Hahaha I think I am young enough to not have used a payphone since forever, it didnt crossed my mind, really, I was thinking more of buying a cellphone!

Many reason, but the main reason is that I read an au-pair must work maximum 25-30h a week, I do much more. In her emails she told me when she get home she would take care of her children, that was no true. I though I was going to have all afternoons to visit SW or meet new people, now I have to ask her if I could have my Friday evening free to "take a walk" (go to RAV)
She told me I am expected to clean bathrooms and windows, I am sorry that is NOT light-housework, that is a maid (also from other many things I do I vacuum all the house, but I am semi OK with that)
And she was not going to pay for my German course although she is obligated to do so.
Yeah I did not ask many questions because I wanted to come here as fast as I could and I could not afford a language course plus living around here.

No. FIRST you go to the commune and register. Have you done this yet? You will need to give the family's address. If you don't want to "get them in trouble" you just say you are living with them temporarily. If you don't register you will get ZERO help, not even from the RAV. That is the first thing they will ask you to do. So, go do it.

BUT, I would suggest that you and the family get this all worked out legally.

Ok, well, now you are here. So, like I said above, do the job you committed to until you find another one. That's what grown ups do. If the family does not want to pay for your German classes even it if is their obligation, then you need to ask the RAV to send you on classes. Just be warned though that they will probably give you day classes which will mean that you can't really take care of the kids. That means your family should better pay for night classes for you.

To be honest, I agree with others that say you should probably go to the French or Italian speaking parts of the country. You'll have an easier time learning French or Italian. You're really in a bad place where you are. If you leave that house you will end up in a homeless shelter which is not pretty. You didn't think they would put you up in a 4 star hotel, right?

Your other options are to find a family that play by the rules or head back to Spain until you have a better plan. You will run through your savings before you get any cash help from the gov't.

No German, no work... the same boat I was in when I came here from Canada in November. I speak French but it doesn't help if you are in the German area.

My wife is a Swiss citizen and she moved here a few months before I did. And the paperwork and costs to get here and get settled were tremendous, even for a citizen.

The paper work to get me here was ridiculous too (no real complaints, we expected this).

Two months later (today) i had an interview with Ikea for a warehouse job. I had to speak German the whole interview (very choppy) but in two months time, I worked to understand enough to get to this point. They will tell me next week if I get the job. I also made a friend at the local squash courts who put me in touch with a landscaping company. I work outside digging mud... one guy speaks only german, the other guy knows a bit of English. My boss felt bad as I am 32 digging holes with two degrees (Engineering and Education)

I plan on taking a German course but for the moment, I have three books to learn German from and that's it. Everyone speaks Swiss German around me so despite being here, one can't learn as fast as one thinks.

Our backup plan (as we saved only enough money to live here for a few months without jobs) was to leave.

Advice to my spanish friend from my story as I believe this is the only way anyone can survive in Switzerland. Follow those steps. Others are free to add ones I am missing.

Step 1) Before you show up, make sure you have money for a few months to get through learning basic German.

Step 2) Learn basic German as I have (to do a 'shit' job). Run out of money before this happens, go to Step 5.

Step 3) Meet people if you are a people person... anywhere you go in the world it's the same old story... "someone I know got me this job". Run out of money before this happens, go to Step 5.

Step 4) Keep applying to jobs as your German gets better. Run out of money before this happens, go to step 5.

Step 5) Go back home and make more money, start at step one

No country wants people to show up and burden its economy. This is why myself and my wife had a bail out plan... go back home to Canada.

One last thing... enough money includes the mandatory health care, the mandatory apartment insurance, the mandatory personal liability insurance, the mandatory billag, and any costs required in getting paperwork pushed though. Between the two of us, I think we brought almost $20,000CDN here. We're running out.

Mother tongue English - very tough to get a job.

Add knowledgeable in French - very tough to get a job.

Add basic German - very tough to get a job.

Knowing Spanish and some choppy English when there are others who have English as a mother tongue and similar credentials as above - nearly impossible.

Sorry to be a downer but having been here for two months, I already have a good understanding on how it works (as most of you do).
Quinn

PS. IKEA is hiring :-)

Great, thank you for your point of view, I still believe my English is not as bad as you say; anyway, to summarize:
I am going to Germany, to another family.
Lets see if I can improve my German in 9 months. I will come back, with German, some money, I will register, I will go to the RAV, I will do interviews, I will get help from the gov. if I run out of money.

