Moving out of Sweden - How to prepare and What to do

After living and working in Sweden for two and a half years, I decided to move back to my home country India. Similar to how it takes quite a few steps to get into the Swedish system, like getting a personummer and opening a bank account, there are quite a few things to take care of before you leave Sweden, especially if you are moving out without the intention to come back soon. Here's a list of things I did before the move!

My profile

Before we begin, I would like to make it clear that this is not a comprehensive/legal guide since it is just written from my experience. My situation of stay might be totally different from yours so, even though most of the points I mention apply in most of the cases, you might have to do less or more things than mentioned. To make it easier for you to decide how much this post will be relevant for you, here's my profile when I lived in Sweden:

• Single
• Living in a rental apartment as a solo occupant
• Not an EU citizen
• Had a temporary work and residence permit
• Had a full time job
• Had a personal number (personummer)
• Paid taxes in Sweden
• Was covered by Swedish Social Insurance (Försäkringskassan)
• Had occupational and state pension funds
• Was not a director/owner of any company
• Did not own any property

If you have come till here and want to continue reading, then let's get started with ticking those boxes!

Housing

• Rental

  1. Send official notice to your landlord based on the date you have decided to leave Sweden. Get acknowledgement for the same and agree on the last date.
  2. According to your contract, fix/replace anything that is broken that you are responsible for. This makes the final inspection simpler and potentially less costlier than leaving for the landlord to fix it.
  3. Ask for the final inspection to be done with you and get confirmation (in writing preferably) that everything is fine.
  4. Enquire about how and when the security deposit would be paid. Also, ask for communication details so that you can follow up.

• Home insurance

  1. Contact your home insurance provider to setup the termination date for your insurance. If you use an app based provider like Hedvig, you can do that in the app.
  2. Remember to download and save your insurance agreements as they will become useful later if your landlord charges you for any repairs. You need to contact your provider to claim that.
  3. After you have paid the last instalment, ensure any direct debit setup is cancelled.

• Other items you don't want to take

  1. If you wish to sell the items, you can try Blocket, Facebook Marketplace etc.
  2. If you have clothes and small household items that are in usable condition, you can donate them at Myrorna or other second hand shops.
  3. For everything else, find an återvinningsstation (recycling station) close to you. They usually mention what they accept on the website and you can put most of the items for recycling.

Finances

• Bank account

  1. Even after you leave, you would most likely need a bank account to receive/make some pending transactions. The main ones are filing your income tax return for the current financial year and paying any due taxes or receiving a refund and receiving the final settlement from your ex-employer.
  2. Check with your bank if they would allow you to retain your account after moving out. Many banks don't so it's important that you check this early enough to open an account with a bank that supports it before you leave.
  3. Make sure to remove any Autogiro authorizations and direct debit mandates from the day you don't want it.
  4. Make a note of how to close the account from overseas as well.
  5. Maintain enough balance to cover the maintenance costs.

• BankID

  1. You will need BankID quite a bit even after you leave Sweden, especially for filing income tax, getting mail via Kivra and checking status of your applications at various orgs.
  2. Issue yourself a fresh BankID very close to the date of leaving so that it remains valid for a few more years (it's 3 years from the date of issue as of writing this).
  3. Order a new DigiPass or other code generator from your bank so that you have a fresh set of batteries in them and can use it in case you lose BankID.
  4. Since you can have up to 3 BankIDs active at a time, issue yourself a backup one on a different phone just in case.

• Pension

  1. In most of the cases, you can't claim your pension until the age mentioned in your occupational pension or until 55 years (as of writing this post) for the state pension.
  2. Login to Min Pension and make a note of all your pension funds. Get their terms documents and make a note of the age from which you can start claiming them.
  3. In which ever country you live at the time of attaining the pensionable age, you can write to your provider(s) and receive pension so, it is important to keep this information handy.
  4. There is a possibility to buy-back (Återköp) your private pension fund if it meets certain criteria. If you want to withdraw your capital at the cost of losing out on a better pension later, contact the pension provider and ask them if you can buy-back. If it is allowed, there are a few more steps to be done, check out the "Other stuff" section at the end of this post!

