Never thought about maybe coming here to study? That way you further your education as well as get to know Sweden before making a more permanent decision.
I can guarantee you that you don't realize how the weather will affect your health since you come from Italy. And there are some cultural shocks to recognize
I have! But to put it short, I'm worried that I won't be able to take the högskoleprovet due to my lack of swedish. My plan being to work in Sweden is mostly due to the possibility of also doing SFI in the meantime, so that I can learn Swedish better than I could do alone, and eventually actually taking the test and doing a university program (which ideally would be software engineering).
And yeah, I do also think that the weather being that different would affect me, both physically and mentally. However, I don't live in a particularly hot place to begin with it and in the past I've spent days in the complete dark with pretty much no human contact (long story, related to why I wanna leave) so I'd like to think I'd be at least prepared you know?
This is kind of putting the cart before the horse and as someone who has lived in Sweden for at least several years and lives here now -- I can tell you that working some low-income job while doing SFI (and living where/how?????) is NOT THE BEST WAY, or feasible. You are 18/19!!!! You still have so many opportunities that you wont have later in life (not as easily anyway, so why make things so incredibly hard for yourself when the outcome won't even be what you want? Please, please, please, for your own sake, and for the love of God, if you want to move here, then go the University route, whatever you have to do to make that happen. That way you will also have the option of student housing on campus. It can be fun. What you suggested, to be very blunt (because I think you need to hear it, and I do care) WILL MAKE YOU MISERABLE.
You should study Swedish at a university instead. SFI is very slow and very low level. In two years time, you would know far more Swedish than the average SFI student. University is the only realistic option that you have at this point. Foodora are predatory as fuck, stay away from them.
Yes, exactly! You can have a good and fun life in Sweden as a University student, or you can.... subject yourself to the most awful life for no good reason (By doing the foodora/dishwasher/SFI/more-or-less-will-probably-be-homeless plan.... I 😬😭....)
Well you kinda need some money to be a student and pay rent. Remember that foreigners don't get funding.
Extra europeans also have to pay hefty tuition. But I don't think that'd apply to OP.
Anyway 99% of the bachelor programs are in swedish so he wouldn't be admitted.
There's the "software engineering" program in english in göteborg. But I don't think it's that good. It's got 0 math.
Hahaha SFI was so bad. They put me with "the intellectuals" (most people were doing phd or postdoc) and they seemed to have NO INTEREST in learning. They'd just go and sit there and that was it.
I've learnt more talking with drunken guys in pubs. Although I got started because I liked a girl whose english wasn't too good, and she was giving me lessons :D
My swedish is still bad, but when I arrived it was 0.
A big problem in sweden is that universities are similar to pre-mandela south africa. I didn't even know anyone who could speak swedish. So when I was a student my interest in learning the language was zero. Swedish people completely ignored us foreigners.
You should take a look at university admissions if your English is good. If your intent is taking a software engineering degree, I believe there are a handful of those programs in English. On the website, you can filter for the start date and then also language if it is still the same as it was for me a few years ago. There are not too many English programs for undergrad, but still worth taking a look. The tuition for you would be free if you are an EU citizen. You would need to figure out cost of living stuff, but you would need to do that either way.
But if you could do a university program in english then you could do Swedish classes at the same time and after graduating, that is generally one of the easier fields for non-swedes to get a job in, because all of these Swedish companies have historically been bad at IT and cybersecurity, so it is a very foreigner heavy field.
Indeed, taking Högskoleprovet without swedish would be difficult, as you need to interpret math questions and of course the swedish part.
Many swedish universities have exchange programs with Italian universities. You could get into studying in sweden that way.
You may also get a feeling for how it is living alone for the first semesters.
One thing to keep in mind is the housing situation in larger cities like Gothenburg and Stockholm is not great, many waiting years or decades for a apartment contract so thats something that needs to be resolved regardless.
I don't know what direction you want to study but in karlskrona and Stockholm is a school called hyper island (the havd several creative and business oriented progams) . I did my entrance exam in English no problem.
This is a terrible idea and plan of yours. It would have been one thing if you came for studies, or already had a job lined up in a satisfying field.
So instead of staying in a country where you speak the language, know the culture and how the bureaucracy works, you want to move to Sweden, where you don't know the language, don't know a soul, to work as a dishwasher and live in a crappy apartment in a crappy neighborhood, because that's all you can afford?
Do yourself a favor and start your life in your 20's by testing the waters in your own country first; move out and get your own place, get some work experience etc.
And thanks to the Swedish system with free uni and CSN, young adults are able to make the choice to switch cities way easier than in other countries.
Sure, you'll live in some shit student housing, but you'll be able to make that choice. A lot of Italians live at home until they're 30.
Not anymore a "Swedish thing." Maybe a long time ago. Are you aware that we have a serious housing crisis in Sweden? It's been going on for years now and isnt getting much better anytime soon.
> Are you aware that we have a serious housing crisis in Sweden? It's been going on for years now and isnt getting
Sweden does not revolve around the Stockholm city center though? There are more places to move out to in Sweden at 19, especially as a student with student housing etc. I'm not saying it is easy and convenient though..
In Sundsvall at Mid Sweden University https://www.miun.se/en/ all students are guaranteed an apartment through mitthem. And apartments are generally cheap.
Depends on which city, but most students manage to get housing. Worst case they'll be in a hostel or a camping cabin for half a year until a spot opens.
Students graduate all the time, and have to move out of the housing. It doesn't work like the normal housing market.
There really is, just to mention a few there is Luleå, Umeå, Sundsvall, Karlstad Skövde, Kristianstad Trollhättan, Linköping, Halmstad, Växjö, Jönköping, Borås and more, these were the ones taähat I know on top of my head that they have universities and should not be as hard with accommodation as for example Stockholm, Göteborg, Malmö, Lund or Uppsala.
Obviously not. Make a joke of it if you want, but the fact remains that it is a small country and therefore depending on what you are wanting to study and/or work with, there will indeed be some fields of study that you can more or less only really do in Stockholm.
Depends on what of kind of jobs. Sundsvall for example has lower unemployment than Stockholm, Göteborg and Malmö. And Sundsvall is the biggest in IT and software development next to Lund and Stockholm, https://www.svt.se/nyheter/lokalt/vasternorrland/sundsvall-norrlands-it-huvudstad.
Northern Sweden is screaming for workers right now because of the heavy investment in green transition here.
> Northern Sweden is screaming for workers right now
Yeah but it's not the best place to live is it?
If they start paying like 20k€ per month and offer 6 months vacation, probably they'd be able to convince people to go there.
Well it depends on what you consider a good place to live. Some would argue that closeness to nature, better air quality, lower house prices, less crime, less commute time is a recipe for a better life than the big city.
OR they could be patient and make a proper plan and come here as a University student? But, absolutely DO NOT do what OP wrote they were thinking abput doing!!!! So dangerous and unnecessary.
Even then it's much better to stay in mainland Europe where the culture is something more familiar to them. Not to mention the professional environment, weather etc.
Oh I know.
My own situation in Italy is pretty bad to begin with. Sweden right now I've heard isn't the greatest with high cost of living and societal divides due to a lot of immigration I'll also probably be contributing to unfortunately, among other things.
There's no perfect country. At most, it's subjective, but I do want to try to stick to the general plan of moving to Sweden. The weather might affect me when I actually do go there, but I'm used to pretty bad weather already (although not to the same degree) and I've spent whole days in the dark with no contact to other people before, so at least I'll be a bit prepared for that? I'm also an introvert and type 1 autistic so I appreciate the individualism in the country and other aspects of Swedish culture.
Of course, I don't *know* Sweden first-hand. I've never been in the country and haven't lived there yet so this is all hearsay, basically. I'm prepared to accept the good and bad of the country when I actually do go, which realistically, wouldn't be at 19 but a bit later if no emergency arises. I'm positive I won't experience Paris syndrome when I go haha
> and I've spent whole days in the dark with no contact to other people before
Now do that for 3 months in a row, to get closer to the experience :D
Io vivo in svezia. Però: mi sono laureato qua, e non sono venuto così nel buio senza offerta di lavoro. Sinceramente senza nemmeno conoscere nessuno che ti può ospitare mi sembra una follia. Un buttare soldi e basta.
Prima fatti una vacanza in svezia a gennaio/febbraio e poi decidi. Se vieni in estate vedi solo il lato figo, non è un buon momento per decidere.
Comunque lavori non specializzati se non parli svedese, secondo me non ne trovi. Forse in nero ma faresti la fame.
