Tug of War: Swedish ID

It is official, on February 9, my permission letter to get my little American hands on a Swedish identification card came knocking at my mail box. On Monday morning, I raced onto the metro and traveled 20 minutes to the Skatteverket (tax office.) I was greeted with warm smiles and waited no longer than 5 minutes for my ticket number to be called up. And there it was…the size of a credit card, painted in gold and littered with government non-theft holograms: My official Swedish ID Card!

Am I officially Swedish? No…but I am one step closer to being considered “European.”

The next step, was I not walked or ran…but I jogged out of pure excitement to the SEB bank next door and opened an account without hesitation!

All this waiting…since the day I received my personnumber (social security number) back at the end of November…I finally can melt into Swedish life with my ID card and bank account!