This is excellent news. This means probably your most stressful issue is solved - congratulations!

Ummm, loophole? We aren't talking about laws which supposedly stop US soldiers from torturing prisoners here - we are talking about Swiss laws, there usually are no loopholes.

Yes, I should have mentioned that, though it isn't usually the first piece of advice that springs to mind for prospective visitors, for obvious reasons. :-)

That said, it is the only way I know of apart from renting or borrowing someone else's car that you'll have a car while you are here. I subletted my apartment to an American guy (well, a Texan) last year, and this is exactly what he did. Basically you have to haul yourself to Germany and go collect it. You'll then be driving it around as a tourist in Switzerland, which you can do for up to 1 year. By the way, registering a car in Germany is also no simple matter, but if they handle it all for you...

European cars seem to be highly valued by people in the US, possibly because American cars are such rubbish (but then again, you guys can buy good Japanese cars quite cheaply too!), so this does seem to be a popular thing to do. I have a BMW 728i (2000 model) and I think it is the biggest pile of junk - the sooner I can sell it off the better! The M5 is also, well... I won't spoil for you :-)

Yeah I find it a little bit strange too, but after a while you get sick of talking about it.

Well some of us (me) didn't know what we were getting into, but we've been through the worst of it now, so we just sit around bitching about it on forums like this :-) Richard and I are both EU citizens, are white and hold C Permits. At the risk of bragging we live in good areas and have comfortable lives. But that doesn't mean I still get outraged by the fact that you are going to be stopped every single time at the border because you have dark skin (and because you'll be driving a fancy car - you must be a drug dealer in that case).

I'd really love for someone to tell me that it is immigrant friendly. I was also naturalised in a country that sees immigration as vital to its future, so I think I can say that I agree with your comments. In fact, immigration is a word I hardy hear. We often see graphs of "einburgern" (to become a citizen) but this is usually in a context of it being a bad thing, and too many foreigners are getting their hands on passports. In fact, a recent campaign by the right wing SVP showed a poster to discourage Swiss voters for voting for Schengen - it showed a cartoon of various hands reaching for a swiss passport and the caption "Schengen - Nein". All but 1 of the hands was black or dark. That should speak volumes.

Now I feel bad - I hope we aren't giving you the impression that you are going to be hunted down by the KKK - far from it. Naturally you'll meet many people who will treat you like an equal. It's just that every time you deal with officials, you won't feel that way. If you make the mistake of reading the racist hate materials that arrives in your letterbox from some of the political parties you'll also feel terrible. But don't let this cause you to have preconceived ideas about racist attitudes in Switzerland. The fact is that you'll only be here for 4 months, and you aren't trying to make this your home. This will affect the way you think about it. If you wanted to live the rest of your life here then you would probably be a little disappointed that you'll never be accepted. On the other hand if you become an American, you'll be an American, everybody will accept you as an American (as long as you support the troops!) and everyone will be happy. Just as every American isn't a gun -toting Bush supporter, not every Swiss has a problem with foreigners.

Mark