• Market investments

  1. From what I know, you can hold your AF Konto investment account but you can't hold your ISK investment account (investeringssparkonto) once you move out if you don't have close ties to Sweden.
  2. This is based on tax liabilities and since I was no expert and did not want to deal with any problems later, I just sold all my assets and closed both the accounts before moving out.

• Credit cards & Loans

  1. Credit cards are usually allowed by the providers to be retained even after you leave. I would advise to keep them for a while after leaving, just in case you have to make some emergency payment. Check with the provider to make sure you can cancel it via online modes after leaving the country before deciding whether to keep it.
  2. Loans usually need to be cleared before leaving. Since I never had one, all I can say is to call up your provider to check what needs to be done.

Government stuff

• Skatteverket

  1. This is the most important notification to be given as it determines everything from they recognizing you as an emigrated person (basically removing your name from the population registry) to determining your tax liability!
  2. Download the Moving Abroad Notification form (SKV7665) from Skatteverket. It is available in English also.
  3. Fill it up and either submit it at any Statens Service Center that accepts Skatteverket forms or send it via post to the address mentioned in the form/website.
  4. It is advisable to do it at least 1-2 weeks before leaving Sweden.
  5. You can track the status of your application by:
  • logging into My Pages (Mina Sidor) and going to Folkbokföring. It should say "Inte registrerad i Sverige" (you are not registered in Sweden) and status as "Utvandrad" (emigrated). Your new address in the new country should also be visible there.
  • calling Skatteverket and asking the status
  6. You will receive a letter via Kivra or any other digital mailbox you have setup informing about the change in your residential status once the application is resolved.
  7. I would also suggest you to download the population register extract (Personbevis) from My Pages before the change of status and after, as it might come in handy to prove your residential status later or in the country you have moved to.

• Försäkringskassan

  1. This is the Swedish social insurance authority and if you have received the EU health card or have kids, you would have most likely registered with them.
  2. If you are unsure, check by calling them.
  3. If you are registered, you need to submit Moving Abroad Notification (Form 5459) either by sending a printed physical copy or filling it online by logging into My Pages (Mina Sidor) on their website.
  4. You also have to cancel any payments like child allowance you are receiving. I would suggest calling them to check what needs to be done.

• Migrationsverket

  If you have a permanent residence permit or you are a Swedish or EU citizen, then what is written below is not for you. Check with Migrationsverket about what needs to be done.

  1. Since you are leaving the country, informing them tends to be the most overlooked aspect. To add to that, it's not clearly mentioned anywhere about what needs to be done!
  2. I received conflicting information from their own helplines but I am gonna write here what worked for me. I had a permit valid for ~2 years at the time of leaving so it was even more important to inform them.
  3. Call them up and ask for what needs to be done. They will usually ask you to inform them of your departure via email. Ask the email address from them and make a note. If they mention nothing needs to be done, make sure you have told them your permit validity period and that you don't intend to come back anytime soon to Sweden for work, coz usually you are required to inform them.
  4. I wrote a mail to that address stating the work permit case number, personal number, date of my departure, the country I entered after that and where I would be living and attached the passport pages having stamps with the same dates for proof.
  5. Make sure to write the email from the same email you have registered with them. Like all other offices, you can check this information in the My Pages.
  6. Your employer would have usually informed them that your are no longer employed/will be employed so Migrationsverket would have created a case already. They reply to your email within a few days saying they have a case running and have added your email and passport stamps pictures as proof.
  7. If all goes well, they will send a decision letter to the Swedish Embassy in the country you are living in and your representative in Sweden (the person/agency that helped you file the work permit application), in a few weeks (if you have waited for a work permit decision then you already know how this goes 🤷‍♂️) saying your work and residence permit is revoked and inform you about the letter via email.
  8. You have to contact the Embassy on how to collect the letter and usually it is an in-person visit but they might agree to send it by post. Try your luck!
  9. If you want to be sure they have started your case, you can call them up and ask for the status.
  10. Since you are not allowed to stay in Sweden on a temporary work permit after 3 months of terminating your employment and not starting a new one, they will register a case to assess your permit revocation and deportation after that period so it's better to be proactive in informing them and following up.

