I am writing this up as a resource for other US citizens starting jobs at [[http://www.epfl.ch/|EPFL]]. It might be generally useful for people moving to Switzerland or Lausanne for other reasons. EPFL has a great [[http://ri.epfl.ch/Jahia/site/ri/op/edit/lang/en/pid/63043|website for visitors]]. Some books to look into: //[[http://www.amazon.com/Living-Working-Switzerland-11th-Survival/dp/1905303157/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1203799501&sr=1-1|Living and Working in Switzerland]]//, //[[http://www.amazon.com/Xenophobes-Guide-Swiss-Guides-Books/dp/1902825454/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1203799434&sr=8-1|Xenophobe's Guide to the Swiss]]//, //[[http://www.amazon.com/Switzerland-Culture-Smart-customs-etiquette/dp/1857333209/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1203799572&sr=1-1|Culture Smart! Switzerland]]//. The latter two books unfortunately focus much more on the Germanic part of Switzerland than the French part. The American Women's Club publishes a book called //Living in Lausanne//, but I never obtained a copy. ===== Things you will need before you arrive ===== * A work visa. To find out where you will need to apply for the visa, check this web page at the [[http://www.eda.admin.ch/eda/en/home/reps/nameri/vusa/afousa.html|Swiss Department of Foreign Affairs]]. They also provide a [[http://www.eda.admin.ch/eda/en/home/reps/nameri/vusa/ref_visinf/visusa.html|guide]] for applying for visas. Some visa desks may allow you to apply via mail rather than in person. Currently the visa processing fee is 85 USD, but you will most likely also need to pay an additional 6 USD for mailing fees. To apply, you will need //three// copies of the following * A recent passport photograph * Your employment contract * Copies of your passport * The visa application * If possible, I recommend learning as much French as possible before arriving. I was able to survive for about fifteen months with only minimal listening and speaking skills, but there have been several circumstances where I needed to rely on someone else to act as my proxy. Among other things, it is extremely frustrating to receive a voicemail message that you cannot understand or phone call from someone who cannot speak English and cannot give the phone to someone who does. If you are an EPFL employee you can generally take French classes at the university for free. ===== Things to pack ===== * Passport. However, border control seemed fairly lax. When I first arrived no one looked at my passport or my visa. I think they may have tightened up a bit since the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schengen_Agreement|Schengen]] rules went into effect. * A towel. Despite having read //The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy// multiple times, I still forgot to bring a towel. This is especially important if you are staying at a hostel, which generally does not supply towels. ===== Residence permit ==== Due to a communication error, I wound up filling out a »blue« form while applying for my residence permit. The »blue« form is apparently only for EU citizens and perhaps countries with specific treaties. For US citizens you will want to fill out the »yellow« form. This form is nearly identical in content to the »blue« one, but they will want the correct one. I would assume that this form is not specific to the Lausanne commune, but I have not verified this fact. The processing of fee for my residence permit in the Lausanne commume cost 95 CHF. It is possible that the fee may have since changed or be different in another commune. You should also pay an additional fee for an »attestation«. This is basically a form that states your residence permit is being processed. I received three copies for 12 CHF. Having an attestation is useful as it may be used in place of a residence permit for some purposes. For example, you can use one to open a bank account (however, my bank could not give me the credit card that accompanied my account until I had a proper residence permit). It may take quite some time for you to receive your residence permit. I received my initial permit about three months after I applied. When I renewed my permit it only took them a week or two to mail me the updated permit. ===== Banking ==== There several banking options: Credit Suisse, Swiss Post, UBS, Migros, and others I have forgotten. UBS and Swiss Post may not be the best in terms of the options or services they provide, but they are convenient for EPFL employees as they have both have branches on the campus. All of your bills will come in the form of a payment slip that you can either pay through your bank's online banking system or via a special ATM-like terminal that can be found at bank branch. When I opened an account with UBS I received a »personal