Time is flying and I do not seem to have quite enough time to write as often as I would like to. This will be a bit long, but I wanted to share these experiences as it is not real easy any longer to be a dual citizen and
especially an American citizen.
Nowadays I always travel with two passports when I go to Sweden as I am a dual citizen. I use my American passport to
leave and enter the US and my Swedish passport when I enter Sweden and the European Union.
Swedish passports are only valid for five years compared to American passports that are valid for 10 years. My Swedish
passport was going to expire in May of 2016 so I thought it would be helpful to renew it now. You can renew it even if it
has not expired. As it has become much more difficult and expensive to renew a Swedish passport in the US it is nice to do
it when you are in Sweden.
The only embassy in all of the US where you can renew a Swedish passport is the Swedish Embassy in Washington D.C. If you
live in that area it is of course much easier, but living in the remote northernmost parts of California would be a very
expensive and difficult way of renewing it. There are some mobile passports stations that come to a few of the bigger
cities where you also can renew your passport but, again, they are nowhere near where I live.
In Sweden you renew your passport at police stations so I went to one where I have renewed my passport earlier. They wanted
to look at both of my passports and my Naturalization Certificate which I got when I became a US citizen. I paid the fee
and photos and fingerprints were done and I thought that was it. Nope, that wasn't the case. The next day I got an email
from the passport police (they evaluate Swedes who live abroad) and it turned out that the police who helped me had forgotten to
give me a form that I also had to fill out. After numerous phone calls I found out that I could come back and pick up the
form the same day and have them scan it.
The form, however, surprised me as it was supposed to "test my Swedish citizenship." I did not remember having to fill out
anything similar previously and the form had questions that asked for very detailed answers, such as my parents' exact
birth places and date of marriage. Luckily I had other documents with me that helped me so I could fill out the form.
When I came back to the police station I asked the woman who helped me why this form was needed and she said that Swedes
could lose their citizenships. I must have looked very surprised as I had not heard this earlier. I knew that those who got
another citizenship before 2001 lost their Swedish citizenship but after 2001 Sweden has approved dual citizenship.
I asked the woman again if I really could lose my citizenship and she said "yes" and had a very odd smile. Not okay in my
opinion to scare people like that without giving more information so at some point I will go higher up with this.
At least I got my passport the next day and it is now good through October of 2020.
Something else that I wanted to do was to try and open another bank account besides the two I have in one bank.
When the US basically forced the rest of the world to adopt the
FATCA-regulations it became much harder to be an
American abroad and to have foreign financial accounts. Sweden adopted FATCA into Swedish law in February of 2015. Some
countries, like Mexico, have even closed bank accounts for Americans. FATCA came about when it was discovered that some
rich Americans tried to hide money in Switzerland (which is a tax haven, Sweden not so much). Unfortunately the FATCA-
regulations are now hitting regular people who have become "entangled" in this very complex US regulation. All kinds of
foreign financial accounts are supposed to be reported to the IRS in the US and if you do not report what you have in
different accounts when you do your US tax return you can be penalized with very hefty fines.
I was prepared that I could be hassled by the Swedish bank people and that's exactly what happened. Swedish banks and other
financial institutions are having to handle quite a bit of reporting now and I know that they do not really like doing
this. The first bank I had contacted basically said that they did not want me as a customer despite a fairly large amount
of money that I was going to transfer from my other bank. Another bank was also very hesitant. As I knew that they could
not deny me to open a regular saving's account I contacted an organization called
Svenska Bankforeningen/Swedish Bankers' Association and the woman I
spoke with said that I was correct and she encouraged me to contact people higher up within the bank. I did and after
speaking with a very nice assistant to the regional manager for one of the banks, I had an appointment set up for the next
day. The account was opened and the money transferred.
You have to be knowledgeable to do these kinds of things and obviously kind of pushy and talk to people higher up. At least
I accomplished what I had set out to do. :)
So far the weather has been quite nice here in the Stockholm area with lots of sunshine and mild temperatures. Not as warm
as Weed with highs in the 80s but low 50s is really okay for October. My friend (who I am staying with) and I took a nice
walk the other day and visited a nature preserve area close to where she lives. We sat by the water and enjoyed the
sunshine, watched sheep and boats, and chatted.
