Have I mentioned how much I love Swiss bureaucracy?
OK, actually I have.
So in this second installment of Swiss Bureaucracy Kicks Ass, let’s talk about driver’s licenses. On Thursday morning, the husband and I headed out to the Strassenverkehrsamt (the Swiss DMV) to apply for our Swiss licenses. We had to bring (1) the results of an eye test (which cost CHF 15 and took 5 minutes at our friendly neighborhood Optiker); (2) a one-page form we had filled out and signed; and (3) our US licenses. After waiting in line for, oh, 30 seconds, the mild-mannered public servant at the counter asked to see our residency permits, took our paperwork, and told us we would receive the licenses in the mail in 2 or 3 weeks.
He lied. They came 2 days later, both our new Swiss licenses and our old US ones (which now have little stickers on the back that read “not valid in Switzerland”).
Compare this to Italy or France, where a US license is worth about as much as a discarded candy wrapper. To get Italian licenses, we would have been required to take practical driving lessons and then a written exam (completely in Italian). The whole ordeal would have cost us well over 1,000 euros and who knows how many trips to dirty, smelly Italian government buildings. Don’t get me wrong – I really, really love Italy. Bureaucracy is just not exactly their strong point.
In either country, an expat is allowed to drive on his/her home-country license for the first year of residency. If you fail to apply for your Swiss license within your first year here, then the process gets a little more complicated, in that you are actually required to take the test. Definitely worth doing it in the first year. Details about the process can be found on your canton’s Strassenverkehrsamt website, which is here (in German) for Zurich.
