My name is Betty and I am a Kenyan citizen. I am 26 years old and I would like to come and settle in Sweden. I found your contact in the Internet and I am writing to request you to send me an invitation letter to come to Sweden so that I can start a new life in that country.
I am a University Graduate with a Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration. I am very beautiful, hard working and obedient. I don’t mind taking any type of job as long as I can arrive in Sweden and settle down. I am currently working for a small Company but I am not satisfied with my job. I have read about you in the Internet and I believe you can help me. I and my friends in Kenya read your blog regularly and we find it very interesting.
I am very saddened to learn that after coming to Sweden, some Kenyans commit crimes and get to prison. I hope you will be able to help me or give me any advice that could help me because I want to leave Kenya. Politicians are cheating people and I think that I should depend more on myself than on the government. I believe that if I leave this country, opportunities could open for me. Waiting to hear from you.
Betty.
Nairobi, KENYA.
Thanks for your letter. To begin with, I cannot just write you an invitation letter to come to Sweden because I do not know you. The situation here is not as simple as it looks like. You could get a tourist visa to come and visit someone in Sweden for three months and even extend it to six months but after that period, you will have to return to Kenya.
In order to continue staying in Sweden on a long term, you must either enroll as a Student at one of the country’s Universities, get someone/company to employ you or settle down on grounds of a “Family re-union” or something in that direction.
You have said that you are hard working and that you are in a position to take up any kind of job despite your University education. The problem is that to work in Sweden, you need to be issued with either a “Work Permit” or a “Permanent Residence Permit”.
To get a Work Permit, you must show that you have already been hired by an employer in Sweden while the law stipulates that the employer will have to prove to the Swedish authorities that by hiring you, there is nobody else qualified to take up the kind of job you intend to do in Sweden within the Swedish Labour Market.
To settle down on grounds of family re-union, you must have a family connection. You could still make it to Sweden on a tourist visa, fall in love with a Swede or anyone holding a Permanent Residence Permit and make an application to stay here on these grounds.
You have mentioned that you are a beautiful girl but in case you sweep some man off his feet and he falls for you, you will be required to make an application for a Permanent Residence Permit with one key condition.
You will be required to travel back to Kenya to submit your application for residence at the Swedish embassy in Kenya unless there is a “special circumstance” surrounding the application.
A special circumstance could, for example, be a pregnancy. The Swedish authorities believe that if you come here, fall in love and get pregnant at the time of applying for residence, you don’t have to return to your country to await for a Permit because by becoming pregnant, the relationship will be deemed serious enough to warrant an immediate permit to stay. There are several “paper marriages” that have worked in Sweden with varying degrees of success and failures.
As a person who does not know you, it is difficult for me to write you an invitation letter to come to Sweden because by doing so, I would be making several personal commitments which cannot be guaranteed by virtue of you being a stranger. This does not mean that I may not be able to help in any other way.
You might have found my contact through the Internet but that is no ticket for my help on such sensitive matters as a visa application. I hope that you will find this response useful and wish you well in your struggle to leave Kenya for whatever reasons. Once again, thank you very much and good luck.
Okoth Osewe
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