Hello lovely Hiveans !
Today I will post the first entry about our relocation to Switzerland after we arrived in our new home. It took a while to create this posts, but today we finally were able to connect to the internet 😁
What We Did So Far
Before we arranged our whole movement, I first signed my Working Contract and we signed our new House Rental Contract. After these crucial first steps, we ordered European Cat Passports for our cats, had them vaccinated and put up their transportation boxes so that they could get used to them. In addition we Canceled Our Former Housing Contract. One week before the movement we then packed around 30 transportation boxes and got rid of all the things that we actually would not need anymore. On the day before the movement, we went to the to citizens office to get our Passports and our De-Registration, as well as our mandatory Corona PCR tests ^^
The Movement
On the actual day of the movement we had everything packed after our last german breakfast. I brought my wife, son and cats to some friends for that day, so that they could spend it in a normal way without the stress of packing. At around 1 pm the moving company arrived at our place.
They bought all the boxes downstairs and loaded them into their truck, followed by the furniture and the children stuff from the basement. We actually figured out that we had relatively few things. Normally the calculation goes for 30 boxes per person, but we had them for our whole family ^^
They finished at around 6 pm. I quickly drove to my family and we had a last meal with our friends. After that we started our 10 hours long ride from the State of North Rhine-Westphalia in Germany down to the Kanton of Wallis in Switzerland. It rained all night, which was a bit annoying, but the streets were totally empty and I could constantly drive along with logged 100 km/h for the whole way. For those of you who know the german traffic and their drivers it is probably undrestandable why the night may be the best time for such a long trip 😂
I did not took any pictures of the journey on the way, but one. On the very last part our the way we had to go through the mountain range of the alps. We did not expect it at all, but to pass the mountains, we needed to get onto a car train. It was the first time ever that I was on a train with a car and the combination of a train, a tunnel and 2 meters of snow after we left the tunnel was just overwhelming, especially for my little son ;)
The rest of the day was actually very exhausting. The lack of sleep was quite stressfull. In addition, we were 2 hours ahead of the moving company which was a little bit annoying at that state. Later on, as the furniture and transportation boxes had to be placed in all the rooms, everything else but staying awake was inevitable. But as soon as the bed in the childrens room was set up, at least my wife and son could directly go to sleep there. The whole depacking by the moving company took from 10 am until 6 pm. After that the day was over for all of us ^^
The First Week
Also the whole landscape and scenerey here in the Kanton Wallis is outstanding beautiful, I did not took any pictures yet in the first week, as my mind was occupied with many other concerns. But as I like to give you a first impression here, I quickly took two for you. Everywhere, no matter which direction that someone is looking at, there are mountains. As you may probably know already, I am a huge lover of mountains, hiking and all activities assigned. Thus, I was flooded with a constant huge satisfying and happy mood since the last week ^^
There will be defenitly post following this one here that focus more on the area, landscapes and other aspects, such as differences, impressions and more, but this will take more time and I focus more on the relocation aspect here. So what could we get done in our first week here?
REGISTRATION - On the morning of our second day after we caught us the missing sleep, we were visiting the local Community House. There I showed my Working Contract and our House Rental Contract, as well as our Passports, Mariage Certificate and the Birth Certificate of our son. This was enough to recieve our provisionally Residence Permit. The whole process took just 15 minutes. There was no online appointment needed and also no waiting times at the, This provisionally document is needed for all the community house, as we moved into a very small one ^^ .. This provisionally residence permit is needed for all the things that I discuss in the following, so it is the very first thing someone should accquire when moving to Switzerland. We did our registration on the first day, but from the time of arrival one has 14 days time to do so.
BANK ACCOUNT - Later on we were driving into the nearest city. There we opened a bank account. It probably needs no explanations, but this is quite important. Not only to recieve the payment from your employeer, but also to transfer the monthly house rent and insurance fees. Here we needed to show the already discussed provisionally Residence Permit, as well as our Passports, Working Contract and House Rental Contract. This took quite a while, about 30 minutes, but from that time on the account was open and operatable. It only took up to three days to recieve the letters with the documents and cards.
