I've registered with the local commune using a form they provided (a cantonal rapport de ariveé, I think) but I was never told to complete a Demande d'un titre de séjour (Application for a residence permit) by my HR department or by anyone at the contrôle des habitants.

Today when digging around on the morges.ch site, I saw a link to these forms on the cantonal site and it dawned on me that this might be the reason why I still don't have a residence permit and why PostFinance didn't accept my communal attestation de residence in lieu of a residence permit.

It's a miracle that I haven't been kicked out of the country yet. Every day I pray silently that my human resources department hasn't overlooked anything else regarding my living and working here. Just when I think I'm in the clear, something new pops-up.

This has become a lesson in how to unintentionally break a half dozen laws and turn moving to Switzerland into a six-month affair.

It's been a long time since I did mine, but I think you have to register first, then you're residence permit is done for you and a letter sent to your newly registered address telling you to come and pick it up.

What your company has done is unacceptable and I assume the HR department has very incompetent people working there. This, however, is not uncommon. I'm surprised to learn how many employers do not have a solid knowledge about procedures related to hiring foreigners, given the high percentage of foreign workforce in CH.

A friend of mine has recently found herself in a similar situation. Things escalated and she had to go to court to give a testimonial against her employer. She won the case and kept her job, while the employer had to pay over 4,000 chf in fines and pay all the legal expenses.

If I were you, I'd go to the HR people and make sure they took care of tax forms and registering you with AVS. Just to be on the safe side...

Femme, thanks for your reply. I'm not on Swiss payroll yet. I'm still being paid by our US division (from where I've transferred), though by working here I am no doubt incurring Swiss payroll taxes and don't know it yet.

HR was not ready to transfer me to local payroll until about a month after I [officially] entered CH with a visa. Why they suddenly decided now is a good time I cannot fathom.

The irony is that Postfinance won't open a bank account without my presenting a residence permit, so I've no method to accept local funds.

Richard, that is, indeed, ironic! I'm sorry about your situation. I just hope the authorities will process the paper work soon enough and you'll recieve your shiny laminated permit. Once you've got that, PostFinance or any other bank will be happy to greet you. Although PostFinance often has lower account management costs, I would advise to go with Credit Suisse or even UBS. The former has just revised their Maestro cards, making stronger magnetic chips. (As you might have already noticed, the way personnel at some stores handles your cards is often jaw-dropping, so I would advise to invest in cards with better chips, but that's a whole other topic. I'm getting carried away )

Femme, do you know if either of those banks are accepting US citizens? People say that they do but some more recent anecdotes suggest they do not. I went with Postfinance because to my knowledge they have never turned away a US person.

Replies relating to this issue ought to be best posted in this current thread - thanks for co-operating.

Back on the original topic, I have word that the Demande d'un titre de séjour was "submitted and lost," though I never saw nor did I sign a copy.

Regardless, I have another to submit now. How long do these typically take to process? Could I expect a permit within two weeks if everything else is in order?

(Sorry, jrspet, I'll answer this here just this once). Richard, the answer to your previous question is yes. Both banks accept US citizens (or at least used to last year). Regarding the last question - these things can take up to 3 months. Depending on the canton - some are slower than others.