He is still waiting for his permit and we are afraid that he won't be here for Christmas...

His future employer has clarified the situation to him: to apply a permit for him they first have to submit an application to the labor market authority. Two weeks ago, this labor market authority has made a preliminary positive decision which says that he is entitled to take this job, and now the residence permit is under decision in the immigration authority.

So it seems that the procedure is: labor market authority -> immigration authority?
And then finally FOM will have to check it again for a final approve? If it is like this then I think it will still take a while...