INTERNET CONTRACT - After we had the operational bank account we could get us an internet contract. We again needed the provisionally Residence Permit, as well as our Passports and our new Adresse. Also the contract is created in just 10 minutes, we had to wait a few days until the connection was opened up.
INSURANCES - Apart from all the other things, that could be done on the very first day, the setting up of all the insurances needs at least a week to be completed. Also we were able to confirm an appointment with an Insurance Agent on the first day, we needed to wait for the next one to talk to him personally. He came to our place and we talked and discussed about everything that we needed and that was possible to set up for us. The whole appointment took about an hour and in the progress all our questions were answered completely. Basicly we will need a Household Insurance and a Liability Insurance, which is probablly common all around the world. In addition we will need a Car Insurance, as we have a car. Also the public transportation here is quite good and effective, which sounds utopic for a German citizen ^^, we will keep it. It will get quite handy when it comes to our weekly big shopping tour to the city or to future family trips. Another thing that is essential is the Health Insurance for all of us. In addition, we need an Accident Insurance for my wife and son. As I have already a working contract, my employeer is responsible for my accident insurance. Currently the Insurance Agent is calculating and comparing the various options that he discussed with us. When he is done, we will meet again and discuss all the different options. One day later he will get back to us with the final contracts. Only the car insurance will need far longer as the registration at the local road traffic office requires the final residence permit.
PRIMARY SCHOOL - As the primary school in Switzerland already starts from the age of 4, any my son is 4 years old, we also had to sign him in. This was actually super easy and fast. I recieved the number of the school director at the community house and made a call. After I explained the situation in a few minutes and gave some details, I recieved a call from his new teacher 5 minutes later, who told me that from monday on he will be signed in. We brough him there, just filled out a paper with some elementary details, and that was already the whole trick ^^ .. The first two years of primary school are similiar to the Kindergarden in Germany, but are actually more ordered and structured. The visiting times are at 4 days per week for 4 hours each.
LAST EMAILS TO GERMANY - There were still some things that we have to cancel via email with the De-registration document that we required in our citizens office the day befor our departure. These things only require an email with the attached document, and a formal letter. Nowadays mobile phones can easily create pdf documents, so its just a picture and a short message. Luckily we finally have a working internet connection for this purpose now ^^ .. The emails that we already have written were to cancel our former Electricity Contract and Broadcast Contributions, as well as my ADAC Automobile Club Membership. We still need to write to our Insurance Company, but this will be only done once we have all our insurance contracts signed here and operatable as an substitution from February. Our german Bank Account will be not cancelled for a while, if even not at all. There are still some things running over it that we know of, such as the rent of our former accomodation and the last monthly costs of our insurance for example. In addition there maybe things that we missed out and will be aware of once money is withdrawn from the account.
Some Last Words
If you were reading all my former posts about the relocation, than you have a crude picture about the whole process now. Also it sounds quite complicated, the whole process is relativey uncomplicated. Most things can be done relatively fast or easily just via email. The by far most complicated and stressfull part is the packing and de-packing. The later, we have also finally finished now ^^ .. By the way, if you want to know a topic from my Re-Location episodes in more detail, feel free to ask :)
I hope that you enjoyed the whole series. This here is the last entry to it, but as mentioned, there will be posts following that will discuss other things that are related to my new home place, but not the actual relocation. If you wish, I can also create a post upon any of your questions too. But as my work will also start from February and we will be still busy to really settle here completely, it may be still take a while for me to get back into a proper posting routine. I was never a daily poster before also, so please be patient ^^
.. Oh, by the way, the ants made it here too and the queen seems still healthy ... 🐜🐜🐜 ... 😁
The title picture was taken from free4kwallpapers.com and modified with a swiss flag as a logo.
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