So you don't want to search for a job when you will be back here and you want to the Gov. money...
Anyway, I wish you good luck!

You said that, I did not.

Well, isn't that fantastic for you?

He still need to prove it with the rent contract, I dont think he has a valid reason to ask the family for it


Yes, all of the above mentioned but please dont forget the mos important one: Be honest to yourself and others when you ask for a job, specially if you are working with kids. Its not the same to leave an aupair job than a corporate one, of course any job should take seriously, but a corporation will go on and kids sometimes dont take separation so good.

He does not need to provide a "rent contract" if he is living with family or friends. A letter will suffice. And anyway I think he should go try it first and see what they say.

And um, the valid reason is that he is legally obliged to register in the country. Please don't tell me you really think the family doesn't know that.

Sorry, you came off like you were in some dire straights and needed help from the government. I didn't know you could afford so easily a cell. Of which, you would again need proof of residency to get one. But since you aren't registered...
I used the payphone when I didn't have the money. I suppose your idea of basic human necessities are higher then mine...I mean if the government will support you to live, spare no expense.

Why the groan, el_nota? I gave you useful advice, and the comment above was intended for KF, not you.

I also wanted to write about this but I didn't want to look like I am the black sheep on this thread.
He doesn't need a cell anymore as he is going to Germany and maybe his new host family will give him one.

You have to consider that the Spanish have the "help from government" embedded in their DNA, so be more understanding with el_nota.

It's his strong command for English, that obviously allowed him to understand something in what you said, that was not actually there.

What you wrote some would view as humor...those more educated might view it, as, well, I have no idea.

A letter from who?
um, em, am,
My ex husband is swiss and when we came back from mexico we could not register in the gemainde because...wait for it... we did not have a rent contract. We were staying at his mom and we had to show not only her rent contract, but a letter from the verwaltung saying that they agree we are staying there, I've also heard when you stay more than 3 months they even need to write another page to the contract stating the name of the people living there. This is switzerland, everything is controled. Everytime a family member visits me I have to let my verwaltung know someone is staying with me for more than 1 month.

Im not saying he should not register, I actually have tell him before that he should. The point was just to let him know they will ask him for a rent contract or proof that he is in fact living in switzerland.

I think had he come over with a normal Au Pair agency all of that would have been settled already by the agency. When you work under the table you open yourself up for all these weird kind of situations normal folks do not encounter.
His best future move should be talking to the Swiss Embassy or Consulate nearest to where he will be next, in Germany or Spain, about registering.
Just coming over to a country, even if by birthright he has the the right to be here, without out notifying anyone nor looking into the proper steps ahead of time is naive.

You know, as someone who is trying to immigrate to Switzerland myself, I always root for for everybody to fulfill their dream of making it to Switzerland also, within legal parameters of course.

I had the strangest feeling reading this thread, because this is the first time I'm actually rooting *against* a total stranger making it to CH.

El Nota, I hope you run out of money so that you can't make it to Switzerland to sponge off the Swiss government.

You freely admit that you don't want to work and just want to get "free money" from the CH taxpayer, when there are deserving Swiss citizens who genuinely need the assistance. It is people like you that game the system that make it harder for society -- you are completely despicable.

Thanks quinn, nice real post in there, it's been exactly like that to me too, I mean improving the language, getting a job through a friend who knows a friend...

However... Billag? You can do without TV! no billag for me, and all those insurances? not really mandatory I think (except for the flat), I mean, it's nice to have them but if you don't have money... as for the health insurance, here's a tip for my spanish friend: As in most EU countries, you can get a spanish social-security sponsored EU-health card that fully covers you in case of having an accident or whatever around the EU and it's totally free... CH is not in the EU yet it does accept the agreement, so you basically can get the expensive health insurance for free in here, you just need to present the card to the commune authorities when they ask for it and that's it, in my case I am free from that burden until 2014 which is when the card expires, it doesn't really matter whether you've paid taxes in Spain or not as one of your parents can cover you (he or she does have to work, though), and basically you have the fantastic coverage of the spanish state behind you.

um, the family he is living with.

Oh, well thanks for your story. We just registered not long ago and, wait for it, no one asked us for any proof of where we are living. Always best to talk to your commune first.

Anyway, it's irrelevant as it seems our friend has decided to leave and come back when he has German skills, a plan and some cash, which is not a bad idea.