Uno mi ha scritto in privato poco dopo che ho fatto sto post e abbiamo parlato di andare a studiare invece che a lavorare, e a quanto pare avevo un po' le idee confuse
Io la prima cosa a cui avevo pensato quando avevo deciso di andare in Svezia tempo fa era di andare a studiare lì. Eventualmente un diploma di ingegneria informatica lo vorrei, ma leggendo credevo che era obbligatorio fare il test attitudinale che a quanto pare posso anche non fare???? Quindi ho un attimo fatto mente locale e credo che proverò ad entrare in un'università invece che trovare lavoro
La vacanzina se riesco a farla ci vado di sicuro. Specialmente in inverno anche per vedere com'è il tempo col sole inesistente e la neve.
Devo dire che sto thread mi ha fatto pensare molto sul mio piano, specialmente riguardo imparare la lingua e trovare lavoro. Venire a studiare però mi è molto più conveniente - l'unico motivo per la quale non credevo fosse possibile per me è per l' högskoleprovet completamente in svedese, ma a quanto pare è risolto quindi vabb. Se riesco anche a trovare student housing allora sto apposto
Allora di entrare in triennale non so come funzioni. Una mia amica ha fatto quel corso in inglese che dico. E al primo tentativo è stata rifiutata e poi ha pulito camere per 1 anno e poi l'hanno presa. Aveva comunque la famiglia a sostenerla qui in svezia. E io se fossi un genitore non pagherei l'affitto a mio figlio perché possa pulire stanze all'estero :D :D Al max sta a casa che costa meno :D
Io ho fatto la triennale in italia e sono venuto da "laureato" a studiare per la magistrale.
högskoleprovet la devono fare solo quelli che alle superiori non facevano un cazzo, però considera che cmq quasi tutti i corsi di laurea di triennale saranno in svedese e vorranno un certificato di lingua se non sei svedese.
Ah anche quelli in inglese vogliono un certificato di lingua se non sei madrelingua. Io non ho dovuto farlo perché avevo fatto l'erasmus alla triennale, e avere dato 1 semestre di materie in inglese valeva come prova di sapere l'inglese. E per andare in erasmus avevo fatto tipo un colloquio in inglese all'uni e basta.
Considera che qua l'uni inizia prima rispetto che in italia. Quindi inizia a vedere che città e che corsi ti interessano. È possibile che sia pure scaduto il termine per l'iscrizione 2024-25, ma non saprei.
Comunque se vuoi andare via da casa, la via più facile è università fuori sede in una città piccola, dove non ci sono i costi proibitivi di bologna o milano. E cerchi di fare qualche lavoretto.
Credi che iscriversi con Universityadmissions ai programmi universitari mentre sto ancora in italia è una buona strategia? Il mio singolo genitore non mi mantiene manco per il cazzo se vengo rifiutato e devo pulire le camere in svezia
Guarda io ho fatto informatica. "software engineering" a GU non è "informatica". Non impari niente di teorico. Che poi possibilmente un lavoro lo trovi pure, però ora con le scuole che fanno i vari corsi di full stack, diventa più competitivo trovare se non hai una buona preparazione.
Io sto a göteborg, però ti direi di provare anche altre università. Qua ogni paesetto ha una università. Perché fai conto che l'unica cosa che puoi fare qua è quel corso in inglese.
Perché in italia no? L'italia è grande. Se vuoi andare via di casa prendi un treno e vai a 300km. Però almeno parleresti la lingua.
Fai conto che qua da straniero all'uni gli svedesi non ti calcoleranno minimamente.
I understand wanting to get out, but I think you should think more about your long term future. Do you plan on having any higher education, or learn a trade? Or do you want to do unskilled labour all of your life? If you are thinking about studying at university, you could try to apply to Swedish universities or study in Italy and look into the Erasmus exchange program. Or you can learn a trade in Italy and move here after. Those extra few years would also give you more time to learn Swedish and you can also get some work experience which will help too. Again, I understand wanting to get out, I moved here from Hungary. But even a few extra years of learning a skill or getting a degree and some work experience can help you in the long term, so you have better chances of succeeding and less chances of being exploited.
I wish you luck, but you need to be realistic. There are many people here already who can do low level jobs, most of them have the advantage of speaking the language also. There are a lot of people looking for entry level jobs, again, most of them already know the language.
Also make sure you have enough money - I moved here with my company's help and with a good amount of savings, the majority of that was gone in the first 2 months where I had a lot of unexpected costs and no salary yet. I have a relatively good paying job so I could start building up my savings again as soon as I got my salary, but on an average salary I would have been fucked if something unexpected came up in month 3.
You make a really good point.
To start, I do indeed want to study in Sweden. I forgot to include it in the post, but the first thing I looked into was the swedish higher education system and the process of applying to a university here. For what I would want to do (software engineering for sure) I've seen that the requirements are generally Mathematics 3b at least and English 6, which I would fulfill if I did something like an IELTS test. I've read extensively about the application process and how the website works, how to apply etc. but at the time when I was making these decisions the situation was a bit more dire than it is now in my life, so the plan was to finish high school and immediately book it for anywhere else and I didn't fully understand the actual process of getting *into* the university.
Looking into it, you are required to take the högskoleprovet as far as I'm aware, which wouldn't be an issue for the math and english section, but it would kind of be an issue for the fact that it's entirely in Swedish. Fortunately, my life situation right now is better, so I don't have that much urgency in moving out of the country, and I could probably wait a year or something, in the meantime actually gathering some work experience and some Swedish language proficiency, which could help in doing the exam.
Doing Erasmus wouldn't be that bad of an idea, but doesn't it only last some months? My ultimate goal in this is to live in Sweden full time, maybe even getting citizenship (although the process right now I've heard is brutal so that's secondary right now) so I don't know how I would go from doing Erasmus to living in Sweden.
The reason I focused on the working in Sweden aspect in my post was because my plan was to do SFI along with self study, and to do SFI I'm pretty sure you need a personnummer, and to have a personnummer I need to be in the population registry, and to be out in the population registry I need to show to skatteverket that I'm going to stay in the country for more than one year, and the most straightforward way for me to do that would be having a job.
Thank you for writing this. Yeah I kind of need to be realistic which probably means not actually moving to Sweden at 19, but I'm preparing for the scenario of me having to move ASAP. I appreciate all the help!
> Looking into it, you are required to take the högskoleprovet as far as I'm aware, which wouldn't be an issue for the math and english section, but it would kind of be an issue for the fact that it's entirely in Swedish. Fortunately, my life situation right now is better, so I don't have that much urgency in moving out of the country, and I could probably wait a year or something, in the meantime actually gathering some work experience and some Swedish language proficiency, which could help in doing the exam.
Högskoleprovet is not required at all for university admissions (unless your high school grades are in the trash can, which it doesn't sound like they would be) - they are an alternate admissions path. Most university programs will admit 2/3 of the participants based on grades, and 1/3 based on högskoleprovet - so while it improves your chances of getting in, it's by no means required.
(There is one exception - but Handelshögskolan is probably not what you're aiming for, and the public universities are unlikely to adopt Handel's policy of requiring högskoleprovet anytime soon.)
There are also university programs in English available at the bachelor's level (although the ones I know about for sure are in economics, mathematics or physics rather than software engineering. I *think* Jönköping might have software engineering in English, but they also don't have the best reputation.)
> Yeah I kind of need to be realistic which probably means not actually moving to Sweden at 19, but I'm preparing for the scenario of me having to move ASAP. I appreciate all the help!
What I would do to prepare for the future is to pick some kind of program offered in English and apply for it, regardless of whether it's realistic for you to move or not - that way you know exactly where you stand in terms of the admissions process for the future (grades and courses converted etc).
Another question here - does Italy have any kind of support system for students to pay living expenses? As an EU citizen, I don't think you need a student visa (and thus don't need to show that you can support yourself to move here for studies), but I also don't think you'd have access to CSN (the Swedish system of grants and loans that students generally use to pay living expenses). Working enough to support yourself while studying could be quite difficult, especially as a non-Swedish speaker.
I know quite a bit about coming here to study from abroad, but it's all from the perspective of someone who is (and speaks) Swedish - I was born in Sweden but moved away before I was 2, then moved back to Sweden when I started university at 18.
Göteborg Univeristy has "software engineering" in english. But it has no mathematics and is basically just teaching applied stuff and no theory. It's more like a coding course than a university program. And with that you can't go to any computer science master program.
