Hurra, hurra, hurra, hurra! (that's not misspelled, you Americans, it's Swedish)
So, Alexander is now officially Swedish, as well as American. He doesn't have his passport or anything like that yet, but the government has agreed that he's entitled to call himself Swedish (don't worry Grandpa Steve, I'm sure you can still remind him that he was American first!). I'm amused, and Goran sort of disturbed, by which governmental agency is in charge of notifying us of the glorious fact of Alexander's citizenship--it's the tax bureau. Are we surprised?
We need a bit more information on how to handle things as he grows up, but for the time being it's pretty simple--he's just both, and will eventually have two passports to wave around. Hell, he can travel to Cuba, lucky him!
I recall being told at the US embassy that he needs to spend two years in residence in the US before the age of 18 if he wants to retain his American citizenship, but I haven't found information about that on the net, and he was just 5 weeks old at the time; I was deep in the troughs of baby boot camp and was not exactly what you might call well-rested. Not that you could call me that now either, what with the feeding the the baby every third hour thing, but at least it feels normal now. So I may have had some kind of auditory hallucination, but we will need to check on that.
I don't know about any strange addendums to his Swedish citizenship, other than the whole "we are now entitled to tax away your life blood and first born child" thing, but since that isn't exactly dual-national specific, I won't fuss.
Seems like poor Alexander, if he has to choose at all, may want to do so on the bases of which tax system is less evil. US taxes are low, but you don't get much for them, and your worldwide income is up for grabs. Swedish taxes are the result of some kind of sadistic, socialist think tank that believes people don't actually want to keep the money they earn, but they're not applied worldwide and one does actually get a damn lot for them. Seeing as I'm not exactly the numbers person in this family, I think I will just sit back and see how the cards fall.
Anyway, congrats little guy, you passed the test and the Swedes want you too!
So, Alexander is now officially Swedish, as well as American. He doesn't have his passport or anything like that yet, but the government has agreed that he's entitled to call himself Swedish (don't worry Grandpa Steve, I'm sure you can still remind him that he was American first!). I'm amused, and Goran sort of disturbed, by which governmental agency is in charge of notifying us of the glorious fact of Alexander's citizenship--it's the tax bureau. Are we surprised?We need a bit more information on how to handle things as he grows up, but for the time being it's pretty simple--he's just both, and will eventually have two passports to wave around. Hell, he can travel to Cuba, lucky him!
I recall being told at the US embassy that he needs to spend two years in residence in the US before the age of 18 if he wants to retain his American citizenship, but I haven't found information about that on the net, and he was just 5 weeks old at the time; I was deep in the troughs of baby boot camp and was not exactly what you might call well-rested. Not that you could call me that now either, what with the feeding the the baby every third hour thing, but at least it feels normal now. So I may have had some kind of auditory hallucination, but we will need to check on that.
I don't know about any strange addendums to his Swedish citizenship, other than the whole "we are now entitled to tax away your life blood and first born child" thing, but since that isn't exactly dual-national specific, I won't fuss.
Seems like poor Alexander, if he has to choose at all, may want to do so on the bases of which tax system is less evil. US taxes are low, but you don't get much for them, and your worldwide income is up for grabs. Swedish taxes are the result of some kind of sadistic, socialist think tank that believes people don't actually want to keep the money they earn, but they're not applied worldwide and one does actually get a damn lot for them. Seeing as I'm not exactly the numbers person in this family, I think I will just sit back and see how the cards fall.Anyway, congrats little guy, you passed the test and the Swedes want you too!
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