Sweden runs on two things: the personnummer (personal identity number) and BankID (the digital ID app). Until you have them, you are half-invisible, no proper bank access, no pharmacy prescriptions online, no second-hand train tickets, sometimes not even a gym membership. Your first weeks are about getting them as fast as possible.
Register with Skatteverket for your personnummer
If your residence permit and programme run 12 months or longer, you are entitled to register in the population register. Book or walk into a Skatteverket (tax agency) service office with your passport, residence permit card and admission letter. Processing takes a few weeks. If your stay is under 12 months you get a coordination number instead, which unlocks less, one more reason two-year master's programmes are practical here.
Get a SIM the same day you land
Prepaid SIMs (Comviq, Lycamobile, Hallon) need only your passport. Do this immediately, every other appointment wants a working Swedish number.
Open a bank account, then get BankID
With your personnummer, book an appointment at SEB, Swedbank, Handelsbanken or Nordea, bring passport, permit card and admission proof. Once the account exists, the bank issues BankID, and suddenly all of Sweden opens: Swish payments (Sweden's UPI), 1177 healthcare logins, contracts, everything. If a branch refuses a student, try another branch or bank, persistence works.
Sort transport and healthcare basics
Get the regional transit app (SL in Stockholm, Västtrafik in Gothenburg, Skånetrafiken in the south) with the student discount via Mecenat. For healthcare, 1177.se is the front door: call 1177 for advice, visit a vårdcentral (health centre) for GP care. A visit costs a small patient fee, and as a registered resident you are covered by the public system.
Housing is the other half of your arrival, covered in the Swedish housing queue guide. For what daily life costs, see Sweden costs and funding, and for anything city-specific, ask a mentor who lives there.