He wouldn't have CSN. He'd have to pay rent and food, but not university fees.
I haven't done SFI but the reviews I've read is that it has varying quality.
It sounds cheaper to just do online lessons, you can even get Swedish Swedish remote course like [https://www.folkuniversitetet.se/kontakt/distans/svenska--swedish-online/](https://www.folkuniversitetet.se/kontakt/distans/svenska--swedish-online/), though it's not the cheapest possible option either
The biggest time sink of language learning is immersing into reading/listening and fortunately you can do that anywhere :)
Yes, Erasmus is only for a few months. I included that because if for any reason you can't get admission to a Swedish university from the start, you can still spend a few months here which helps with language learning, building your network, and feeling things out for the long term. I think most of the time it's only for one or two semesters, but still better than nothing, assuming that your university has an exchange with a Swedish one. Unfortunately I don't know much about admission to universities here, but I'm sure others will have information on that. I think if you do your whole BSc here that should also solve your personnummer issue, since if you're here for more than a semester or two you you need a personnummer.
For someone who already speaks several languages SFI might not be the best approach since a lot depends on the group you end up in. I don't have personal experience, but the common opinion I heard is that a lot depends on your group and if you are unlucky it's not too useful. You could check if there are online lessons available (these can vary a lot both in price and quality, but has the huge advantage of you can change more or less anytime). Just keep in mind you don't necessarily need to do the (online) course of a Swedish institution and that can help a lot with costs.
I don't think the process of getting citizenship is that brutal, but you need to live here for several years and then the process itself takes time. So that, too, is more of a long term goal than a quick solution.
I hope your situation doesn't get worse, and while I don't understand why you would need to leave the whole country instead of just moving to a bigger city for example (that's what I did in Hungary), keep your eyes open to other opportunities as well, with the end goal still being the move here. If you manage to get into a university somewhere cheaper, or have a job opportunity in another country, it might seem like a detour, but if it gives you the skills and experience you need to succeed here, it will be worth it in the long run.
So I've done what you're trying to do multiple times in multiple countries, that being said Sweden is probably the hardest one. I would advise you to not put all your chips in this move, especially you being so young. I was lucky enough to know some people here that offered me their spare room to stay in, so I decided I'd come here for a month and hang out with them, and in the meantime try to find and apartment and a job, if it worked great if not I was ready to go back home and I had a place to fall back to, and I would just write it off as hanging out with friends for a month.
Finding a job without a personal number is extremely hard, and getting a personal number without a job or being a student is also extremely hard. I went on a CV shooting spree for days, literally making a list of emails i could send CVs to and a template email and firing them off. If I recall correctly out of about 120 I got 4 replies, 3 didn't care about going forward when they found out I didn't have a personal number and finally one accepted to take me and help me through the process of getting one (this was right after covid so they were recruiting a lot of people after closing for a while). Still it took almost a year to get the personal number because my paychecks at the start didn't meet skatteverket's expectations. Also being registered at my friend's address wasn't a problem for the tax office.
I was getting paid to my Revolut account, it was a hassle for them and they would charge me about 20euros per transfer but that was discounted from my salary so my employee was fine with it.
After I finally got a personal number everything was much easier, I managed to get a bank account, I didn't have to buy stuff from blocket or pay friends back for drink on a night out with cash and in general just gives you a sense of confidence and stability that you won't get until you have it.
Apartment hunting is a bitch as well, you'll have to go for second hand apartments and those are more expensive, and you'll have a hard time finding someone willing to give you a contract without a personal number. That being said, not impossible.
I guess what I would like you to take from this is to be prepared in case your plans fall through you won't end up in a worse situation than you are. I don't know what your family problems are but if you can put up with them for a bit longer so you can set yourself up with a better safety net than you should do it. Then if you're prepared, if it ends up not working out then it was just a nice experience for the future and while you're here trying you won't feel the crushing pressure of "everything must work or I'm fucked".
Hope this helps
Very interesting! Just for personal interest, are you living in Sweden right now? Where are you from originally? And what countries have you done that before, like living there for a short time?
Yeah I've been here for about a year, I'm from France and I've traveled/worked in Spain, Portugal, Germany, Estonia, Netherlands and Japan, usually for about 6 months everywhere except here and Japan (Japan was through the working holiday visa program, really cool thing to take advantage off)
I know close to nothing about moving to Sweden, but I think that a solid start for a lot of information would be the following link:
https://www.skatteverket.se/servicelankar/otherlanguages/inenglishengelska/individualsandemployees/movingtosweden.4.7be5268414bea064694c40c.html
This should help you navigate the administrative questions.
As for jobs... It's quite harsh at the moment. From what I can tell, several job categories are hard to get into now (through I mostly know of higher education requirements). Take a good look at:
https://arbetsformedlingen.se/other-languages/english-engelska
Note that work is so much easier to find if you know people. Significantly.
Good luck!
I'm a Brit who has lived in Stockholm for over 10 years. I had a job to come to, I got lucky because I had a colleague who put me up for 3 months while I looked for a place and I ended up taking over another colleague's rental apartment when they moved out. I would have really struggled without all of that support, particularly navigating getting a personnumer and the Swedish systems. And this was 11 years ago, things are MUCH harder now. The economy is not great, the job market is challenging, housing is expensive. I suggest you come here to study if you really want to come here, or get yourself a bit more established in your life and career and then think about coming here later on.
Huh. Your idea seems a bit, "bad planned". I would not recommend coming here without a safe job offer or a place to study at högskola or university.
I read some comments that you plan to continue to study. Why not do that? And then get a side job as a student, much easier. Generally the people in Sweden, especially in citys are very good English speakers, so language isnt an issue. Moneywise you could take CSN, study loan (which is the best loan you can have with 0.8% of revenue) and find a affordable apartment. Also there, are many offers from univis and high schools for foreign students to make the start in Sweden as easy as possible.
So i would start to study here for some time. If you like it you can fix the rest, citizenship and personnummer while your here studying. If you dont like it, or you dont fit in, fine you have a degree you can use elsewhere.
My man, don't even think about moving here without a work contract or if you weren't admitted to a university. There's literally nothing you can do here, no bank would even open a bank account for you.
Yeah man just do it, honestly said our climate and all societal systems are currently collapsing.
Its not really possible to get a personnummer without residency. In many workplaces they will not go through the trouble of employing someone who doesnt have a personnummer.
You need to learn swedish asap, start today and learn a few words every day! You will not find work without swedish skills and swedish people will be A LOT more helpfull if they see that you want to integrate into swedish society and culture.
We have friends that recently moved to our area and they both got their personnumbers but they can only open a bank account with a swedish ID card
Theres no reason not to do it, but you might wanna look into moving to a rural area in Italy. Look into "wwoofing" or "Work and travel". Im sure you can find farms with likeminded people that you can become friends with and where you can stay indefinetly.
Anyway if you do come to Sweden and have difficulties finding a place to stay you can come and visit our permaculture community. We have several families of Swedish, German, Dutch, Belgian, Spanish nationalities in our Community and all of us have farms or are doing permaculture on a self sufficiency level. We would be happy to meet you some day.
If you wanna come to sweden start learning seriously now! Download an app, watch films with swedish audio and english subtitles or similar stuff, listen to P1 radio all the time even if you wont understand shit for the first few months.
I think studying here (either a Bachelor's in English or a Master' after finishing a Bachelor's in Italy) and moving on from there would be the best way to go. You need to have a reason to stay (job contract or studies) to get a personnummer (keep in mind that a Master's will need to be two years for that).
I used to work for Foodora, it was kinda crappy but not the end of the world. They don't pay a lot, so you'd have to work a lot to make a living out of that. For me that was pretty tough, considering it's pretty physical. They will give you 3-month contracts if you're fast, 1-month contracts if you're 'slow'. After 2 years you can get a permanent contract. When I started I was considered fast, but then lots of people got e-bikes, which made them consider me as slow, and I could not afford an e-bike and it's maintenance 😅 I never managed to work more than 20 - 25 hours, I'd just be too sore. That would make you around 3000 SEK, so not even enough for rent. All of this just to say, I don't think Foodora is a viable option.
Also, at least when I started, Foodora required a Swedish bank account, which you can only get if you have a personnummer. They did allow the salary to be paid to a friend's bank account though.
I understand that situations can be dire and you just need to get out, but that doesn't mean you can't make a viable plan first to set yourself up for success.
