Have a great time there Robert.
Sweden is where you've been born, Isn't it?

YES!!! @robert have a great time.  I'm looking forward to those photos.

Have a good flight and enjoy your stay in your home country, Robert.

If circumstances permit, perhaps you could also bring along a short video clip of your gig for the forum.

Birgit

Yes Sweden is my home country. I moved to Canada in 1999, when I was almost 30 years old. Soon I've lived half my life in Canada!

@robert Wow Robert Sweden is so beautiful. And where you live now looks me great and Beautiful too 😉

@robert, lots of time before I need the information, but I will be picking your brain on recommendations on "must see" locations in Sweden.  Not this summer, but next, hopefully, my wife and I are going to tour Europe.  My last name, as you know, is PetersEn, "sen", so Danish.  But my mother's maiden name was PetersOn, "son" so of Swedish heritage.  (She only had to change one letter in her last name after marriage.)

So the trip will definitely include Scandinavia.  My wife's ancestors, who settled in South Dakota, were from Norway.

Just beginning stages of planning.  I'm not sure why but I definitely want to see Spain.  I want to see the RAH so England.  Probably France.  My wife's non-negotiable is Italy.

But since you are a "full service" guitar instructor I will be expecting some tour guide information 😆 

The end of my trip ended very badly. Here is a write up from what happened on Saturday and onwards ->

So, I was not able to travel back to Canada after visiting my family in Sweden.
I’ll try to explain what happened. I’m a Swedish citizen (not Canadian) and for traveling back into Canada, I need a Permanent Resident (PR) card. It’s proof that I am a resident of Canada. Mind you, I’m in their system and can look me up easily (but that would be too easy wouldn’t it). I’ve lived in Canada for 25 years. I know what you’re thinking. Yes, I should have (and will get) a Canadian passport to make my life easier.

When we got to the Edmonton airport on June 19, I realized I forgot my (fully valid) PR  card at home. There was not enough time to drive home to get it either. At the desk, they basically said it’s up to me to take the risk (interesting how I don’t need this card to leave, but they won’t let me in without it). I thought of the idea of having a friend try to find my card at home and mail it to Sweden but that’s risky too, as delivery time for mail is not guaranteed, or the customs could actually seize it.
I also don’t know exactly where I left the card in my house, so someone would have to turn the place upside down looking for it - not ideal. We also had some inside information that Customs would likely just look me up and let me in anyway since I have a valid card. I expected smooth sailing. Alas, t’was not to be.

Today, they told me that they are not allowed to let me on the plane without either a valid PR Card or a PR Travel Document. I explained my situation and told them that Canada Customs will just look me up when we arrive since I have a valid card at home. I may even have a photo of it. Nope. No Can Do.

They also called Canada Customs help desk and explained my situation, but Canada Customs said I need to get a temporary PR Travel Document, no exceptions made, no matter what I said to the airline desk. Apparently I could fill one out right away and I might get on this flight with some luck. So I filled it out.
It took a long time, as I had to look up and provide extensive information, pay a 50 dollar fee (internet access was terminated for a while too, just to add to the 110% of stress already present), and provide the airline desk with a receipt and confirmation that I have provided everything needed.

At this point, I asked how do I know when they have processed my application so I can get rebooked. Well, that was a very good question. Is it within the hour? A few hours. A day? 3-4 days? They didn’t know. They tell me to call Customs Canada. That didn’t work because they are closed. Then they said to call the Embassy of Canada in Stockholm. They are also closed until Monday.
They sent me to a desk for rebooking flights. Turns out I can get rebooked for Tuesday for about 5000 SEK but only if I hurry and do it before 12:45. The clock showed 12:15 or so. They also said because I had booked with Expedia, I should call them and see what they could do. By the way, calling to Sweden with my Canada phone in Sweden is very complicated, and it took many attempts to get the number to work.

So I called Expedia and after a lot of waiting, they said not to worry, they will help. The airline desk said I have only a few minutes to rebook at this “special price”. As you can probably guess, that didn’t work out because the call with Expedia took a very long time. They were actually not able to get a hold of the airline people, the same people I was speaking with at the same time in person. Go figure. The Expedia person even asked me to pass my phone over to them but there was big lineup in front of me.
12:45 passed and the airline said TOO LATE, can’t help me. The Expedia support lady said the airline desk is closed until Monday and they will try again and send me updates via email. She said something about rebooking within a 2 hour window of my flight departure should mean I can get rebooked without paying full price for a ticket home. I have my doubts about that. Maybe if she actually got a hold of someone, but she didn’t.

So that’s where it’s at now. I will spend at least the weekend and probably a few days more in Stockholm, waiting for my temporary travel document to be processed.  I have no idea when that will be and how I will get access to it. I will call the Embassy on Monday and ask. Or I’ll call Canada Customs. Or both. I really have no idea.

I will also have to wait and see if Expedia can indeed get me rebooked for a (smaller) fee, or if I have start from scratch and find a brand new ticket home with any airline.

This morning, I called the embassy in Stockholm. They could not helped me. They referred me to the embassy in London. They could not help me either. They sent me to the Canadian government website, which could not help me either. All I can do is log in and look at my application in waiting, hoping that it will be processed soon.

I sent a request through a government emergency website for Canadian citizens stuck abroad. I got no response.
Seems like my best option is the have Roxane mail me my PR card via FedEx Express. It takes 3 days. Then hopefully I can find a flight home soon thereafter.

I called Canada immigration today. They said "we are receiving more calls than usual and can’t transfer you to an agent at this time. Please try again later”.

After doing some research online, it seems like it could be more than two weeks before I get this travel document. The Canadian government website has extremely limited information for a person in my situation. The only thing I can do is to log into my portal and check if my application has been updated.
I contacted the Canadian embassy in Stockholm this morning and they could not help me. They referred me to a different embassy in London. They could not help me either and referred me to the Canadian government website, which gives me pretty much nothing.
I submitted an urgent request for Canadian citizens stuck abroad, and I got nothing back. 

The best option is probably having Roxane mail my permanent resident card with Xpress delivery. I can get it here within 3 to 4 days, so I guess I will go with that. Then I can hopefully find a flight home shortly thereafter. 

It makes no sense to me why this needs to be this difficult since they have me in their system I can easily look up that I have a valid permanent resident card. Just so bloody stressful to be stranded like this.

Update - Roxane is sending my PR card and it should arrive on Jul 10. Hopefully that solves this. Then I can hopefully find a flight home soon thereafter.

Sadly, I'm emptying my savings on this because of the extra costs this is bringing. Stressful. I don't usually ask for help but if you would like to help, you can buy me a coffee on https://buymeacoffee.com/renman or send something via paypal - https://paypal.me/robertrenman but please don't feel like you need to. I have gotten support from several people and it's helping. If you are interested in a zoom lesson or two, let me know and we can set that up for when I get home.

The PR card did not arrive yesterday but it is coming today. I hope this will solve all of this!

I am back home now and all is good! Thanks for all the support my friends. ❤️

Robert, I am very pleased that everything has turned out well for you.

All the best,

Birgit

See what happens when you go from socialist countries to communist countries?  That'll teach Ja.

Thanks, I'm getting going on more lesson work and I'll send out an email for a new live stream next week.

Unfortunately, I've had some strange computer problems since I came back. Random crashes of applications. Seems to have stopped now but I never did find the reason for it. So strange!

@clayton Careful, not everyone may realize you are joking. Or are you? 😀

@robert For those in doubt of my intentions, it was merely to provide levity to our human condition, and realize that most labels are just that.  Put another way....