Published: Just now
Princess Madeleine, together with her husband Christopher O’Neill and their three children, will move home to Sweden in August. But O’Neill won’t be a cream cheese into the Swedish system. He will have to stand in line and apply for a residence permit like other immigrants.
According to the Swedish Migration Agency, there are no exceptions for connections to royalty, which Expressen was the first to report.
“Princes and princesses, kings and queens – what actually applies to a family member of royalty who is a citizen outside the EU and wants to move to Sweden?”, writes the Migration Agency in a post on Facebook.
The authority then answers its own question:
“There are no exceptions for third-country nationals who apply for a residence permit due to their connection to royalty. The Swedish Migration Agency also does not have any simplified procedures for this, and cases are therefore handled according to the usual process.”
When the family left Sweden in 2015, O’Neill was still an EU citizen via his British passport. He is no longer that after Brexit. He now needs a residence permit to be able to register his residence in Sweden. Such a permit must be given within nine months after the application is submitted, if there is a family connection, according to the Aliens Act.