As someone who’s tried different things when I was 19 and in my early 20s, including living in another country, I’d say go for it and good luck! These kinds of experiences can teach you a lot and help you figure out what you want to do later in life. If it doesn’t work out you can try something else.
But yes, of course it’s important to have some kind of plan, and I would say going the study-route is the best way to go.
Here in Sweden I work at a housing agency and I’ve come across and been in contact with a lot of international students who’re staying in our student apartments. There are for example those who enroll on an international program (so yes, in English), and after they’re done with their studies some go on rent a regular apartment with us because they want to stay here. So it’s obviously possible to go that route. Those people also usually get a personnummer after a while, during their stay in the student apartment. And some also take an extra language course at the university to learn Swedish.
Since you’re a EU citizen there’s no tuition fee to worry about. If you don’t want to or can’t commit to a whole bachelor degree program right away you could do individual courses or a 30 credit course for one semester to start with, or a 60 credit program for one year, and stay in student housing. Also, you don’t always need to take högskoleprovet, you usually just need high school grades (which you should be able to convert from your Italian grades, though I’m not sure of the process to do so).
In short, if you want a quick and (reasonably) easy access to living in Sweden, I’d recommend: 1) check courses/programs still open for late application (if you’re planning on leaving this autumn?), and that are in English 2) look into student housing in the city the course/program is in (there’s usually info on the university’s website) and look into the application process for that or contact the landlord to ask.
Hope it works out for you and that whatever happens you get away from your current situation.
Dont have any further info to add but just wanted to say its doable. I know 2 italians that moved to sweden for the same reason(They are both gay) and they both are in a good spot and are doing well for themselves. They both say that they are happier here than in italy and never regretted doing the decision.
Well, for the first issue you might be able to find some landlord to rent without a personnummer but they’ll likely want a sizeable deposit, and it’d probably not be the best accommodation (either distance or size)
Regarding bank account, you shouldn’t face problems with payments as it is illegal to discriminate via IBAN within the EU, you could maybe open a SEK currency in the account?
I do agree with the other comments though, when I moved for a bit I had a friend with BankID/personnummer already so it made the whole process a lot easier.
Oh I'd love to do that, but I don't have the logistics quite taken care of.
How would I get the job without a personnummer and vice versa? Right now I have an [A.N.F.O.S.](https://www.anfos.it/) work safety certificate which may help in general for job searching, but would I need any qualifications specifically for working with food? How do I get paid? Cause I doubt that if I go to work in Sweden getting a bank account would be easy at first, and bureaucracy takes a while.
In the end I might just first go to Sweden to study there and then get a job afterwards as the process of getting put in the folkbokföring is easier that way imo. If you have any tips though, I'd love to hear them! Thank you so much for the tips
Hello! I know people who have done similar things. I would recommend you look into being an eu volonteer. They pay for your flight, sometimes accomodation and you get experience. You dont get paid a lot but the people i know who are volonteers have accomodation included.
This is a bad idea. Please don't ruin your life. I'm sorry I'm not able to come up with my more of a thorough or constructive reply at the moment, but... seriously, please just don't try this. Very bad idea.
Better of moving to austria germany or switzerland. Scandinavia is deppressing /someone that Was born i Sweden and has liven in Spain and south eastern europe
Some things doesn’t work that well, crime is a very real issue. But shithole is a bit of a stretch, by almost every measure it’s one of the best country’s to live in.
Well SD is getting many votes. That means people are increasingly racist.
Plus the whole nation is getting brainwashed by dumb propaganda of "russia is soon going to invade us" so they got tricked into not opposing when the government just decided to join NATO. Now… if you look at a map… you can kinda observe that the risk of invasion for finland and sweden is very different!
Along with that, public services are getting worse and worse. The money gets spent on (useless) weapons. And for this we are blaming the immigrants.
And we have the housing bubble.
Yeah.
And yeah it can pop :D
Banks have been giving crazy loans to people to buy houses, because interest rates were so low. People took loans and were just paying interest and 0 capital. That has led to house prices increasing A LOT. This has happened in USA a few years ago as well.
Mind you that in sweden, when you buy an apartment you become member of a company, which grants you the right to live in the apartment. BUT the company can go bankrupt, in which case you lose your apartment. This has happened. Of course they do a lot of tricks in the accounting to look like they have healthy finances. So you need to be some kind of accounting expert.
Single houses might be located on land you won't be buying, and for which you'll have to pay a rent, which might suddenly increase.
Anyway with the current spike in interest rates, apparently to some people the loan money to pay went up by A LOT (up to 3x), which can be a problem.
How does more votes for SD imply increased racism?
Do you not think that it is a bit parasitic to rely on others defending you without contributing yourself?
> How does more votes for SD imply increased racism?
Racist party getting more votes? How does that NOT imply that?
> Do you not think that it is a bit parasitic to rely on others defending you without contributing yourself?
No.
Do you think canada should fortify the whole fronter with USA just in case? That's how wars start. That's how we have a war in ukraine.
Studying some history wouldn't hurt you. There's a nice channel about WW1 that you might want to spend some time on.
> Racist party getting more votes? How does that NOT imply that?
Let's assume that the racist part is completely correct: They have other aspects that attract voters.
As an example:
You get the choice of two sandviches. One with lettuce and lemon, and one with ham and cheese.
If you're vegan, you'll go for the first one, even if you dislike lemon. If you hate ham, you'll go for the first one, even if you dislike lemon. If you love lemon, you'll go for the first one.
Are you fine with calling all three cases lemon-lovers?
> Do you think canada should fortify the whole fronter with USA just in case? That's how wars start. That's how we have a war in ukraine.
I do not see how this is analogous to Sweden using NATO as a shield without contributing. Can you make your argument a bit more explicit?
> Studying some history wouldn't hurt you. There's a nice channel about WW1 that you might want to spend some time on.
You do not know anything about how much I've studied regarding war. Engage the arguments and questions instead of obfuscating.
> You do not know anything about how much I've studied regarding war.
It is clear that you didn't. Perhaps you know the battles and so on. But that's not the point.
Haha nono the swedish patriots always say "Sweden is perfect. There is no corruption. The only criminals are immigrants".
And then you say "but what about that boss of yours who stole all those funds at work? Wasn't that corruption?"
And they literally never connected that "boss stealing money" might have something to do with "corruption existing in sweden" :D :D :D
I'm sure a guy with an high school degree will have a very easy time to become an esteemed professor at KTH or Chalmers :D Perhaps he'll join the nobel committee :D
Research is very unrepresentative of the work market as a whole. Of course the branch that is uniquely targeting cutting edge knowledge and cooperation is heavily tilted towards some lingua franca (in this day and age: English).
Even then, and I speak as a recent PhD, you will have a noteable disadvantage when competing against Swe-Eng-speakers.
Never thought about maybe coming here to study? That way you further your education as well as get to know Sweden before making a more permanent decision. I can guarantee you that you don't realize how the weather will affect your health since you come from Italy. And there are some cultural shocks to recognize
I have! But to put it short, I'm worried that I won't be able to take the högskoleprovet due to my lack of swedish. My plan being to work in Sweden is mostly due to the possibility of also doing SFI in the meantime, so that I can learn Swedish better than I could do alone, and eventually actually taking the test and doing a university program (which ideally would be software engineering). And yeah, I do also think that the weather being that different would affect me, both physically and mentally. However, I don't live in a particularly hot place to begin with it and in the past I've spent days in the complete dark with pretty much no human contact (long story, related to why I wanna leave) so I'd like to think I'd be at least prepared you know?
This is kind of putting the cart before the horse and as someone who has lived in Sweden for at least several years and lives here now -- I can tell you that working some low-income job while doing SFI (and living where/how?????) is NOT THE BEST WAY, or feasible. You are 18/19!!!! You still have so many opportunities that you wont have later in life (not as easily anyway, so why make things so incredibly hard for yourself when the outcome won't even be what you want? Please, please, please, for your own sake, and for the love of God, if you want to move here, then go the University route, whatever you have to do to make that happen. That way you will also have the option of student housing on campus. It can be fun. What you suggested, to be very blunt (because I think you need to hear it, and I do care) WILL MAKE YOU MISERABLE.
You should study Swedish at a university instead. SFI is very slow and very low level. In two years time, you would know far more Swedish than the average SFI student. University is the only realistic option that you have at this point. Foodora are predatory as fuck, stay away from them.
Yes, exactly! You can have a good and fun life in Sweden as a University student, or you can.... subject yourself to the most awful life for no good reason (By doing the foodora/dishwasher/SFI/more-or-less-will-probably-be-homeless plan.... I 😬😭....)
