I have the lovely task of driving to Switzerland this weekend. I was going to start early Saturday morning until I found out today that the customs at Basel shuts at 1pm (well at least the Hauptzollamtes does) and I have to show them some paperwork.

So I will be starting Friday evening and driving through the night and taking the French toll motorways for speed

does anyone know how much this will cost in Euros and what I should carry (ie cash, coins, credit cards)?

The first few trips I did through France and the tolls were about 100 Euros give a take - can't remember exactly. Better head from Calais to Brussels then to Luxembourg and south through Germany. No tolls and a nicer drive.

Fill up with petrol in Luxembourg as it's cheap and then in CH

Time is my issue, I know I'm going to get held up at Swiss Customs as I'm bringing in possessions without a residential/work permit or any address in CH as of yet so I think I'll have to get take the direct route to get to Basel for opening hours (apparently they may make me unload the van, weigh it, reload it, weigh it again and I have to pay a deposit based on weight, returnable when I have proof of address/permit)

Also I think will have to take the ugly route so that I only have 2 borders to cross as I have no idea if I need extra paperwork for the other borders.

nevertheless thanks for the help 100 euros is fine

the direct route to Basel used to cost £30.

How do you know you'll be held up? I came in many moons ago with a car full of belongings and no permit.

Yeah, that is a good question from Lob. Are you actively looking for Customs so as to declare stuff to them? Or do you just suspect that a vehicle such as yours will be pulled over at the border and given the rubber glove treatment? Will you be driving a van with eg Acme Removals emblazoned on the side, or a rental? There's other threads on here that talk about the virtues of using moving companies to bring in stuff...

indeed I've been tempted to merge the thread into here:
http://www.englishforum.ch/travel-da...iscussion.html
or here
http://www.englishforum.ch/apartment...old-goods.html
I found them using the rather excellent search function

The "longer" route I suggested is less than an hour longer. There are no borders appart from in the UK. I've driven through customs quite a few times now, mostly with a small van loaded to the rafters and have never been stopped. If you've got genuine personal belongings you've got little to worry about anyway.

Once you are on the Continent there are no longer borders - except to enter Switzerland. So don't worry about which route - except that the French Autoroutes with tolls are the fastest. Cash or CCs work. Costs will be higher if you are are in a van.

If the Swiss customs knock off at 1pm, you can still cross the border. (If you come in on the autobahn from Germany you will be sold a CHF40 vignette BTW). There will still be border guards there. They may ignore you, or ask what you are up to. If you say 'I'm moving to Switzerland and all my worldly good are in the back and here's a list of everything', they may take a look and wave you through, pull the lot out on the floor, or, as happened to me, they put a lead seal on the back door of the van and took CHF200 deposit and told me top report to the Duty-free Warehouse in Zurich for inspection, removal of seal and return of deposit. This will be open until Monday I'd say...

if you use the michelin (online) route planner, it tells you the cost of the tolls for the route you want to take and where the toll gates are.

In answer to the quoted snippet and other posters

My wife (Swiss) rang the Basel Customs office up and asked how we should do it, I'm just following the advice they gave her. In my opinion that makes more sense than just trying to either 'sneak through' and get other problems etc. etc. or go when they are not properly open. I need to be back in the UK to work my last day on Monday.

I am not using a company to move stuff because 4 years ago, when we moved in the other direction, it was grossly expensive, inefficient and took weeks to get our stuff. This solution works out to about a third of the price I paid even back then

in any case, thanks for the feedback everyone

you hardly therefore don't possess a Swiss permit nor address

yes and no

the stuff, believe it or not is going to be stored in an top secret alpine barn somewhere in the Hinterrhein region until we move into our own place 1/7/7.

if you mean the address of my wifes parents, then yes we have an address for registration purposes come next week.

I have no permit but that should be a formality, however the customs won't see it quite like that I guess as I won't have these or proof of these at the time I'm passing through. I believe I have to pay 50 CHF for every 100kg as I pass through, returnable on providing the above proofs.

OK I can tie this thread up with my story

1730 Left Redhill in Surrey bound for Switzerland, dad in company
2000 Ferry
2300 Calais
0400 Somewhere in France A4 I think, a 30 minute power nap
0530 Got lost according to my map24 printout but found a sign to Baal and ended up in Germany using the A5.
0800 Arrive at Basel Customs from the German border
1200 Leave Basel Customs
1300 Meet rest of family at Wuerenlos who flew in seperately, wife, 18 month old son, 4 month old son, my mother, wife's father
1500 Arrive at destination at a village in the Hinterrhein region

French tolls came to about 70 Euros each way

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I had all sorts of problems at Customs

yes, I had no proof of address, a job starting in the future, no work permit, not registering til Wednesday, no bank account etc etc, the only thing in my favour was that the wife and sons are Swiss (though they are also currently registered in the UK with the Swiss embassy until we register in CH on Wednesday)

German side took one quick look at the papers and immediately put their stamp on it, Swiss side told me, it's not enough, I must go to the 2nd, 3rd, 4th floors of the building and try to find a company to help me get a provisional clearance.

After more than 2 hours I finally found someone to help me, had to pay a deposit of 500 Euros in cash, some of which is returnable upon proof of address, permit application etc etc and she provided me with a provisional clearance, it was probably the worst 3-4 hours I've experienced in a long time, mentally tired from a long drive and having to talk what I would consider advanced German, which I haven't done for 5 years.


------------------------------------------

Enjoyed a couple of hours with the family and then slept for 12 hours

Sunday

0900 Left CH with parents in van.
1200 Got lost in Basel, wasn't sure whether to go with the cars or the lorries, anyway, drove through the lorry park and found some obscure unmanned border crossing with the barrier up, 2 french customs guys standing to the right looked bemused as I drove through but they didn't stop me (I think it was for lorries which were all parked up on Sunday, no cars were going this way)

2000 Calais
2300 Redhill, Surrey

Total mileage 1475 miles. (700 miles each way plus some)

Today returned van at 8am in time for the next customer ot pick it up, (this is why I couldn't risk a lead seal) , now doing last day at work in UK before flying out May 1. And it's not over yet, at some stage all the stuff will have to be moved to Zuerich.

In any case thanks to everyone for helping

chuk - nice post. What type of vehicle was it? And did you volunteer yourself to the border officers?

Luton Van like this one

http://www.whatvan.co.uk/roadtest.as...t&model=Master

I presented myself to the border officers on the way in, not on the way back (they made no attempt to stop me on the way out)

For info, this is the form I used at Customs

http://www.ezv.admin.ch/dienstleistu...061/index.html then follow the link 18.44 Übersiedlungsgut