My wife and I have decided to stay in Switzerland and are moving to Vaud soon. I'm in the process of filing for Chomage but we have a son in the picture and have heard rumors that we will be FORCED to have him in a Creche five days a week if I'm on Chomage.

I understand the principal behind this, however from what we hear, Creche's usually have waiting lists and are expensive (especially for five days a week). Can anyone shed some light on this topic, as this may be a big issue for us.

Thanks in advance!

Not a good time to move Cantons if you are about to claim chomage- not sure about the details, but make sure you know that this won't affect your claim. Somebody will probably be able to confirm this, or not, asap.
You need to be available for work, and take up any (vaguely) suitable post offered to claim chomage- so one of you needs to be there to look after your little one. If your wife does not work and is not claiming chomage, then that is fine.

Edit. From the Vaud official site:

Arrivée d'un autre canton

Le motif principal est de permettre l'installation du lieu de résidence principal dans le canton de Vaud lorsqu'il y a provenance d'un autre canton suisse


La demande de changement de canton est réglée en application des articles 37, 62 et 63 de la Loi fédérale du 16 décembre 2005 sur les étrangers (LEtr). L’étranger qui souhaite déplacer son lieu de résidence, en provenance d'un autre canton, sur le canton de Vaud doit préalablement solliciter l'autorisation du Service de la population.
Le titulaire d'une autorisation d'établissement (permis C) a droit au changement de canton s'il n'existe aucun motif de révocation de son autorisation au sens de l'article 63 LEtr (dépendance durable et dans une large mesure de l'aide sociale, atteinte grave à la sécurité et l'ordre publics, etc).
Le titulaire d'une autorisation de séjour (permis B) a droit au changement de canton s'il n'est pas au chômage et s'il n'existe aucun motif de révocation de son autorisation au sens de l'article 62 LEtr (dépendance de l'aide sociale, atteinte grave à la sécurité et l'ordre publics, condamnation à une longue peine privative de liberté, constatation de fausses déclarations ou dissimulation de faits essentiels, etc).
Le titulaire d'une autorisation de courte durée (permis L) ne dispose pas d'un droit à changer de canton.

Which type of permit do you have? If you have a B, you cannot move Canton to Vaud if you are unemployed. So be VERY careful.

My wife and I both have B-Permits and we live in Valais. Is there a similar website with the same information for Valais?

I am sure there is but it is irrelevant here as you want to move to VAud. But my link is about B permit holders NOT being allowed to move into VAud if receiving un-employment benefits. I haven't got actual info to confirm this, but I think that you cannot claim unemployment in Valais anyway, if you move Canton (which you can't do anyway, as per link I gave).

I am so sorry about this, but it seems Vaud will NOT allow you to move there in the circumstances- and it might well (almost sure) stop your benefits if you did (if you could). I take no joy in giving you such news, I can assure you, but you need to be aware of the facts. Sincerely, bonne chance.

I contacted the Office de Travail in Vaud today and they informed me that there is no problem with moving into the Canton of Vaud whilst I'm on Chomage. My wife later called the Chomage office directly here in Valais as well and they explained there is no trouble with that either - so that's quite the relief for us. You do however, have to re-register for Chomage when changing Cantons. Thank you so much for your information, I wouldn't have called them otherwise and that could have been very bad if it were the case.

In regards to my other question, does anyone know whether there will be any issues with watching my son while on chomage? My wife will be working again at 100% and unfortunately with us moving, it's hard to even get on the waiting list for the Creche. We're trying to work it all out, but we're curious if I'm even allowed to have him once I start Chomage. Any light shed on this topic would be greatly appreciated!

You need to demonstrate that you you can take up any offer of work immediately, so either you have to have childcare already (crèche or nanny etc) or you have to prove that it's instantly available to you eg family living nearby who will take him, letter from a crèche saying they have places available whenever you want it, or a nanny agency who can sort someone out at short notice.

Really chomage is not the main issue here - if you are really looking for a job you need one of these options to be true anyway.

I was going to answer your question earlier but it was unclear if either of you were working.

If one of you is working you can move. If both of you are chomage you can not move.

There must be someone who is not on chomage taking care of the child. You must have childcare in place. If you were given a job right now, who would take care of your kid? Basically, you have to be ready to work immediately.

Yes, I totally understand that either of these options need to be true. But our problem is that my wife and I were planning on moving back to the US after I was let go, however plans changed. So we did not look into signing up for a Creche and/or a Nanny, and with us moving from one Canton to the other, it will be damn near impossible to get him into one immediately. So I'm curious as to whether they will penalize me or withdraw the Chomage completely until we do have an option for the little guy.

I have my first meeting with them tomorrow anyways, so I will just ask. I was just wondering if anyone had any similar experiences and knew off-hand how it works and how lenient they are.

The chomage people are the only ones that can tell you that. You'll have to discuss with them. I'm sure they will understand that you have things to deal with with your move. But you'll have to get it settled sooner rather than later.

Okay, that's what we figured. We'd hoped that they would be a bit understanding of the situation. Anyhow, thanks a lot for your help.