Comments on: Have I mentioned how much I love Swiss bureaucracy?

By: Beth

Beth — Fri, 11 Aug 2006 17:18:49 +0000

Oh my god are you lucky. In Ireland they don’t accept U.S. license transfers, so you have to sit the written test then wait up to 14 months to be called for your road test, and that you can be sure you will fail because getting you to do it again for another 70 Euro is just too good for the government to give up. Needless to say, living in the city I haven’t actually had to do this yet, but I am dreading the day…

By: Do

Do — Thu, 10 Aug 2006 21:23:43 +0000

What, no chocolate bunny?

By: Madame K

Madame K — Wed, 09 Aug 2006 11:45:22 +0000

My French drivers license is bigger than your Swiss one.

And it never expires either.

This will be very funny many years from now at age 89 when I get pulled over for driving on sidewalks and the officer looks at my license photo.

*sticking out tongue*

By: Expat Traveler

Expat Traveler — Tue, 08 Aug 2006 03:00:02 +0000

that sounds so cool. Yes I remember them telling me the same thing and I got it in the mail about 2 ro 3 days later too. Gotta love efficiency.

By: Jul

Jul — Mon, 07 Aug 2006 17:44:04 +0000

AND, if we ever move back to an EU country, we can forego the tests and trade in the Swiss license. I love this thing!

Guess we’re lucky we didn’t try to bring any cars with us here. An experience like that would have totally burst my I-love-swiss-bureaucracy bubble.

By: swissmiss

swissmiss — Mon, 07 Aug 2006 15:18:42 +0000

And have you noticed that your Swiss license *never expires*? That’s my favorite part.

By: The Big Finn

The Big Finn — Mon, 07 Aug 2006 10:20:11 +0000

Getting our Swiss licenses was easy. Getting our Swiss license plates was another story.
We shipped our car to Switzerland from the U.S. when we moved here in 2000. I knew ahead of time that I’d have to have a mechanic change some lightbulbs, etc. and put it through an inspection. That was no problem.
The problem was with Motorfahrzeugkontrolle (MFK). I ended up going back four times. Each time they told me I needed an additional sheet of paper. Finally, the fourth time, I found a man who spoke English well, I asked him if he could just tell me everything I needed so that I wouldn’t have to keep coming back, and he told me what was needed was only one more “green piece of paper from your insurance company”. I happened to have the insurance company’s information with me, and I asked him to make a call. One minute call…info faxed…license plates in hand. The whole ordeal was incredibly frustrating, but I blame myself (for not having a better command of the language), Mrs. TBF’s company (for not providing a placement service person to help me out), and MFK (for not giving me a complete list of everything I needed the first time I went). I found that MFK was incredibly disorganized…long lines…shuffled between multiple windows…etc.
Zip ahead to early 2005 when I went to MFK to change our address. Number/ticket system like the post office…incredibly organized…drivers license address changed…in and out in less than five minutes!
What a difference five years made!