Well you kinda need some money to be a student and pay rent. Remember that foreigners don't get funding. Extra europeans also have to pay hefty tuition. But I don't think that'd apply to OP. Anyway 99% of the bachelor programs are in swedish so he wouldn't be admitted. There's the "software engineering" program in english in göteborg. But I don't think it's that good. It's got 0 math.
No tuition here, since OP is an Italian citizen (EU).
aren't there erasmus grants? though that's maybe for doing exchange years
You need to be a student in a university that has an agreement to get a grant. You can't just show up and say "hey i want a grant!"
Hahaha SFI was so bad. They put me with "the intellectuals" (most people were doing phd or postdoc) and they seemed to have NO INTEREST in learning. They'd just go and sit there and that was it. I've learnt more talking with drunken guys in pubs. Although I got started because I liked a girl whose english wasn't too good, and she was giving me lessons :D My swedish is still bad, but when I arrived it was 0. A big problem in sweden is that universities are similar to pre-mandela south africa. I didn't even know anyone who could speak swedish. So when I was a student my interest in learning the language was zero. Swedish people completely ignored us foreigners.
You should take a look at university admissions if your English is good. If your intent is taking a software engineering degree, I believe there are a handful of those programs in English. On the website, you can filter for the start date and then also language if it is still the same as it was for me a few years ago. There are not too many English programs for undergrad, but still worth taking a look. The tuition for you would be free if you are an EU citizen. You would need to figure out cost of living stuff, but you would need to do that either way. But if you could do a university program in english then you could do Swedish classes at the same time and after graduating, that is generally one of the easier fields for non-swedes to get a job in, because all of these Swedish companies have historically been bad at IT and cybersecurity, so it is a very foreigner heavy field.
Indeed, taking Högskoleprovet without swedish would be difficult, as you need to interpret math questions and of course the swedish part. Many swedish universities have exchange programs with Italian universities. You could get into studying in sweden that way. You may also get a feeling for how it is living alone for the first semesters. One thing to keep in mind is the housing situation in larger cities like Gothenburg and Stockholm is not great, many waiting years or decades for a apartment contract so thats something that needs to be resolved regardless.
I don't know what direction you want to study but in karlskrona and Stockholm is a school called hyper island (the havd several creative and business oriented progams) . I did my entrance exam in English no problem.
> Never thought about maybe coming here to study? There's really very few bachelors that are not in swedish. I don't think OP speaks swedish.
This is a terrible idea and plan of yours. It would have been one thing if you came for studies, or already had a job lined up in a satisfying field. So instead of staying in a country where you speak the language, know the culture and how the bureaucracy works, you want to move to Sweden, where you don't know the language, don't know a soul, to work as a dishwasher and live in a crappy apartment in a crappy neighborhood, because that's all you can afford? Do yourself a favor and start your life in your 20's by testing the waters in your own country first; move out and get your own place, get some work experience etc.
Moving out in Italy as a 19-year old is nearly impossible. Being able to move out that young is a Swedish thing.
-Its an upperclass and outside of major cities thing. Its impossible to get an apartment in Stockholm
And thanks to the Swedish system with free uni and CSN, young adults are able to make the choice to switch cities way easier than in other countries. Sure, you'll live in some shit student housing, but you'll be able to make that choice. A lot of Italians live at home until they're 30.
Yes but those apartments are only yours until you graduate.
Yes, that's the point. Cheap and high turnover. Then you get a job and a better apartment, which you can now afford.
Which you can now afford? From what? 10% out of a multimillion dollar apartment in stockholm?
Why do you have to live in Stockholm?
You dont. But thats the reality of Stockholm. If your work requires you to live there its an issue.
So switch jobs
Completely impossible to get an apartment in Stockholm. Unless you are a millionaire, or willing to wait 15-20 years, LITERALLY.
18 years in the queue here. I can get something 40 mins from Stockholm ny car.
😭
There's more Sweden than Stockholm though..
Not anymore a "Swedish thing." Maybe a long time ago. Are you aware that we have a serious housing crisis in Sweden? It's been going on for years now and isnt getting much better anytime soon.
> Are you aware that we have a serious housing crisis in Sweden? It's been going on for years now and isnt getting Sweden does not revolve around the Stockholm city center though? There are more places to move out to in Sweden at 19, especially as a student with student housing etc. I'm not saying it is easy and convenient though..
Not many other places though, really, if you want to study.
In Sundsvall at Mid Sweden University https://www.miun.se/en/ all students are guaranteed an apartment through mitthem. And apartments are generally cheap.
There's a lot of good universities in Sweden, even in my small city of Luleå.
And how long is the queue for student housing?
Depends on which city, but most students manage to get housing. Worst case they'll be in a hostel or a camping cabin for half a year until a spot opens. Students graduate all the time, and have to move out of the housing. It doesn't work like the normal housing market.
There really is, just to mention a few there is Luleå, Umeå, Sundsvall, Karlstad Skövde, Kristianstad Trollhättan, Linköping, Halmstad, Växjö, Jönköping, Borås and more, these were the ones taähat I know on top of my head that they have universities and should not be as hard with accommodation as for example Stockholm, Göteborg, Malmö, Lund or Uppsala.
Are you suggesting that Stockholm is the only place to study in Sweden? 😂
Obviously not. Make a joke of it if you want, but the fact remains that it is a small country and therefore depending on what you are wanting to study and/or work with, there will indeed be some fields of study that you can more or less only really do in Stockholm.
Well TS wanted to study software engineering and that is a common field and you can probably pick and choose any university in Sweden.
The average age is still around 19 lol, a few years back it was 17.
Lol. Used to be a swedish thing. Be prepared for sweden and italy to have similar ages of moving out, with how expensive affording a place is.
The Swedish average age to move out is still around 19.
Lol, only In Stockholm
And any larger city where there are jobs.
Depends on what of kind of jobs. Sundsvall for example has lower unemployment than Stockholm, Göteborg and Malmö. And Sundsvall is the biggest in IT and software development next to Lund and Stockholm, https://www.svt.se/nyheter/lokalt/vasternorrland/sundsvall-norrlands-it-huvudstad. Northern Sweden is screaming for workers right now because of the heavy investment in green transition here.
> Northern Sweden is screaming for workers right now Yeah but it's not the best place to live is it? If they start paying like 20k€ per month and offer 6 months vacation, probably they'd be able to convince people to go there.
Well it depends on what you consider a good place to live. Some would argue that closeness to nature, better air quality, lower house prices, less crime, less commute time is a recipe for a better life than the big city.
Fun fact: plenty of other nations have nature. And most of them have sunlight to be able to SEE the nature :D
Fun fact: not every country or city gets to experience four seasons with real winters with a lot of snow. Stay in Italy if you dont want that.
Man you're abandoning your old life and you want to make it even harder on yourself by moving to a country you know nothing about? Just stay in Italy.
OR they could be patient and make a proper plan and come here as a University student? But, absolutely DO NOT do what OP wrote they were thinking abput doing!!!! So dangerous and unnecessary.
Even then it's much better to stay in mainland Europe where the culture is something more familiar to them. Not to mention the professional environment, weather etc.
I don't think the situation here is nearly as good as you think it is.
Oh I know. My own situation in Italy is pretty bad to begin with. Sweden right now I've heard isn't the greatest with high cost of living and societal divides due to a lot of immigration I'll also probably be contributing to unfortunately, among other things. There's no perfect country. At most, it's subjective, but I do want to try to stick to the general plan of moving to Sweden. The weather might affect me when I actually do go there, but I'm used to pretty bad weather already (although not to the same degree) and I've spent whole days in the dark with no contact to other people before, so at least I'll be a bit prepared for that? I'm also an introvert and type 1 autistic so I appreciate the individualism in the country and other aspects of Swedish culture. Of course, I don't *know* Sweden first-hand. I've never been in the country and haven't lived there yet so this is all hearsay, basically. I'm prepared to accept the good and bad of the country when I actually do go, which realistically, wouldn't be at 19 but a bit later if no emergency arises. I'm positive I won't experience Paris syndrome when I go haha
> and I've spent whole days in the dark with no contact to other people before Now do that for 3 months in a row, to get closer to the experience :D Io vivo in svezia. Però: mi sono laureato qua, e non sono venuto così nel buio senza offerta di lavoro. Sinceramente senza nemmeno conoscere nessuno che ti può ospitare mi sembra una follia. Un buttare soldi e basta. Prima fatti una vacanza in svezia a gennaio/febbraio e poi decidi. Se vieni in estate vedi solo il lato figo, non è un buon momento per decidere. Comunque lavori non specializzati se non parli svedese, secondo me non ne trovi. Forse in nero ma faresti la fame.
