Tuesday, July 25, 2017

When the Visas show up - it is time to go

We have received our passports with our visas back from the US Embassy.  It was the final piece of the puzzle to gain permission to leave the United States and live in Switzerland.

Once we arrive in Switzerland, we will have 14 days to go to our local Canton and be issued a Residency Permit.  This will allow us to stay for a year.  Each year we will have to renew our B permit (this is what we qualify for) for the entire time we live in Switzerland.  I hope they send out notices.....in English....to remind us to do that......hmmmm

Things are getting real very quickly around here.  We finished packing our temperature controlled storage unit (we are not taking many of our things since we will be in Apartment life over there).  We have started making our piles of what is going into the suitcases and what is going into air freight.  We won't be receiving our air freight for 12-15 business days (almost 3 weeks) and school starts in 1 week after we arrive, so we need to chose carefully what we will need right away.  Not as easy as I thought it would be.

Less than two weeks to go now, and I still feel like we have a very long list of items to do.  All of our help has gone home, so it is up to the five of us to bring this list across the finish line.

Thursday, July 20, 2017

Packing and Painting, Moving and Grooving

We are T-minus 2 1/2 weeks until we move to Basel.  We are busy getting our house ready to rent, painting and cleaning, and widdling down the large amount of belongings to 1/4 of what we own.

We have received our address in Basel - we are staying in corporate housing for about the first 6 months we live there,  We are grateful to have that housing so that we can find the best place for our family to live.

The corporate apartment is extremely nice.  Large, by Switzerland standards at 1500 square feet.  It is fully furnished and has everything we need besides our clothes and toiletries.   Our belongings will be put in storage that we don't need right away, and will be delivered to us once we pick our permanent house.  I was a little worried about it at first, but as we are packing up, I realized it will be fine.  It will be kind of nice to not have to unpack while we are getting the kids settled into their new schools.

In between getting our household ready to go, we have been signing thousands of papers - for school, for work, for visas, for moving, for the pets....moving to another country is much more involved than moving to another state.  Right now we are waiting for our visas to come to us from the US Embassy.  We had to send them our passports and back they will come with our visas.  I think that will be the moment it becomes real.

Time is moving so fast.  As I get ready to paint the last room in our house tomorrow, and we wrap up the final packing, I realize we are at the point of no return.  Regrets?  None.