[thomasskis]

I’m really curious how about how good it used to be? It feels to me like there’s a cultural resistance to be self critical of the whole, and that is slowing down wide-scale progress.

I moved to Sweden 2 months ago (from Seattle, where I grew up) but over the last decade I’ve lived in Seoul, Singapore, Bangkok, and Reykjavik. The government here feels most similar to the US, worse in some ways. Paperwork is like a hobby and doing it slowly is almost glorified.

I love it in many ways, but it’s baffling that I still don’t have a government ID, and am months away from getting a bank account. (Which would block me from getting a paycheck if I wasn’t high enough to at my company to get an exception and wire to my U.S./EU accounts. But for most relocated employees, they just don’t get paid for the first few months). The HR here says this is something they can’t change because it’s legal requirements from the government? But they just shrug and say that’s the Swedish way it works because it’s been working. And now I’m too embarrassed to hire the people I need to until I have good workarounds for these processes (there are many more issues).

As a Swede with history of what used to be good, and what’s working in other places, what would it take to get Sweden to correct these aspects of the way things are run?

[codr7]

Yeah, tell me about it. The thing that sickens me the most is that Swedes in general are still very keen to pat themselves on the shoulder about what a great country they live in; even though it's mostly memories by now.

Been there, done that. Getting a bank account once I moved back was a major pita. I still haven't been able to renew my drivers license since I've been moving around without a fixed address. That part isn't new though, it's been like that as far back as I can remember.

But at least back in the days, the system worked, you got something back for your troubles.

[whstl]

I have seen these issues here in Germany too. Fintech-banks like N26 or Revolut used to fill the gap and give you a quick bank account before you could settle down in a permanent address.

The problem is that they require a work permission for the account, which used to be quick, but since the immigration system is now overworked, they're giving one year Visas and taking their time to give the work permission. So N26 or Revolut are only really available for European citizens (that was the reality for a few years now, dunno if it changed).

Funny enough, more traditional banks have picked up the slack and dropped the strict requirements, and you can open an account from day one of being here with them.

[CalRobert]

Is n26 an option? A newcomer should be able to get a German account pretty easily from them, and with SEPA it doesn't matter which country your IBAN is in. Or is the currency an issue?