i am a high school student living abroad and aiming to go to EPFL in lausanne

but i don't get my acceptance letter until 1st August.

but i was wondering, when do i need to apply for the student Visa??

how is it done??

you'll probably need your acceptance letter to get a permit. Otherwise you're wasting time, stamps and effort

I memorize my nephew having a similar problem. I believe he applied before he got the letter but yet the embassy didn't start the procedure until the letter was with them. I'll ask him if I speak to him next.

Hi All,

This is a lovely forum where one can get to know so much of information and help on specific topics & problems.

About me:
I am an Indian, working for 2 years after my B.Tech. studies. I have got an admission in ETHZ for MSc in Computer Science. ETH has offered me a tuition fee waiver and scholarship of around 3800 CHF for first year (total duration 1.5 years)

Another fellow country man is also going to join and we faced the following issue:

The checklist provided by ETHZ says that we must show personal funds to cover the cost of education in Switzerland, in a bank which has a branch in Switzerland (http://www.study.ethz.ch/immigration...dure_with_visa). Consulate in Delhi a call said that there is no such need and even finances of parents can be shown.

But for confirmation sake I wrote to ETHZ and here is what they replied with:

...Maybe it is good to know that the decision about your visa is made by the Migration office in Zurich, not by the embassy, and the Migration office checked our guidelines, so this is really exactly what they need in order to issue your visa (even if the embassy tells your someting else...)...

Now the confusion is very intense. This would mean I will have to open a new bank account and transfer lakhs of funds and FDs into it. Can anyone please clarify? Did any of the seniors did this? One of them already had a swiss account and he simply showed the requisite 18000 CHF in it. Can other please clarify?

Both are correct, so your confusion is probably about to be even more intense.

The actual rules state that you must show the personal fund availability but if you contact the migration office and ask that a parents funds are considered instead then they may accept that. They may ask that funds are deposited in a Swiss bank account but it is possible that this account is not yours. Generally, with students, the migration office is fairly reasonable.