Unbelievable, but true: after realizing the 12 months exchange period had elapsed on my Portuguese license, I rushed down to Strasseverkehrsamt to get my new CH license. The very friendly staff told me (in perfect English) that I still needed an eye exam to accompany the form, and that I could get one at Sihl City nearby. The next day I went back with my completed form, and the friendly girl helped me fill the rest of the form (all in German - I still don't speak it), and then told me that I'd have to wait about a week for the new license. Since the initial 12 months period had passed, I wouldn't get a temporary license, and that I shouldn't drive in CH until the new one arrived. Well, you can imagine my surprise when, THE VERY NEXT DAY, I received my new license in the mail by morning post!!! Didn't even have to pay anything on the spot, and the 120 CHF bill has not arrived yet!!

Forget Swiss bureaucracy! This was the swiftest piece of admin work I've ever seen in my life! Although I had a Portuguese license, I am also Canadian and lived there most of my childhood. Even there, I have never seen an important document get prepared so quickly (except an emergency passport, of course!)

Has anyone also had a similar experience to this?? I'm still baffled by it all and will never complain again about red tape in CH!

Actually, yay for Swiss Bureaucracy

I too went to the Strasseverkehrsamt in Zurich a few years ago to switch from the old (large format) paper document style of license to the new modern credit card sized version, mine arrived in the mail the next day as well

yup me too, m wifes dl took one day .. and mine two days once id completed medical checks..

Here at the Basel MKF I got my credit card licence on the spot, and they even updated it with my new Scooter accreditation

I had left Lausanne in 1988 to go to Geneva so I had to change my license to a Geneva one. Then we left for Canada in 1995. When we came back to Lausanne in 2004 we took in our Canadian licenses for exchange and the lady said "oh you are in our system already so you get a discount on the price". I almost fell on the floor. They had the records going back to 1988 in the computer! A very nice surprise.

Same thing as some of you. We got the new licenses on the spot. Payed at the cash desk and were on our way.

Yep, mine arrived in a day or two as well!

Mine did too!!

Sorted both of ours out in less than an hour, swift polite and no hassle.

Kanton SG - Didn't even have to go - just sent my Uk license in the post, got a Swiss one by return.

Luzern - Mine was done super quick too, did it all by post from a form I got from the internet, got a phone call because I'd ticked a wrong box somewhere, which was quickly resolved.

BTW, if you have a UK license, I think it's work going for the doctors exam and keep all the extra driving categories. Cost me 50CHF for the exam which consisted of a blood pressure test, a balance test and a very primitve hearing test.

I did the vision and hearing test when I converted mine and it took me all my self control not to laugh out loud when the optician went out of my field of vision and whispered something from the other side of the room to see if I could hear it.

Or having to say Now! to demonstrate when the biro she was moving around the side of your head came in or out of sight. Wow! Hi tech.

I sometimes wonder why the road traffic departments stand out so positively in this public transport obsessed country!

The visual test I had was reliable, for hearing the finding was that "the conversation we just had proves that your hearing is good enough!"