Hi Everyone

Came across this forum by pure chance. I currently live in the Republic of Ireland, with my partner Mark and our two children, Harrison aged 2 and Lorcan 4 months.

My Partner has just been offered a job for Merck Serono in Geneva, and whilst I'm pleased I'm terrified that I don't know anything about the way of life/cost of living/Health care/eduction etc.

At the moment I guess Mark will rent an apartment/room near his work and travel back to Ireland at the weekend as we would have to sell our current family home first here before we could all move over.

What are the advantages and disadvantages of living in Switzerland.

Any help or advice much appreciated.

Regards

Karen

On reading your post one bit of advise I would give is not to sell your family home in case things do not go according to plan. It does happen.

There are so many threads here for any other questions you have.

Geneva is a great place to live but most people initially rent a place

Hi

Thank you for the VERY quick reply. Can you recommend any estate agents/rental companies.

Regards

Karen

Hi there

I did a quick search through the forum for you and thought you might find these threads useful:

http://www.englishforum.ch/daily-life/22477-living-switzerland.html

http://www.englishforum.ch/daily-life/22477-living-switzerland.html

http://www.englishforum.ch/daily-life/10169-just-poll-how-do-you-feel-about-living-switzerland.html


Good Luck

www.immostreet.ch

www.homegate.ch

I can NOT recommend Livit. We had a huge fight about
my apartment being in "terrible" shape when I left.

The apartment was virtually spotless except for pigeons
leaving "trinkets" on the terrace. We cleaned it up many
times, but the pigeons always came back.

They wanted to take 5400 CHF because of pigeon poo.

DO NOT RENT FROM LIVIT!

Hey, the company should be able to help and advise on where to rent and perhaps fix you up with somewhere unto you find your feet. I think you need to get a feel for the place before you decide where you wanna stay long term. Perhaps take a trip over before hand for a break.

Aer lingus fly cheap from Belfast to Geneva, but i'm not sure what part of Ireland you're from

Goodluck

I totally agree livit are the worst.

We are with psp, and they are brilliant.

I would recomend you move here, i have 2 children here, and i think it is wonderful, it is so safe, and clean. Also i would try renting your house before selling it, that way if you do not like it then you still have your home to go back to, personally i love living in switzerland.

Hello

Just wanted to say hello- I live in Geneva and also have 2 children, about the same age as yours in fact. Yes its strange when you first move here but hopefully your husbands company will provide help in finding a place to live, thats usually the biggest headache, as you need to cope with being in a new city and finding somewhere to live where there arent many places available.

Weve been here 4 years now, and I had both children here. Personally I find it a great place to live with children, its a small, safe city thats easy to get around, beautiful surrounding contryside, quite a change after London and we are certainly planning on staying here for some time...! Its also very easy to get to loads of other places as well (france/italy etc) Plus there are a fair few english speakers here as well, if you are worried about using french!

btw a very good book is the know it all parents guide (or is it the know it all passport) cant remember exact name by Lisa Cireco, its full of extremely helpful info on all sorts of things from doctors-playgroups etc for parents/children in the geneva area

Anyway feel free to post any other questions!

S

Hello,

We recently went through what you are describing and although some of the unknowns can be a bit daunting, the payback in terms of living standards, quality of life etc are tremendous.

With the danger of sounding like an advert, my company paid for a relocation agent to help us with apartments, schools and general set up advice.

Although not the cheapest way forward, it provided the peace of mind we needed during the initial period here in Geneva.

If you need a contact name and address for them I will provide.

Paul

Its called the "Know It All Passport". New version out in August - but still available from the authors web site.

Hi Karen and Everybody,

I am also new in this forum and also in Switzerland. We moved here with my husband 3 weeks ago from Hungary. My husband was offered in Geneva a very good job and as Switzerland was always our dream-country there were no questions about moving
We received many help from my husband's company, they arranged all the paperwork (B permit, renting an appartment, insurance etc.) and support us where they can.

I can check which estate angency helped us finding an appartment if you wish, the lady was really kind and perfect. Before 2 months of moving into Switzerland we came here for 4 days to find the right appartment and have a little sightseeing around Geneva and Lac Léman. The lady from this agency showed us more flats in Geneva and in the canton and we managed to find a beautiful appartment on the second day in Vaud canton, Prangins, not far from Geneva (25km). Until this time I can tell only positive things about the way of live and the people here.

At this moment I don't work but I would like to, I'll see the possibilities.
I found this forum when I looked for belly dance on the internet, so I switch now to another topic of this forum

Have a nice day!
Ildiko

Hi Karen
I would imagine it would be crazy to even think of selling up in Ireland before giving yourself a lot of time here to see if you like it. It depends what you want and what you are looking for, especially for your children. Sure it is beautiful, but so is Ireland. There are a lot of things you may take for granted now, that you will only miss when you are here for a while. And I'm not talking about a decent cup of tea!!! Some people take to the changes, some don't, some can only see the advantages, or have a lot of luck meeting people they can get on with and so, find it easier.
Those are things you can only learn for yourself but would require living here not just visiting, and even then can vary hugely from place to place within the country. But you can find loads of information here on the forum, as well as as many different reactions as there are different types of people! Good Luck!