Stieg Larsson, the Swedish author, has gained success and popularity in many countries in Europe and even further abroad. His “Millennium Trilogy”, a series of books, which have put millions of readers on the edge of their chairs with their original characters and suspenseful plots. The first book in the series, “The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo” has now been made into a movie and was released in Sweden in February. It is expected to come to other parts of Europe in the Spring and Summer of 2009.

There are more plans for a TV miniseries and of course, more films. Stockholm’s City Museum now offers “Millennium Tours” in both English and French during the month of May and will even accommodate groups in Italian and Spanish as well. If you are a fan, and want to walk in the footsteps of the books, this is a great opportunity.

The Swedish Tax Office, where everyone moving to Sweden needs to go to get registered, has been changing its rules and expectations. Even though the basic legislation is almost the same, the new case officers at the tax authority are often unaware of the actual rules. We are working hard to get some understanding and facilitate these issues together with the well seaoned staff at the tax authority, however there seeems to be a bumpy road ahead before the new staff and the new rules have settled and we can again work efficiently.

They have just recently changed their office location in Stockholm and have begun issuing ID cards for foreigners, which has been impossible to obtain in the past. Newcomer’s still offers help getting the ID cards through the bank, which is a much easier system, and does not require pre-payment and identity verification.

This new change in policy has kept the queues long at the tax office. Their new ”service office” is in a convenient location in the center of town. Unfortunately this means that our clients share a queue with other people applying for ID cards and other tax questions, and the wait can be quite long unless you get there early in the morning.

 

 

Newcomer’s is a proud member of the premier TIRA global network. In this first issue we are featuring Erika
Strohmayer of Relocation
Services in Vienna Austria. Erika lists the three best thing about Vienna below.

3.  Festivals throughout the year, mostly in the city centre and without entrance fee, e.g. summer film festival in front of the city hall, city festival (“Stadtfest”), “Viennese Ice Dream” in winter – skating, ice stock sport, etc.; “Donauinselfest” – festival on an island on the Danube, etc.