account« and a »savings account«. The personal account is somewhat analogous to a checking account in the United States and it is the account that my debit card drew from. Additionally, if you are not using [[http://www.swisscaution.ch/|SwissCaution]], you will want to open a third account (it doesn't need to be at the same bank) that will hold the deposit on your apartment. I found UBS had extremely poor interest rates, at least in comparison to what you might expect in the United States. However, it is possible their rates are competitive with other Swiss banks. ===== Accommodations ===== Ideally you should try to have an apartment lined up before you arrive. I am not sure whether this is actually possible, however, given that I am told most places will require your residence permit (or an attestation). It may be easier for EU citizens to arrange for an apartment in advance. My solution was to stay at the local youth hostel, [[http://www.youthhostel.ch/hosteldetails.html?&L=1&user_hostels_pi1[location]=all&user_hostels_pi1[bez]=LAS&cHash=63273de48d|Jeunotel]]. I opted for a room by myself, but without an in-room shower. I am told there is a special rate for EPFL people, but when I asked they said my room type did not qualify. However, an intern in the group here is stayed a similar room by himself was able to get the special rate. So be sure to investigate this beforehand. Another option that I was told about is Hotel La Croisee, but it seemed to be a bit more expensive than the hostel and most of the online reviews I've seen do not recommend it. [[http://www.oklogements.ch/|OK logements]] rents furnished studios by the month. The prices tend to be a bit high, but it may be reasonable option to stay there for just a month while you track down a better long term option. There is also another company that does short term rentals at Place Chauderon. I recall that they are also a bit expensive, but they still might be cheaper than OK logements. On the whole the rental market in Lausanne is quite competitive, so you may need to spend quite a bit of time looking for something satisfactory. When you finally do find an apartment to rent, you may need to provide fairly hefty deposit. In Switzerland, instead of giving the rental agency the money to hold for you, you open a special kind of bank account with your bank to hold the money. In some cases, it might not be feasible for you to tie up quite so much of your assets. In that case, you have the option of paying [[http://www.swisscaution.ch/|SwissCaution]] a fee to "guarantee" you. This fee is non-refundable, but it is usually quite a bit less than the actual deposit. Using SwissCaution also has the advantage that if you have some kind of dispute with the landlord you do not have the hefty deposit tied up until it is resolved. I have heard that this can be especially useful if there is a dispute concerning the conditions of the apartment on move-out, and you need to leave the country for your next job/position and do not want to leave the country with the deposit still tied up in the bank. ===== Fire Insurance ===== In the Canton of [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vaud|Vaud]] everyone is required to have fire insurance. Once the authorities are aware of your whereabouts they will send you the information. As far as I can tell, the cost is pretty minimal unless you have brought with you quite a few expensive possessions. I have heard second-hand that they may not accept fire insurance from companies outside of Switzerland, but again given that the cost will probably be less than eating out for an evening it is probably not worth the bureaucracy. ===== Health Insurance ===== If you are a student and under 30 you could try [[http://www.studentcare.ch/|Student Care]]. They also will cover "trainees" but I am not sure if that includes postdocs. If you are older than 30 [[http://www.swisscare.ch/|SwissCare]] seems to be about the only option you have, unless you obtain coverage under a plan elsewhere that will also cover you in Switzerland. It is worth noting that while SwissCare provides coverage that meets the government requirements it is not equivalent to the government mandated coverage. For example, SwissCare reserves the right to not cover preexisting conditions. The authorities will eventually send you a letter requesting proof of your insured status. ===== Doctors and Dentists ===== I spent some time trying to find doctors and dentists in the area that speak English. The only recommendations I received were * Doctors * Isabelle Bennani-Fleischer (I've seen her)\\ Route Aloys-Fauquez 26\\ CH-1018 Lausanne (VD)\\ Phone: +41-21-6465110 (prof.)