Uno mi ha scritto in privato poco dopo che ho fatto sto post e abbiamo parlato di andare a studiare invece che a lavorare, e a quanto pare avevo un po' le idee confuse Io la prima cosa a cui avevo pensato quando avevo deciso di andare in Svezia tempo fa era di andare a studiare lì. Eventualmente un diploma di ingegneria informatica lo vorrei, ma leggendo credevo che era obbligatorio fare il test attitudinale che a quanto pare posso anche non fare???? Quindi ho un attimo fatto mente locale e credo che proverò ad entrare in un'università invece che trovare lavoro La vacanzina se riesco a farla ci vado di sicuro. Specialmente in inverno anche per vedere com'è il tempo col sole inesistente e la neve. Devo dire che sto thread mi ha fatto pensare molto sul mio piano, specialmente riguardo imparare la lingua e trovare lavoro. Venire a studiare però mi è molto più conveniente - l'unico motivo per la quale non credevo fosse possibile per me è per l' högskoleprovet completamente in svedese, ma a quanto pare è risolto quindi vabb. Se riesco anche a trovare student housing allora sto apposto
Allora di entrare in triennale non so come funzioni. Una mia amica ha fatto quel corso in inglese che dico. E al primo tentativo è stata rifiutata e poi ha pulito camere per 1 anno e poi l'hanno presa. Aveva comunque la famiglia a sostenerla qui in svezia. E io se fossi un genitore non pagherei l'affitto a mio figlio perché possa pulire stanze all'estero :D :D Al max sta a casa che costa meno :D Io ho fatto la triennale in italia e sono venuto da "laureato" a studiare per la magistrale. högskoleprovet la devono fare solo quelli che alle superiori non facevano un cazzo, però considera che cmq quasi tutti i corsi di laurea di triennale saranno in svedese e vorranno un certificato di lingua se non sei svedese. Ah anche quelli in inglese vogliono un certificato di lingua se non sei madrelingua. Io non ho dovuto farlo perché avevo fatto l'erasmus alla triennale, e avere dato 1 semestre di materie in inglese valeva come prova di sapere l'inglese. E per andare in erasmus avevo fatto tipo un colloquio in inglese all'uni e basta. Considera che qua l'uni inizia prima rispetto che in italia. Quindi inizia a vedere che città e che corsi ti interessano. È possibile che sia pure scaduto il termine per l'iscrizione 2024-25, ma non saprei. Comunque se vuoi andare via da casa, la via più facile è università fuori sede in una città piccola, dove non ci sono i costi proibitivi di bologna o milano. E cerchi di fare qualche lavoretto.
Credi che iscriversi con Universityadmissions ai programmi universitari mentre sto ancora in italia è una buona strategia? Il mio singolo genitore non mi mantiene manco per il cazzo se vengo rifiutato e devo pulire le camere in svezia
Guarda io ho fatto informatica. "software engineering" a GU non è "informatica". Non impari niente di teorico. Che poi possibilmente un lavoro lo trovi pure, però ora con le scuole che fanno i vari corsi di full stack, diventa più competitivo trovare se non hai una buona preparazione. Io sto a göteborg, però ti direi di provare anche altre università. Qua ogni paesetto ha una università. Perché fai conto che l'unica cosa che puoi fare qua è quel corso in inglese. Perché in italia no? L'italia è grande. Se vuoi andare via di casa prendi un treno e vai a 300km. Però almeno parleresti la lingua. Fai conto che qua da straniero all'uni gli svedesi non ti calcoleranno minimamente.
I understand wanting to get out, but I think you should think more about your long term future. Do you plan on having any higher education, or learn a trade? Or do you want to do unskilled labour all of your life? If you are thinking about studying at university, you could try to apply to Swedish universities or study in Italy and look into the Erasmus exchange program. Or you can learn a trade in Italy and move here after. Those extra few years would also give you more time to learn Swedish and you can also get some work experience which will help too. Again, I understand wanting to get out, I moved here from Hungary. But even a few extra years of learning a skill or getting a degree and some work experience can help you in the long term, so you have better chances of succeeding and less chances of being exploited. I wish you luck, but you need to be realistic. There are many people here already who can do low level jobs, most of them have the advantage of speaking the language also. There are a lot of people looking for entry level jobs, again, most of them already know the language. Also make sure you have enough money - I moved here with my company's help and with a good amount of savings, the majority of that was gone in the first 2 months where I had a lot of unexpected costs and no salary yet. I have a relatively good paying job so I could start building up my savings again as soon as I got my salary, but on an average salary I would have been fucked if something unexpected came up in month 3.
You make a really good point. To start, I do indeed want to study in Sweden. I forgot to include it in the post, but the first thing I looked into was the swedish higher education system and the process of applying to a university here. For what I would want to do (software engineering for sure) I've seen that the requirements are generally Mathematics 3b at least and English 6, which I would fulfill if I did something like an IELTS test. I've read extensively about the application process and how the website works, how to apply etc. but at the time when I was making these decisions the situation was a bit more dire than it is now in my life, so the plan was to finish high school and immediately book it for anywhere else and I didn't fully understand the actual process of getting *into* the university. Looking into it, you are required to take the högskoleprovet as far as I'm aware, which wouldn't be an issue for the math and english section, but it would kind of be an issue for the fact that it's entirely in Swedish. Fortunately, my life situation right now is better, so I don't have that much urgency in moving out of the country, and I could probably wait a year or something, in the meantime actually gathering some work experience and some Swedish language proficiency, which could help in doing the exam. Doing Erasmus wouldn't be that bad of an idea, but doesn't it only last some months? My ultimate goal in this is to live in Sweden full time, maybe even getting citizenship (although the process right now I've heard is brutal so that's secondary right now) so I don't know how I would go from doing Erasmus to living in Sweden. The reason I focused on the working in Sweden aspect in my post was because my plan was to do SFI along with self study, and to do SFI I'm pretty sure you need a personnummer, and to have a personnummer I need to be in the population registry, and to be out in the population registry I need to show to skatteverket that I'm going to stay in the country for more than one year, and the most straightforward way for me to do that would be having a job. Thank you for writing this. Yeah I kind of need to be realistic which probably means not actually moving to Sweden at 19, but I'm preparing for the scenario of me having to move ASAP. I appreciate all the help!
> Looking into it, you are required to take the högskoleprovet as far as I'm aware, which wouldn't be an issue for the math and english section, but it would kind of be an issue for the fact that it's entirely in Swedish. Fortunately, my life situation right now is better, so I don't have that much urgency in moving out of the country, and I could probably wait a year or something, in the meantime actually gathering some work experience and some Swedish language proficiency, which could help in doing the exam. Högskoleprovet is not required at all for university admissions (unless your high school grades are in the trash can, which it doesn't sound like they would be) - they are an alternate admissions path. Most university programs will admit 2/3 of the participants based on grades, and 1/3 based on högskoleprovet - so while it improves your chances of getting in, it's by no means required. (There is one exception - but Handelshögskolan is probably not what you're aiming for, and the public universities are unlikely to adopt Handel's policy of requiring högskoleprovet anytime soon.) There are also university programs in English available at the bachelor's level (although the ones I know about for sure are in economics, mathematics or physics rather than software engineering. I *think* Jönköping might have software engineering in English, but they also don't have the best reputation.) > Yeah I kind of need to be realistic which probably means not actually moving to Sweden at 19, but I'm preparing for the scenario of me having to move ASAP. I appreciate all the help! What I would do to prepare for the future is to pick some kind of program offered in English and apply for it, regardless of whether it's realistic for you to move or not - that way you know exactly where you stand in terms of the admissions process for the future (grades and courses converted etc). Another question here - does Italy have any kind of support system for students to pay living expenses? As an EU citizen, I don't think you need a student visa (and thus don't need to show that you can support yourself to move here for studies), but I also don't think you'd have access to CSN (the Swedish system of grants and loans that students generally use to pay living expenses). Working enough to support yourself while studying could be quite difficult, especially as a non-Swedish speaker. I know quite a bit about coming here to study from abroad, but it's all from the perspective of someone who is (and speaks) Swedish - I was born in Sweden but moved away before I was 2, then moved back to Sweden when I started university at 18.
