New ways to facilitate passport control

Since November last year, international students must personally go to a Swedish embassy to obtain a Swedish residence permit.

After protests from several universities, the government has now tasked the Swedish Migration Agency with coming up with solutions that facilitate passport control in countries with many students applying to Sweden.

IT WAS ON November 1 last year that the Swedish Migration Agency introduced stricter passport controls when applying for residence permits.

– The new rules mean that anyone applying for a residence permit for study purposes must personally present their passport at a Swedish embassy before the Swedish Migration Agency will make a decision. The aim is to improve the due process and reduce the risk of irregularities, says Karin Andrén at the Swedish Migration Agency’s press office.

– WE ARE TRYING to make it as convenient as possible by ensuring that you only need to visit the Swedish Migration Agency or the embassy/consulate once. The visit can then be combined with submitting fingerprints and taking a photo for your residence-permit ID.

The new passport requirements apply to everyone outside of the Schengen Area, so includes people who require no visa to be in Sweden.

For researchers and stu- dents in the USA, the requirements mean that they have to travel to the Swedish embassy in Washington D.C. as that is the only Swedish mission that can conduct a biometric examination. This is according to John Molander, Project Manager at the International Centre.

– Previously, you could fax in a passport copy, something that is of course easy to manipulate, which led to criticism from the Swedish National Audit Office, so I do understand the need to make the application process more secure. But before introducing a change, you should ensure that it is possible to implement it without any major glitches. For example, in a country as large as the USA Swedish missions should have biometric devices in more than one place. For someone living in California for example, it may be so expensive and time-consuming to travel to Washington D.C. that they decide to study somewhere else instead.

FOLLOWING CRITICISM from several universities, the government instructed the Swedish Migration Agency in February to make it easier for people who do not require a visa to present their passport, Karin Andrén explains.

– This could, for example, involve sending out mobile passport checks to places with many applicants to Swedish universities.

Eva Lundgren