Swedish family reunification, waiting times and passports

[lcfreitasf]

Hello!
Me and my girlfriend finally applied for family reunification in Sweden, in august of this year. I am Brazilian, living as a student in Ireland with a visa that expires in March of 2014. We applied through Swedish rules. It's not possible to apply for EU-rules since she's currently living only with the SU at the moment and doesn't have time to work because of university.
Things are that waiting times went up again, to 10 months ): . Before, when it was seven months, I had worried about the fact that my passport expires in June of 2015, and it needs to be valid to at least one year from the day I will get the permit. Since I am living abroad, there is a problem with getting it renewed, as Brazil has mandatory military service and compulsory voting. You need both certificates to get a new passport, and our lovely army takes up to 6 months to issue a new one for those abroad (I lost mine ):). It should arrive by January, but still, this is just to explain why I couldn't do it before.
Before, with 7 months-long waiting times, this shouldn't be a problem (I even called Migrationsverket to confirm), but now, with 10 months to go, there is a reasonable chance that I will get the decision when my passport has less than one year left. What will happen if change my passport in the middle of the application? I have to send it in person to some Migrationsverket office, will it make my waiting times even longer? In somewhere (don't remember where), I have even read that this would null my application (as the most fundamental document from it is simply not valid anymore) and I would have to make a new one, going back to the start of the queue (which should be even longer by then), is it possible?

Then comes the second question. Another worry about the waiting times is the fact that I can only stay in Ireland until March of next year. Plus the days I can stay in Sweden as a tourist (minus those I already spent), I could then go and stay in her house until say, mid to end of April. I want to avoid as much as possible going back to Brazil, because we have the World Cup this year and the flight prices are already stupidly high, and it will take a huge chunk of the money I was trying to save to start my new life in Sweden, and maybe I can't even afford it.
So, first, Migrationsverket say your visa might be denied if you are in Sweden illegally for "considerable" periods of time. What is considerable in that case? Overstaying in one month would be enough to get me deported? I don't like it, but I might not even be able to afford coming back if fares keep going up that way. I considered going to a country outside the Schengen Area to wait these 2/3 months left (Irish authorities would regard me with a lot of suspicion if I came back after staying two years this time with no funds to support myself and no reason to stay here for that long, I believe. Heard loads of stuff of brazilians getting sent back by european authorities and I definitely want to avoid that to myself)
Another alternative, when we had a talk about waiting times in ÆuG's facebook group, a girl mentioned that she asked the contact details of their caseworker to the embassy, and called him to get more specific details of the ongoing situation of her application. Is that really possible? What's the most polite and correct way of doing it? I want to know if they can give a more specific estimation, so I can try to save money by buying the ticket back to Brazil with considerable advance, and try to hurry up with renewing my passport if it's likely that it will be needed.
I am open to any suggestions or solutions that might be possible to the problems I mentioned and I didn't think of.

Thanks!

[fundiver199]

As a brazilian citizen, you are visa free in Schengen and can stay in Schengen for up to 90 days within any 180 day period. So if you stay out of Schengen from december 2013 to march 2014, you can stay legally in Sweden from march 2014 to june 2014 as a visa free "turist".

Also why not just move to Sweden, when you have finished your study in Ireland, and then hand in an application for EU residence card? The interpretation of "sufficient means" must never be strict, and if you have money in the bank, these count as "sufficient means" as well.

Also is it really that impossible for your girlfriend to find a spare time job in either Sweden or Denmark? To me it looks like, this is mostly a matter of priority. You will need to get married though to use the EU-rules.

[lcfreitasf]

Hi Fundiver, you are right. But two other things: I already booked a visit to she and her family in Christmas for about two weeks (long before the waiting times increased and these days didn't seem to be needed). So, two weeks less. And I forgot to say that my Irish student visa goes only until March 8th, while I applied in the end of august, I would need to stay until the end, and not the beggining of June. So, the number of days I can stay as a tourist would be one month short of how long I would need to stay, given it really takes 10 months. Hence my question about overstaying.

