Iranians stuck in Sweden rush to extend temporary visas and permits
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The night before June 13th Israel launched a series of attacks on Iran. The day after the Swedish Migration Agency labelled it a 'special incident' – a term used when a public authority sets up a special task force to deal with unexpected or major incidents.
'Iranians started to contact us about their visas and expired residence permits,' Migration Agency departmental head Sara Åhman told the TT news agency.
The western, northern and southern parts of Iranian airspace closed as a result of the current conflict. The international airport in Tehran also closed, which means Iranian nationals in Sweden have had little choice but to try to find a way to stay put.
They include, for example, Iranians who are in Sweden as tourists, visiting family in Sweden or who are in the country to study or work, with a permit set to expire.
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Last year, the Migration Agency made a decision on (and approved) 31 visa extensions for Iranian citizens. In the past two weeks alone they have processed 28 such cases.
And last year 157 cases regarding residence permit extensions for Iranian visitors were processed. In the past two weeks the agency has processed 30 such applications.
'It's not a huge number of cases, but the figures would not have looked like this if the situation around the world looked different,' said Åhman.
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