\\ Fax: +41-21-6465337 (prof.) * Dentists * Stéphane Signorini\\ Place Dufour 9\\ CH-1110 Morges (VD)\\ Phone: +41-21-8012768 (prof.) ===== Public transportation ===== Public transportation in Switzerland is excellent. If you are willing to pay the expense it is possible to purchase a yearly pass that will let travel via any mode other than plane (train, bus, etc.) throughout the country. However, most of the people I know that get that pass are Swiss natives or have been living there a long time and do a fair bit of commuting. It is more likely, while living in Lausanne, that you will want to get a Mobilis card from [[http://www.t-l.ch/|tl]]. I generally paid around 60CHF for a monthly pass in zones [[http://www.t-l.ch/images/pdf/planr08octobre.pdf|11 and 12]]. ===== Telephony and internet connectivity ===== [[http://www.citycable.ch/modules/internet/item.php?itemid=1|CityCable]] seems to provide fairly affordable internet connectivity. [[http://en.swisscom.ch/residential|SwissCom]] provides DSL at slightly better rates, but I have heard that if you are a foreigner a fairly large deposit may be required. There are many wireless 802.11 hotspots throughout the city. The [[http://www.lausanne.ch/DataDir/LinkedDocsObjDir/3400.pdf|City of Lausanne]] provides a few free hotspots around the city. If you are an EPFL employee, some commercial hotspots, such as those provided by SwissCom, can be used for free by simply connecting to the university VPN rather than using the web login and payment system. This is very useful for while traveling in Switzerland because SwissCom has hotspots in most major train stations and airports. There are a number of different cell providers (Orange, Sunrise, SwissCom, etc.) that will either sell pay-as-you phones or provide plans similar to those you might find in the United States. Since mobile phone service is very a competitive industry at the moment, any more concrete information I might provide will probably quickly become out of date. ===== Places to eat ===== ... Need to expand this out ... * [[http://www.caferomand.com/|Café Romand]] ([[http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=+46%C2%B031'11.42%22N+6%C2%B037'57.36%22E&ie=UTF8&ll=46.519972,6.632599&spn=0.001639,0.003648&t=h&z=18&iwloc=addr|Google Maps]]) * Le Dynasty (Asian food) ([[http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=+46%C2%B031'11.42%22N+6%C2%B037'57.36%22E&ie=UTF8&ll=46.519972,6.632599&spn=0.001639,0.003648&t=h&z=18&iwloc=addr|Google Maps]]) * [[http://www.pinte-besson.com/|Pinte Besson]] ([[http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=+46%C2%B031'23.44%22N+6%C2%B037'46.00%22E&ie=UTF8&ll=46.523312,6.629444&spn=0.001639,0.003648&t=h&z=18&iwloc=addr|Google Maps]] * Starbucks ([[http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=+46%C2%B031'11.42%22N+6%C2%B037'57.36%22E&ie=UTF8&ll=46.519972,6.632599&spn=0.001639,0.003648&t=h&z=18&iwloc=addr|Google Maps]]) (it does have free wireless and is open on Sunday...) * [[http://www.cafedugruetli.ch/|Le Café du Grütli]] * Cafe de L'Eveche * [[http://www.cavallo-bianco.ch/|Cavallo Bianco]] * Ma Jong (open on Sunday) * Ali Baba's (open on Sunday? Not sure) * Manora ([[http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=+46%C2%B031'10.87%22N+6%C2%B037'55.04%22E&ie=UTF8&ll=46.519821,6.631955&spn=0.001639,0.003648&t=h&z=18&iwloc=addr|Google Maps]] (open on Sunday) ===== Shopping ===== ... Need to expand this out ... * [[http://www.migros.ch/|Migros]] for groceries and many other home items. * [[http://www.coop.ch/|Coop]] for groceries and many other home items. * [[http://www.globus.ch/|Globus]] is a more upscale department store. * [[http://www.ikea.ch/|Ikea]]\\ There is an Ikea, in Aubonne, which can be reached by taking the train. However, note that you want to purchase a ticket to Allaman, rather than one of the Aubonne stops listed in the system. The store is just across the street from the Allaman station. The offer delivery, but it seems like that may take several weeks in general. They also offer on-site truck rental, but I think you may need to call in advance for that. It also means that you need to get whatever it is you bought up any flights of stairs yourself (or with someone your recruit) * [[http://www.amazon.co.ul/|Amazon.co.uk]] is good for English language reading material. * [[http://www.booksbooksbooks.ch/|Books Books Books]] is a small English language bookstore, but I found the prices simply weren't competitive with ordering from Amazon in the UK. Unfortunately, shipping possessions from the US is not always economical. I was under the assumption that you would not need to pay any customs fees on your own possessions, but I have in one instance needed to pay a fee. Unfortunately, my French is not yet good enough and the English of the employees at the EPFL post office is not good enough for me to determine just why they charge me in some cases and not in others. In the end it seems fairly random.