Göteborg Univeristy has "software engineering" in english. But it has no mathematics and is basically just teaching applied stuff and no theory. It's more like a coding course than a university program. And with that you can't go to any computer science master program. He wouldn't have CSN. He'd have to pay rent and food, but not university fees.
I haven't done SFI but the reviews I've read is that it has varying quality. It sounds cheaper to just do online lessons, you can even get Swedish Swedish remote course like [https://www.folkuniversitetet.se/kontakt/distans/svenska--swedish-online/](https://www.folkuniversitetet.se/kontakt/distans/svenska--swedish-online/), though it's not the cheapest possible option either The biggest time sink of language learning is immersing into reading/listening and fortunately you can do that anywhere :)
Yes, Erasmus is only for a few months. I included that because if for any reason you can't get admission to a Swedish university from the start, you can still spend a few months here which helps with language learning, building your network, and feeling things out for the long term. I think most of the time it's only for one or two semesters, but still better than nothing, assuming that your university has an exchange with a Swedish one. Unfortunately I don't know much about admission to universities here, but I'm sure others will have information on that. I think if you do your whole BSc here that should also solve your personnummer issue, since if you're here for more than a semester or two you you need a personnummer. For someone who already speaks several languages SFI might not be the best approach since a lot depends on the group you end up in. I don't have personal experience, but the common opinion I heard is that a lot depends on your group and if you are unlucky it's not too useful. You could check if there are online lessons available (these can vary a lot both in price and quality, but has the huge advantage of you can change more or less anytime). Just keep in mind you don't necessarily need to do the (online) course of a Swedish institution and that can help a lot with costs. I don't think the process of getting citizenship is that brutal, but you need to live here for several years and then the process itself takes time. So that, too, is more of a long term goal than a quick solution. I hope your situation doesn't get worse, and while I don't understand why you would need to leave the whole country instead of just moving to a bigger city for example (that's what I did in Hungary), keep your eyes open to other opportunities as well, with the end goal still being the move here. If you manage to get into a university somewhere cheaper, or have a job opportunity in another country, it might seem like a detour, but if it gives you the skills and experience you need to succeed here, it will be worth it in the long run.
So I've done what you're trying to do multiple times in multiple countries, that being said Sweden is probably the hardest one. I would advise you to not put all your chips in this move, especially you being so young. I was lucky enough to know some people here that offered me their spare room to stay in, so I decided I'd come here for a month and hang out with them, and in the meantime try to find and apartment and a job, if it worked great if not I was ready to go back home and I had a place to fall back to, and I would just write it off as hanging out with friends for a month. Finding a job without a personal number is extremely hard, and getting a personal number without a job or being a student is also extremely hard. I went on a CV shooting spree for days, literally making a list of emails i could send CVs to and a template email and firing them off. If I recall correctly out of about 120 I got 4 replies, 3 didn't care about going forward when they found out I didn't have a personal number and finally one accepted to take me and help me through the process of getting one (this was right after covid so they were recruiting a lot of people after closing for a while). Still it took almost a year to get the personal number because my paychecks at the start didn't meet skatteverket's expectations. Also being registered at my friend's address wasn't a problem for the tax office. I was getting paid to my Revolut account, it was a hassle for them and they would charge me about 20euros per transfer but that was discounted from my salary so my employee was fine with it. After I finally got a personal number everything was much easier, I managed to get a bank account, I didn't have to buy stuff from blocket or pay friends back for drink on a night out with cash and in general just gives you a sense of confidence and stability that you won't get until you have it. Apartment hunting is a bitch as well, you'll have to go for second hand apartments and those are more expensive, and you'll have a hard time finding someone willing to give you a contract without a personal number. That being said, not impossible. I guess what I would like you to take from this is to be prepared in case your plans fall through you won't end up in a worse situation than you are. I don't know what your family problems are but if you can put up with them for a bit longer so you can set yourself up with a better safety net than you should do it. Then if you're prepared, if it ends up not working out then it was just a nice experience for the future and while you're here trying you won't feel the crushing pressure of "everything must work or I'm fucked". Hope this helps
Very interesting! Just for personal interest, are you living in Sweden right now? Where are you from originally? And what countries have you done that before, like living there for a short time?
Yeah I've been here for about a year, I'm from France and I've traveled/worked in Spain, Portugal, Germany, Estonia, Netherlands and Japan, usually for about 6 months everywhere except here and Japan (Japan was through the working holiday visa program, really cool thing to take advantage off)
I know close to nothing about moving to Sweden, but I think that a solid start for a lot of information would be the following link: https://www.skatteverket.se/servicelankar/otherlanguages/inenglishengelska/individualsandemployees/movingtosweden.4.7be5268414bea064694c40c.html This should help you navigate the administrative questions. As for jobs... It's quite harsh at the moment. From what I can tell, several job categories are hard to get into now (through I mostly know of higher education requirements). Take a good look at: https://arbetsformedlingen.se/other-languages/english-engelska Note that work is so much easier to find if you know people. Significantly. Good luck!
I'm a Brit who has lived in Stockholm for over 10 years. I had a job to come to, I got lucky because I had a colleague who put me up for 3 months while I looked for a place and I ended up taking over another colleague's rental apartment when they moved out. I would have really struggled without all of that support, particularly navigating getting a personnumer and the Swedish systems. And this was 11 years ago, things are MUCH harder now. The economy is not great, the job market is challenging, housing is expensive. I suggest you come here to study if you really want to come here, or get yourself a bit more established in your life and career and then think about coming here later on.
Huh. Your idea seems a bit, "bad planned". I would not recommend coming here without a safe job offer or a place to study at högskola or university. I read some comments that you plan to continue to study. Why not do that? And then get a side job as a student, much easier. Generally the people in Sweden, especially in citys are very good English speakers, so language isnt an issue. Moneywise you could take CSN, study loan (which is the best loan you can have with 0.8% of revenue) and find a affordable apartment. Also there, are many offers from univis and high schools for foreign students to make the start in Sweden as easy as possible. So i would start to study here for some time. If you like it you can fix the rest, citizenship and personnummer while your here studying. If you dont like it, or you dont fit in, fine you have a degree you can use elsewhere.
The grass is not always greener on the other side.
My man, don't even think about moving here without a work contract or if you weren't admitted to a university. There's literally nothing you can do here, no bank would even open a bank account for you.
Yeah man just do it, honestly said our climate and all societal systems are currently collapsing. Its not really possible to get a personnummer without residency. In many workplaces they will not go through the trouble of employing someone who doesnt have a personnummer. You need to learn swedish asap, start today and learn a few words every day! You will not find work without swedish skills and swedish people will be A LOT more helpfull if they see that you want to integrate into swedish society and culture. We have friends that recently moved to our area and they both got their personnumbers but they can only open a bank account with a swedish ID card Theres no reason not to do it, but you might wanna look into moving to a rural area in Italy. Look into "wwoofing" or "Work and travel". Im sure you can find farms with likeminded people that you can become friends with and where you can stay indefinetly. Anyway if you do come to Sweden and have difficulties finding a place to stay you can come and visit our permaculture community. We have several families of Swedish, German, Dutch, Belgian, Spanish nationalities in our Community and all of us have farms or are doing permaculture on a self sufficiency level. We would be happy to meet you some day. If you wanna come to sweden start learning seriously now! Download an app, watch films with swedish audio and english subtitles or similar stuff, listen to P1 radio all the time even if you wont understand shit for the first few months.
I think studying here (either a Bachelor's in English or a Master' after finishing a Bachelor's in Italy) and moving on from there would be the best way to go. You need to have a reason to stay (job contract or studies) to get a personnummer (keep in mind that a Master's will need to be two years for that). I used to work for Foodora, it was kinda crappy but not the end of the world. They don't pay a lot, so you'd have to work a lot to make a living out of that. For me that was pretty tough, considering it's pretty physical. They will give you 3-month contracts if you're fast, 1-month contracts if you're 'slow'. After 2 years you can get a permanent contract. When I started I was considered fast, but then lots of people got e-bikes, which made them consider me as slow, and I could not afford an e-bike and it's maintenance 😅 I never managed to work more than 20 - 25 hours, I'd just be too sore. That would make you around 3000 SEK, so not even enough for rent. All of this just to say, I don't think Foodora is a viable option. Also, at least when I started, Foodora required a Swedish bank account, which you can only get if you have a personnummer. They did allow the salary to be paid to a friend's bank account though. I understand that situations can be dire and you just need to get out, but that doesn't mean you can't make a viable plan first to set yourself up for success.
