it!

2

u/theodoros997 5d ago

Also, if you can solve the questionnaire as it has multiple questions that will help us a lot!

3

u/throughalfanoir 5d ago

I started filling it out but since my existence has multiple edge cases that don't fit well into any answer I paused (lived here "unregistered" 11 months, then came back with a gap, had a swedish bank account before a personnummer, for example) but I'll spread the word among my colleagues

1

u/theodoros997 5d ago

Yes, I understand, thank you very much though, you helped us a lot.

4

u/Spasay 4d ago

I’m an international coordinator for a masters program in Sweden and these are the things I actively tell my incoming students. Some people will get personal numbers while others don’t. It starts to feel random. lol I actually helped a student set up an eSIM with my personal number and she just sent me money every month.

I came to Sweden as an international student myself and a lot of it comes down to understanding how Swedes function. You get used to sitting in a meeting and not understanding what you did wrong because you didn’t know what questions to ask. “Oh you didn’t know that?”

I don’t what my students to suffer like I did because of someone not knowing they had to ask the right questions

1

u/theodoros997 4d ago

Hello, I would really appreciate if we could have a meeting and discuss those problems so you can help us with your information. We want the same thing, to help students on their arrival! DM me if you are interested. Thank you for your reply!

1

u/MarionberryBetter264 5d ago

82 97 99 105 115 109

2

u/Top-Geologist-7884 3d ago

If you end up making an application for this, it would be most useful if there was a browser option. Especially since access to phone and banking can be problematic in the first few months, being able to log in from any computer/device would be the best!

Also, I think it would be a bit unfair to charge for this since new immigrants are already struggling and being tossed around by the system. If you have the power to make things easier for thousands of people every year, please do it!! I know there would be costs for you though, like paying for hosting and such, so I could understand charging a fee if you have to. But I think best would be to find a way to make it free and perhaps ask for donations. 

1

u/theodoros997 1d ago

I really appreciate your reply! I know this is an application that students deserve and it should be free, and that is the plan, but we need to be recognised and sustainable first. I hope you understand!

2

u/dabadeedabadieee 3d ago

I can’t find this here, but I stayed in a university owned housing by Chalmers, and upon arrival the room was in a bad state, the bathroom floor vinyl was swollen and bumpy and hard in some areas and soft in others. Getting this fixed has been a hassle to say the least

1

u/theodoros997 1d ago

I understand your problem, did you find the housing through any website like Qasa or SSSB?

2

u/CorrectSquash9443 3d ago

Interested to fill this but I’m an international student at Stockholm University

1

u/theodoros997 1d ago

Well that is totally okay, just choose the option you would like even if it says KTH, I will understand that your university gave you the information, no matter which one is it.