Hello,

Apologies if this is a repeat question, but I tried searching and couldnt find what I was looking for...so here is my story & my question

I arrived in Zurich last week from Ireland (EU citizen, irish passport), I have a signed permanent contract from my employer. I met with HR at the beginning of the week who advised me to apply to the Kreisburo for my permit and then to go to a bank with my temporary permit and open an account there (so that the employer could pay me my salary). I am staying in a hotel at present and looking for accommodation (both temporary & longer term on the off chance I get lucky).

The Kreisburo eventually agreed to submit my application with my employers address listed because I do not have an address yet (staying in hotel). They said my application could take from 2 weeks to 2 months to process, and that they would contact my employer when I had to go in to collect the permit. They also advised if I got an address in the meantime to come to the office & let them know asap. When I said I needed a temporary permit to open a bank account they gave me a letter confirming that my application was submitted with my work address and that the application was "pending" (in german).

I then went to the bank to try open an account - and they would not accept the letter, they said I must have a permit & I must have a permanent address, that my employers address will not do.

It seems like a vicious circle to me, because when I went looking for temporary accommodation yesterday, I was told by an agency "go away and come back when you have a bank account".

So my question is :
1. do I need a permit & bank account for temporary accommodation?

I wanted to ask here first before going to more agencies and being made to feel like a total undesirable again...

Cheers,
Claire

I've heard of a lot of this sort of problem. I got a bit lucky, because UBS was the first bank I tried, and they don't require a work permit (I've been quite happy with them, by the way). However, I had something akin to a permanent address (well, a shared flat that I was staying in for a month!), so I can't tell you if you need a permanent address, just not a work permit...

As far as temporary accommodation goes, though, I can't really imagine that you need a local bank account for it. After all, a lot of people come here on short-term pleasure or business trips. That agency's response seems very odd to me!

Good luck, wish I could have been more help!

Lance

Swiss Star in Kloten or City Apartments will take you with neither permit nor account.

Some bank branches are better than others: UBS at Glattbrugg, CS at Uetlihof.
They are used to foreigners wandering in.

UBS at Glattbrugg took my temporary address at Swiss Star.
But if you work for UBS then you should have a staff account.. but Swiss Star will count as a permie address for them (and for the Gemeinde/Kreisbüro)

Have to agree with the other posters . I was of no fixed abode for my first month here, pretty much dossing at various colleagues places & back to UK at weekends.
UBS accepted my UK passport & my AHV Card (which had been pre-registered by my company) & asked that I bring my B Ausweis as soon as I was registered.
This was in Alstetten (ZU), lovely girl (Italian) who speaks perfect English.
The only hitch, if you can call it that was that I had 500chf frozen for the first six months of the account.

Thanks to everybody!! I'll try Swiss Star and City so.... Cheers, Claire

We are staying in Swiss Star in Kloten. The first day we arrived, went to UBS here and there were no problems opening a bank account. Local council is just next door - very convenient.

The only problem have now - we can't get out of the temporary accommodation until we have a permit. We were the only candidate to get the flat and were refused only because we have no permanent address here How can we get one with 50 or more applicants???

So yes, don't worry, problems never end here