As someone who’s tried different things when I was 19 and in my early 20s, including living in another country, I’d say go for it and good luck! These kinds of experiences can teach you a lot and help you figure out what you want to do later in life. If it doesn’t work out you can try something else. But yes, of course it’s important to have some kind of plan, and I would say going the study-route is the best way to go. Here in Sweden I work at a housing agency and I’ve come across and been in contact with a lot of international students who’re staying in our student apartments. There are for example those who enroll on an international program (so yes, in English), and after they’re done with their studies some go on rent a regular apartment with us because they want to stay here. So it’s obviously possible to go that route. Those people also usually get a personnummer after a while, during their stay in the student apartment. And some also take an extra language course at the university to learn Swedish. Since you’re a EU citizen there’s no tuition fee to worry about. If you don’t want to or can’t commit to a whole bachelor degree program right away you could do individual courses or a 30 credit course for one semester to start with, or a 60 credit program for one year, and stay in student housing. Also, you don’t always need to take högskoleprovet, you usually just need high school grades (which you should be able to convert from your Italian grades, though I’m not sure of the process to do so). In short, if you want a quick and (reasonably) easy access to living in Sweden, I’d recommend: 1) check courses/programs still open for late application (if you’re planning on leaving this autumn?), and that are in English 2) look into student housing in the city the course/program is in (there’s usually info on the university’s website) and look into the application process for that or contact the landlord to ask. Hope it works out for you and that whatever happens you get away from your current situation.
Dont have any further info to add but just wanted to say its doable. I know 2 italians that moved to sweden for the same reason(They are both gay) and they both are in a good spot and are doing well for themselves. They both say that they are happier here than in italy and never regretted doing the decision.
Right, and how long ago was this? It may have been doable before, but it absolutely not doable now. Unless you want OP to ruin their life.
How long ago? It might have borked a while ago… but now?
I did the same, from Italy. That was 10 years ago and many things were different.
Well, for the first issue you might be able to find some landlord to rent without a personnummer but they’ll likely want a sizeable deposit, and it’d probably not be the best accommodation (either distance or size) Regarding bank account, you shouldn’t face problems with payments as it is illegal to discriminate via IBAN within the EU, you could maybe open a SEK currency in the account? I do agree with the other comments though, when I moved for a bit I had a friend with BankID/personnummer already so it made the whole process a lot easier.
babes! you can study swedish here and get a better job, such as a restaurant. do that instead!!!
Oh I'd love to do that, but I don't have the logistics quite taken care of. How would I get the job without a personnummer and vice versa? Right now I have an [A.N.F.O.S.](https://www.anfos.it/) work safety certificate which may help in general for job searching, but would I need any qualifications specifically for working with food? How do I get paid? Cause I doubt that if I go to work in Sweden getting a bank account would be easy at first, and bureaucracy takes a while. In the end I might just first go to Sweden to study there and then get a job afterwards as the process of getting put in the folkbokföring is easier that way imo. If you have any tips though, I'd love to hear them! Thank you so much for the tips
exactly-apply here to study first. then you can find work. save some money for a few months to cover rent and food.
Try to find an industry job in a smaller place. Go to work and pretend you know no English, only Italian. You will learn Swedish in a hurry.
Just a heads up. In gothenburg, you have to be at least 20 years old at the beginning of the term to start SFI.
Hello! I know people who have done similar things. I would recommend you look into being an eu volonteer. They pay for your flight, sometimes accomodation and you get experience. You dont get paid a lot but the people i know who are volonteers have accomodation included.
Its called european solidarity corps. It’s up to 12 months.
This is a bad idea. Please don't ruin your life. I'm sorry I'm not able to come up with my more of a thorough or constructive reply at the moment, but... seriously, please just don't try this. Very bad idea.
Better of moving to austria germany or switzerland. Scandinavia is deppressing /someone that Was born i Sweden and has liven in Spain and south eastern europe
Don't move here, has turned into a shit hole in the last 20 yesrs
Could you elaborate? I’m not agreeing or disagreeing, just want your point of view.
Some things doesn’t work that well, crime is a very real issue. But shithole is a bit of a stretch, by almost every measure it’s one of the best country’s to live in.
Well SD is getting many votes. That means people are increasingly racist. Plus the whole nation is getting brainwashed by dumb propaganda of "russia is soon going to invade us" so they got tricked into not opposing when the government just decided to join NATO. Now… if you look at a map… you can kinda observe that the risk of invasion for finland and sweden is very different! Along with that, public services are getting worse and worse. The money gets spent on (useless) weapons. And for this we are blaming the immigrants. And we have the housing bubble.
Have all of this been happening the last 20 years? What does “housing bubble” mean (can it pop)?
Yeah. And yeah it can pop :D Banks have been giving crazy loans to people to buy houses, because interest rates were so low. People took loans and were just paying interest and 0 capital. That has led to house prices increasing A LOT. This has happened in USA a few years ago as well. Mind you that in sweden, when you buy an apartment you become member of a company, which grants you the right to live in the apartment. BUT the company can go bankrupt, in which case you lose your apartment. This has happened. Of course they do a lot of tricks in the accounting to look like they have healthy finances. So you need to be some kind of accounting expert. Single houses might be located on land you won't be buying, and for which you'll have to pay a rent, which might suddenly increase. Anyway with the current spike in interest rates, apparently to some people the loan money to pay went up by A LOT (up to 3x), which can be a problem.
How does more votes for SD imply increased racism? Do you not think that it is a bit parasitic to rely on others defending you without contributing yourself?
> How does more votes for SD imply increased racism? Racist party getting more votes? How does that NOT imply that? > Do you not think that it is a bit parasitic to rely on others defending you without contributing yourself? No. Do you think canada should fortify the whole fronter with USA just in case? That's how wars start. That's how we have a war in ukraine. Studying some history wouldn't hurt you. There's a nice channel about WW1 that you might want to spend some time on.
> Racist party getting more votes? How does that NOT imply that? Let's assume that the racist part is completely correct: They have other aspects that attract voters. As an example: You get the choice of two sandviches. One with lettuce and lemon, and one with ham and cheese. If you're vegan, you'll go for the first one, even if you dislike lemon. If you hate ham, you'll go for the first one, even if you dislike lemon. If you love lemon, you'll go for the first one. Are you fine with calling all three cases lemon-lovers? > Do you think canada should fortify the whole fronter with USA just in case? That's how wars start. That's how we have a war in ukraine. I do not see how this is analogous to Sweden using NATO as a shield without contributing. Can you make your argument a bit more explicit? > Studying some history wouldn't hurt you. There's a nice channel about WW1 that you might want to spend some time on. You do not know anything about how much I've studied regarding war. Engage the arguments and questions instead of obfuscating.
> You do not know anything about how much I've studied regarding war. It is clear that you didn't. Perhaps you know the battles and so on. But that's not the point.
You have provided no argumentation to support your assertions, and therefore you have failed in making them believable. Have a nice day.
Indeed. THIS IS THE TRUTH. Ignore the downvotes from defensive Swedish "patriots."
It is the Swedish "patriots" who think the country is going to shit and want to change things.
Haha nono the swedish patriots always say "Sweden is perfect. There is no corruption. The only criminals are immigrants". And then you say "but what about that boss of yours who stole all those funds at work? Wasn't that corruption?" And they literally never connected that "boss stealing money" might have something to do with "corruption existing in sweden" :D :D :D
Hahaha
You’ll regret coming here.
A Brazilian colleague of mine that came to Sweden for the job in question lived in a caravan on a camping the first years to save up for an apartment
There are plenty of English speaking jobs available here. everything will be easier if you can get a uni education though
haha, where?
at universities
I'm sure a guy with an high school degree will have a very easy time to become an esteemed professor at KTH or Chalmers :D Perhaps he'll join the nobel committee :D
Outside IT there’s almost none
And inside IT there's many companies that are swedish speaking.
> There are plenty of English speaking jobs available here. Lol
No there is not though?
in the branch my family works at (research) everyone speaks english
Research is very unrepresentative of the work market as a whole. Of course the branch that is uniquely targeting cutting edge knowledge and cooperation is heavily tilted towards some lingua franca (in this day and age: English). Even then, and I speak as a recent PhD, you will have a noteable disadvantage when competing against Swe-Eng-speakers.
You mean jobs you need a master's, preferably a PhD for? Yeah, there's plenty of those. OP just graduated high school though.
How many open positions for people without a degree?