It worths trying

Ibo, the fact that anyone is willing to PAY you to study in Zurich is amazing!

If, for example, this is because you have a special skill or quality, or are just the right genius for a specific project of which your studies will be a part.... perhaps there might be room for negotiation. For example, could you perhaps ask if your new department might have a budget to pay for your travel pass (as piniocchio says)? They might say "no", but if you know, for certain, that they really, really want you, and if you have their offer of the CHF 3500 in writing, it probably would not harm you to ask.

Swiss Government Excellence Scholarships for Foreign Scholars .
I am researcher..
I will be paid by them as 3500..that s all..I am going to be in ZH uni.

do you have a PhD? Are you going to be a postdoc?

yes postdoc..

I guess it really depends on what your lifestyle is at the moment, make no mistake it will be a struggle for a family to live on that, you'll not be eating out (not even mcdonalds) you'll have to be shopping around for the best deals on food, you wont be buying clothes here, its going to be tough, and you'll be too far (and cost too much anyway) to get yourself over to france or germany for cheaper shopping.

I wouldn't do it, kudos to you if you decide to

As a postdoc, then it is not as much as you would get normally.

Postdocs get at ETH 85750 gross. Minus around 15% taxes. From the rest, you will have to pay the health insurance, etc.

http://www.admin.ch/opc/de/classifie...220.113.11.pdf

(go to the end of the document)

I do not know anything about this fellowship, but I find it weird that as a postdoc they pay so little.

So, we should forget skiing . Because me and my wife are ski fans, my 8-year-old boy is snowboard fan..

Sure, you could go skiing, you would just have to forgo food for a week.

you right Murphy

3,5k? That's more or less salary of shop assistant in coop, not postdoc...

LOL no chance, no chance at all, even if you turned up after mid day* at the cheapest resort, its going to cost you over 100chf for 3 ski lift passes, and that's if you have all your own gear, hiring stuff is silly expensive, plus train etc

* some of the less popular resorts give discounts the later you get there

it's not likely your wife and child will be given permits to join you. That is too little money for a family of three. You would qualify for subsidies at that salary. Therefore immigrations would consider that you can not afford to support them.

Is there any possibility to get a supplement from your future PI?

Also, as a postdoc, maybe this new place is THE place in your discipline so it will open many doors in the future.

You right Morphy..I am going to try all the possibility for this purpose..

Well i know plenty of phd. Students with 60% or 80%workload living in Zurich with an unemployed wife and kid to support. So I thinkthey are in the same income-outcome situation as the OP. I haven’t asked themhow they budget their lives but they seem to be manageable.

And I got to know them mostly at some social activities: skiing,dinnering outside, etc. so their lives are not so miserable that they cannot affordanything except basic food and cloth.

Of course they are not living in a luxury style, and mostof the time they do pay more attention on the cost of everything. For instance,when go skiing, they buy 2nd hand equipment from other colleagues and notwearing brand new Mammut skijackets. If the group decides to go to a reallyhigh-end restaurant, these students will very likely back off.

On the other hand, as a student you can enjoy lots of freeservices or discounts from many different aspects, for instance, cheap kindergarten/sportclub at university, discounted insurance, etc.

I guess for those who have some years of work experience,this kind of salary is hard to imagine. But many students understand that theirtarget at the moment is to gain knowledge for future career. The low standardlife will be over in a few years. After all, the payment for phd student in CHis really not bad compared to most of the other countries.

Yes, because non-EUs are not automatically entitled to bring family along on dependent permits. What miniMia says below most likely applies on that salary:

OP could possibly get help with the health insurance for himself, but if he needed it for family as well it is almost guaranteed they would be denied permits.

I think the authorities will take a close look at this contract and either deny a permit outright or tell Uni ZH to step up the pay to something more reasonable before they will consider it.

That's not a post doc salary let alone a PhD salary. You're getting shafted.

3500 CHFs will be very tight. We are a frugal family of 4, and I am currently a student working part time. We earn about 2900 CHFs per month, my parents are letting us live rent free while I study, which equals 1300CHFs, so we have a total of about 4200CHFs if you include rent. This is extremely tight, and some months we have to dip into our savings for big bills like medical, dentist, glasses, etc. There always seems to be something! We do not have much money for travelling, movies, theatre, or other attractions. My parents pay for the kids' hobbies. We do get help with our health insurance premiums from the government, but that only kicked in almost a year after we got here. We know it is temporary, and we have some savings, so we manage. For a year it can be done, but I would not take the chance on it if you have no savings.

He is not a PhD student, but a postdoc, so I am guessing he will not get those benefits.