You are right about the EU rules, we definitely need to have a better look at it. As of now, yes, it's quite hard for her to get a job (she studies at RUC, one hour of commuting back and forth everyday), she is coming back from school everyday late in the night, but hopefully this could change in the coming months and she would be less busy. We will have a look into that, thanks (:

Regarding the question about my passport expiry dates, do you have any idea about it? This is my biggest worry at the moment.

[fundiver199]

No I don´t. But I will not advise you to stay in Schengen for more than 90 days out of 180 days without making a timely application for EU-residence card.

But since the processing an EU-application takes up to 12 month currently in Sweden, the most likely outcome is, that the application after national law will be approved, long before swedish authorities might get to the point of deciding, that you do NOT have an EU-residence right in Sweden.

So for me it seems like the only real problem is your passport and not finding a place, where you can stay legally. If you hand in an EU-application in Sweden, you are staying legally in Sweden, until that application has been turned down.

And in reality I don`t see that happening, unless you apply for swedish social welfare (socialbidrag).

[radiomaw]

since you applied before they update the waiting times i think your application will follow the 7months waiting time frame. But I am not sure.

You can stay until mid april 2014. I am pretty sure you you hear an answer before that time so i dont think you should worry because when the waiting times were 7months the applications used to take 3 to 4 months even though it says 7 months so I am pretty sure even if it will follow the 10 months frame you will hear an answer before you have to go to Brazil.

I am not an expert. I just wanted to share my opinion in a logic matter. doesnt mean i am correct but hopefullly i am since i am facing the same issue as you. my passport expires soon and my country have the same issue with military service and the waiting time went to 14 months for the category im applying in.

I wish you all luck. and I am pretty sure you will hear an answer before april 2014 so just relax and enjoy.

And it is always safer if you and your partner considered applying under EU rules even if you do not meet the requirements. It will atleast buy you more time in sweden even if they refuse the EU application it doesnt matter because by that time you will hear the answer from the swedish application.

[lcfreitasf]

Thanks both of you lads!

I will try getting in touch with swedish authorities regarding the passport situation. Radiomaw, if I get an answer, I will post it here since you are in the same situation and might be interested.

[xixioge]

Are you both married or are you just applying to move in with your girlfriend in Sweden i.e. if it is the latter situation, does Sweden allow that?

[skaanebo]

There is no requirement to be married to apply for a residence permit after national Swedish law.

[xixioge]

There is no requirement to be married to apply for a residence permit after national Swedish law.

Thanks Skaanebo!
I hope I'm not hijacking this thread, but maybe this new revelation can be useful to me then.
It is just that I have an off and on Swedish boyfriend, can he then apply for me if he wants to? If yes, can I submit my application here in Denmark in my situation? This is because I have been 'udvist' based on the letter from US, but I'm still here because my Lawyer is in contact with US, insisting they should reopen my case since mistakes were made in their treatment of it the first time. She is positive it would be re-opened as she told me US sent her all my file as at last Friday.
What do you think?

I can always move this away if you guys feel it doesn't belong here

[skaanebo]

Yes, if your relationship to the Swede is genuine, you can apply for a Swedish residence permit as a bf/gf. You can apply online and hope it will be processed while you are in Denmark legally.

[xixioge]

Yes, if your relationship to the Swede is genuine, you can apply for a Swedish residence permit as a bf/gf. You can apply online and hope it will be processed while you are in Denmark legally.

Thanks again!!
The relationship is actually genuine. I've just been dragging my feet with him because I just don't feel like marrying again, not after the hell I went through in my first marriage. I can take a chance though so long it doesn't involve marriage i.e. it makes it easier for an ethnic woman like me to walk out when and if it becomes agonizing (my people won't count it as marriage for me, but just a relationship) .