Hello guys,

I am an Indian national. Started my PhD studies at EPFL since 1st Aug 2009. In a weeks time my professor told me that there is a course which will be held in germany and he would like me to attend it.
Now the situation is, I have a visa which is of type D and is single entry visa (Valid for Suisse)! I have not received my B permit yet but according to statistics, it seems I might get it in a month or so. While I was entering Switzerland, my passport was NOT stamped at the airport. No stamp whatsoever.
My questions are:
1) Since Switzerland is a Schengen country, will I be allowed to travel to germany on the visa that I have (I doubt because it clearly says "valid for suisse".
2) If I get a visa for Germany and I travel there to attend this course, do I need to apply for another visa to enter Switzerland again? I doubt this because my type D visa is still valid (till Oct.) and there is NO STAMP and hence no proof that I entered Switzerland on this visa before (at least on the passport).
3) Any other suggestions are welcome.
I want to attend this course but right now I am stuck with these questions.

Thanks,
- M

since you are short of time, simplest thing would be to go to Migrationsamt at Berninaplatz and ask them.
take tram 10, 14 from Oerliokon towards HB side, 2 min from Oerlikon
be there before 8 am or 1.30 pm to avoid queue
IMO, you need to take a schengen visa but I could be wrong, Once you have your permit, there are no issues

I think the best option is to go to your secretary and ask her to talk to human resource deptt at the EPFL, and explain the situation. They could possibly put your permit application on fast track (e.g. there is one person in HR that is deputed from canton de vaud and takes care of administration related aspects).

If they can not, for some reason, expedite your permit then you got to do following:

1) get a visa for germany. For this you will need a letter from canton stating that they are processing your permit application + letter from HR EPFL that you need to travel for the course. Usually if you are armed with these documents, you could obtain visa within a week's time.

2) get the return to swiss visa stamped from Lausanne. If you have 1) above then canton could grant you one more entry into swiss. This could be done within 1 day as they have all your documents.

explain the situation to someone at your dept or at the human resources as they would be able to guide you better

Be careful: the fast track is also the expensive track! Somebody helpful called for me the Immigration office, instead of 30-something CHF I ended up paying almost 100 CHF for my Ausländerausweis. This didn't even require me agreeing to such procedure.

As Germany is a Schengen country and Switzerland now, as well, you should not have any problems whatsoever to travel back and forth, an identity card is now enough - you dont even require to bring your passport with you. I would take it with me anyway, just to play safe, and also give the immigration office a call in advance, but don't worry too much.

Not necessarily, all they need to do is to ensure that "normal" processing takes "normal" time e.g. 4-6 weeks instead of 12 weeks +.

Also, when you come on the student visa then a lot of paper work for your "dossier" is already done e.g. it is used as the basis for granting you the entry visa to start with.