Throughout the entire process of my application for my permanent resident visa I considered myself very blessed considering I unnecessarily worried myself after reading way too many horror stories of lengthy processing times that could take up to 7-9 months. They might as well have told me 7-9 years for as long as that felt it was going to be! Although the application itself was rather extensive I managed to get everything together and personally delivered my application to the Swedish Consulate in Dallas,Texas where the vice consulate herself sat down with me to go over my app page by page. Talk about extremely kind and way above and beyond her call of duty!
Two weeks after my application was fully submitted I hopped on a flight to Stockholm for the first time to visit and await my approval. Fortunately, because I am an American I was allowed to be in Sweden during my processing time as American citizens do not need a visa to be in the country for less than 90 days. As stated by the consulate there was a slight chance that I many be allowed to complete the interview portion of my application in Stockholm but mere weeks before I was due to fly out we were told that I would in fact need to return to my country of origin. However, due to our strong evidence of the relationship I would not have to interview at all! So all in all from door to door my entire application process took 3 1/2 months from time of submission to approval. Nothing short of amazing.
On the day the above picture was taken I had been in Stockholm for maybe a week and thought it was finally time to venture out on my own and learn the subway system, bus routes and pendeltåg (commuter train). It took a while that day to find my way to Migrationsverket but I find it very interesting that the journey I took that day was not only to find that office but to find out where the journey of life was about to take me.