Other stuff

• Insurances, Appointments and Memberships

  1. Give notices for cancellation well in advance for your private insurances and memberships like Gyms, A-Kassa, Union etc.
  2. Cancel any internet and electricity connection taken in your name or transfer them to the next tenant if your landlord requests that.
  3. Cancel any medical appointments scheduled after you departure date.
  4. If you have kid(s) studying, then take all necessary documents in English from the school and check the exit procedure.
  5. Make sure you have returned any books you have borrowed from the library and paid any pending invoices.

• Freja e-ID

  1. Like BankID, there are many other e-IDs that are supported by websites for logging in and Freja e-ID is a widely accepted one.
  2. If you have a personal number, you can easily create an ID on their app. But this won't be very useful until you get it verified physically to get Freja e-ID plus!
  3. Once you have created the ID on their app, they tell you how to get it verified. It usually involves visiting a shop that does this verification and showing your Driving License or Skatteverket ID card.
  4. Since you can login to Skatteverket and many other websites once you have the plus version, I would suggest getting it as a backup if you lose BankID.
  5. There are no fees for and the ID is valid for 5 years from the date of issue at the time of writing this.

• Pension buy-back (Återköp)

  1. If you have decided to remove your capital invested in your pension fund, check if you are eligible for pension buy-back by calling your fund provider. This is completely voluntary as you can still continue to have the fund and get pension later, wherever you a living 😬.
  2. If they say yes and you agree to the terms, they will send you two forms:
  • to transfer the fund from your employer to your name. This is a physical form that needs to be signed by you and your employer and then sent back to the provider via post.
  • to initiate the buy-back process. This is usually online application form and just requires a e-signature.
  3. Once they have concluded the case, you will get the money after taxes to the account you had mentioned in the application form.

• Phone number

  1. Change your phone number to your new number across all the sites you had registered your Swedish number. Especially your bank!
  2. Check for roaming plans and activate it before leaving, to have the number active for a few months after moving.
  3. If it is a postpaid number, ask your provider about how to cancel it from abroad.
  4. If it is from your employer, get it transferred to your name before leaving the company. Ask your employer for the process.

• Post forwarding

  1. It takes a while before your address change is done by Skatteverket post moving and it takes more time for it to get propagated to all the orgs using your address. Thus, your physical mail would still be coming to your address in Sweden.
  2. There are services that help you inform the postal services about your address change. Adressändring is one of them and recommended by Skatteverket
  3. This is usually free (without forwarding of old mail) if your new address is in Sweden. Since your new address will be outside Sweden, you can opt for the forwarding option they provide. It is usually 3 - 12 months plan and the cost varies based on the destination country and plan duration.
  4. If you are expecting some important post or just want to make sure you don't miss anything, you can opt for this. But make sure to register with them a week before you move since they take time to put the changes in place.
  5. Calling/chatting with them is the best way to setup the plan.

• Useful resources for helping with the move

  1. Annamalai Ramanathan lives in Sweden and runs a forum for folks interested in personal finance in Sweden. He is also very knowledgeable in tax related aspects and has a network of tax and legal consultants he can connect you with. Suggest checking out his website and setting up a session with him if you are keen.
  2. The Newbie Guide to Sweden has a great article about this topic - Moving from Sweden – The Step by Step Guide.
  3. Guide from Migrationsverket - Before you move. Very generic but has mention of most of the topics you need to think about.
  4. If you have a subscription to TheLocal.se - CHECKLIST.

• Life

  1. Eat all the food you would miss from Sweden until you are content 🧆
  2. Meet all your friends 🤝
  3. Visit all your favorite spots in the city 🌇

If you have reached till here, your patience is unwavering! Kudos!

If there is any more information you feel I should add, please ping me on Instagram and I will try to update it after checking its relevance.

If you feel like buying me a coffee, here you go - Buy Mahesh a Coffee!