Metreveli moved to Sweden in 2017 with her then-husband who, like her, is Russian, when he got a doctoral position at a major Swedish university in a tech-related subject.
She originally applied for permanent residency in 2023 as a dependant on her husband's permit, but he moved back to Russia with the couple's teenage daughter and withdrew his application when their lawyers warned him that he was at risk of receiving a rejection and a 20-year Schengen ban.
Metreveli stayed in Sweden with their son and applied for residency on the background of her status as a PhD student. This effectively restarted the clock when it comes to permanent residency, meaning she will need to live in Sweden for years before she is eligible for permanent residency again.
The couple is now divorced, with Metreveli citing that this was partly as a result of the family being split between Russia and Sweden.
As a general rule, PhD students switching permits need to leave Sweden and apply for a permit from abroad, which Metreveli was unable to do due to her son's healthcare needs. Therefore, her application was rejected.
In her application, Metreveli cited her teenage son's ties to Sweden and the treatment he receives for his intellectual disability as grounds for why they should be allowed to switch to a new permit without leaving Sweden.
"The rejection is just on the grounds that I should have applied from outside of Sweden, and I was arguing that we couldn't do this because of my son's condition. I can't fly with him right now and there are no direct flights to Russia," she said.
Her son received support through Sweden's LSS system (Support and Service for Persons with Certain Functional Impairments) and attends an anpassad grundskola, a type of adaptive schooling for children with disabilities.
The support offered by the Swedish state also meant she was able to continue her studies at a Swedish university rather than staying at home to care for her son full time, which she would almost certainly have to do if she moved back to Russia.
"They said that he has ties to Sweden, but his ties to me as his mother are stronger, and because I have no rights he must follow me," she said, adding that she believes this goes against Sweden's Disability Act and does not take her son's best interests into account.
"They also argued that his father is in Russia, his ties to Russia are stronger," she said, even though the couple are divorced (at the time of the rejection they were in the process of getting divorced) and she has sole custody of their son.
"Sweden likes to portray itself as this progressive country, but in the end it is protecting what it sees as the nuclear family," she said, adding that the concept of a blended family – or bonusfamilj as a step family is known in Swedish – doesn't exist to the same degree in Russia.
Metreveli has appealed the decision, which means she and her son are allowed to stay in Sweden while her case is being handled.
She is pessimistic about their chances of being granted a permit, but is hoping that the appeal will at least give her enough time to finish her PhD.
"I just started my fourth year, so this will probably be my last year. I want to defend as fast as I can and then hopefully apply for a postdoc."
There is a new law due to come into force in June which would change the rules and allow her to reapply from within Sweden, but she's not sure yet whether it will be too late for her and her son to benefit.
She is adamant that she does not want to go back to Russia, partly due to potential repercussions from pro-Ukraine comments she has made on social media.
"I don't want to stay in Russia. If we have to go back, if there's no other option, we will, but I want us to work on other possibilities, to move to another country and so on," she said.
If she is accused of being anti-war she would no longer be safe there.
"At this point I feel like I have no choice," she said.
If her appeal is rejected, she is considering applying for asylum in Sweden, but does not believe a positive decision is likely.
"My lawyer believes we have higher chances of getting that, but the statistics are bad. Only around seven percent of Russians are actually being granted asylum in Sweden. So it's very low."
If her asylum case is approved, Metreveli added that she would still lose some of the rights she currently has.
"I'd have to file for the right to work while I wait for the decision, it comes with a lot of stress and financial burden, I'd basically be spending all my savings on that. Sometimes I think maybe I should have just left and used my savings to move to another country, but then I want to finish this PhD," she said.
Past periods spent waiting for permits to renew has meant that she has been unable to travel to conferences or other job-related trips abroad, which means that her academic profile is not as strong as it could have been otherwise.
"Unfortunately my CV does not look that good to look for a job without finishing my PhD. I can't afford not to finish it."
She is still legally allowed to remain in Sweden while her permit is being processed, but has nevertheless begun to experience some bureaucratic consequences of her situation. She is, for example, unable to travel or renew her ID card without a valid permit.
"I'm facing a lot of issues buying medicine for my son, for example. My ID card expired almost two years ago. I still have my personal number and I still have the card, but if people pay attention they can see the expiration date, so I need to constantly have my passport with me."
Metreveli's son recently turned 13, which means she has also lost access to some of his pages on Sweden's healthcare portal 1177.
"Even though he's disabled, which we wrote to them about, the bureaucracy here means that I have access to his case journal but I can't order medicine online for him and I can't book appointments through 1177."
She is still able to use a different app to communicate with the hospital and other healthcare specialists treating her son, but describes buying medicine for him as "a lottery".
"Every time I go to the drugstore and give them my ID, I'm like ‘will they notice the expiration date or not'. Because I had cases where they wouldn't sell me the medicine, although they do when you have a passport. But every time it's very dehumanising. And especially when they see you have a Russian passport, they just look at you not in a friendly way. So that's been a challenge."
Updates to the BankID digital ID system have also become stressful for Metreveli, who worries that she could lose access to the system. Because she now technically doesn't have a residence permit, she has lost support for her son through the LSS system, which provides help to people with disabilities, although he was allowed to keep his personal assistant.
"You're reduced in your social rights. They're halved. You're half human but they're happy to take your taxes," she said.
Emma Löfgren, Editor, The Local Sweden
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