GUWonder

Nothing camera-dependent is proof of life-ish more than a live video call with live interaction between the video call participants. Showing the card on a video call should fly.

the810

There is no requirement for Swedish citizens to speak Swedish.

GUWonder

I know that, you know that, lots know that, and yet Schengen passport control types knowing that deliberately at times try to make it an issue with some minors traveling on Swedish passports. Particularly the passport control police at SK’s two biggest gateways for its long-haul flights.

pseudoswede

Fortunately, Miss Swede is very fluent in Swedish.

Heck, I hand over my US passport and start speaking Swedish. It always surprises the passport agent, and he/she suddenly becomes much more pleasant to deal with.

GUWonder

I guess they may have other reasons to not presume you to be a “problematic” overstay “risk” despite being: (1) a foreigner with family ties to Sweden/Swedish citizens; and (2) being able to speak the language enough to indicate potential interest and/or ability in irregularly settling in Sweden in the interest of family reunification. For some foreign visitor arrivals, doing that “speak the local language” thing can amount to putting up a red flag that may invite being asked to show a return/onward travel ticket out of the Schengen zone — when otherwise it would not be asked — and other such things.

Speaking the language is one way for foreign-born Swedish citizens with dual-citizenship (as kids) to try to demonstrate sufficient Swedish ties in order for such persons to retain the citizenship as adults.

livious

Sorry to chime in late, but our family has lots of experience with this.

A non-notarized letter has been asked for by passport control in both ARN and CPH, but never by SAS. We just simply write that the kids have our permission, give the flight details and have it signed by a 3rd party witness (usually a work colleague). US passport control has never asked any questions, although the kids have US passports as well. As the trip starts in DEN with UA, I would assume that any questions will begin there and not in ORD.

Our kids have done this CPH/ARN-ORD alone around 15 times and never had any problems. They will do it again this week if the strike does not cancel the flight, which I hope is not a concern for your situation.

As of for the language discussion, passport control has never been an issue. The staff working check-in at CPH and OSL almost always refuse to speak English with me no matter which passport I show them, but I usually keep my interaction with them to a minimum unless I am looking for an upgrade

pseudoswede

As of last night, she was able to comfortably fit everything into her carry-on and backpack (we brought over most of her clothes), so she doesn't need to check a bag.

I'll probably check her in for her UA flight, and we'll have a Zoom call around midnight Swedish time to check her in for her SK flight. I'm just hoping that Pre-Check shows up on her printed boarding passes.

She's flying tomorrow, so no worries about the pilot strike.

GUWonder

Good idea with the letter for unaccompanied minors, including those aged 12–16 traveling alone without assistance from SAS. Ex-Scandinavia, SAS doesn’t offer such assistance to 17 year olds from what I could recall.

Do you have any experience/knowledge of a 17-year-old Swedish/Danish/Norwegian passport user being asked by Scandinavian passport control for such a parental letter on arrival at ARN/CPH? Sounds sort of surprising to me if that happens typically with 17-year olds arriving at ARN or CPH directly from the US on a Scandinavian country passport.

For kids younger than 16, doesn’t SAS still require/use a parent/guardian-filled form for minors utilizing their unaccompanied minor service?

livious

Passport control has almost always asked for a reason why the kids are travelling alone, so the letter has proven valuable. I would say that they used it for departing from ARN/CPH 85% of the time when they were 12-16 years and not getting support from SAS. I think we started sending the kids alone when they were 7 and had the SAS unaccompanied minor service from 7-12 years old, which meant that SAS had paperwork to help them through passport control. Just to note, they were using their Swedish passport when leaving/entering CPH/ARN. Now that they are older I would estimate that they get asked 50% when leaving CPH/ARN. Let's see what happens tomorrow as they are 17 years now and look old enough. However, good to always have the letter just in case.

Oddly enough, neither SAS nor passport control in the US has ever asked once about the kids travelling alone. I always found this surprising, although the kids did manage to get their grandparents passes to join them to the gate and even into the lounge. The lounge staff at ORD (which have always been great) still remember this and bring it up when I pass through ORD. Now my only worry is that they will make use of the bar area as the grandparents head home after check-in

livious

Sound like she will be fine and we can both sleep well knowing that we luckily booked the flights just before the strike is planned. My wife and I join the kids after 9 days, so I can only hope that we are not affected. Still a lot of time for resolution, but we have been through this enough to have a back-up flight booked with miles.

pseudoswede

Pre-Check didn't show up in her printed boarding pass, and the website still cannot render the QR code properly (just stays in a loading status, but the Pre-Check logo is visible on the page). She'll mosey over to T5 just before 1pm to request a new boarding pass like we did last week.

I'm really not too concerned about passkontroll. I mean, she's a Swedish citizen (albeit with a sammordningsnummer) with a Swedish passport. She has the right to enter the country no questions asked.

fassy

There will be absolutely no problem.

livious

I believe the questions usually come in terms of leaving, in case of runaways or trafficking. The questioning was always very light, but some of the passport staff take it more serious.
I agree that there won't be problems, but just want to point out that there are situations that might warrant a bit of scrutiny and the written letter has always sufficed. At her age it won't be a concern, but might not be the case if you are in the 12-16 range.

pseudoswede

Gotcha. In that case, the whole family is leaving at the same time on the same flight (albeit she is on a separate ticket). For future trips where the kids don't want to visit as long as Mrs. Swede does, it will always be a case where they will fly in later then we'll fly out together.

GUWonder

If on the same flights, separate ticket wouldn’t make a difference at exit passport control for these SK flights. If the child/children were younger but on the same flight, the time when a separate ticket may ring bells for me is if the child and the accompanying adult are not booked in the same cabin. Why bells? Because different/split cabin, same flight can — for younger kids than the OP’s — mean that an unaccompanied minor service fee comes due or that a cabin shuffle hits to put the child+adult in the same cabin. [SAS isn’t very generous about complimentary upgrades nowadays … if there even is space to upgrade.]

If they uncheck her in at ORD, they can reload in the KTN into the field to try to generate PreCheck. They may not even have to do all of that, as there are times when PreCheck shows up when the boarding pass bar/QR code is scanned by the TSA but doesn’t show in plain text as such to the unaided eye.

PreCheck at the main ORD T5 checkpoint for my ORD-CPH/ARN flights this year has been a form of PreCheck light. The smaller T5 Checkpoint also handles PreCheck passengers, but it shuts down earlier than the big T5 screening checkpoint.