So, uh, hello everyone. I'm a university student from Canada headed for a 12-month internship in Baden starting this June. This forum keeps coming up when I google different questions, and has been quite helpful with some, so I thought it would be worthwhile to sign up.

Happy Easter, everyone!

Welcome to Baden. Hope you have a great time. Keep an eye out for the monthly Baden lunch. We generally have a pretty good time.

Will do, thanks! I just hope I can find an apartment before I fly out, lol.

Ahhhh, now that is truly a problem. Not an easy thing to do, especially from a distance. Most landlords won't let a place sight unseen. You might need someone locally to assist you.

Welcome to the forum aladrieth!

Since you're interning, will your company be any use with the housing search? If they're used to having expats work for them they might have all kinds of helpful services.

By the way, what's your field of study? I'm just being nosy, because I think it's pretty cool for a university student in Canada to have an internship in Switzerland.

Happy Easter!

My company has been trying to help, at least a bit. They've sent me a couple possible places over the last few months, but none of them were both affordable and pet friendly. The biggest help is that they've agreed to have someone visit any apartment I do find to make sure it's not yet another scam.

I'm an engineering student. I was quite surprised when I got the job to find that there's actually a whole little community of Canadian engineering students working for two other companies near Baden. Tried to get a place with one of them, but nobody wanted a cat

There are quite a number of students here from overseas, most working in the Baden region are with Alstom or ABB, and in the Brugg region for PSI. I fear just having someone from the company visit is not going to be enough. Someone who speaks the language has to look for you locally. Most companies who hire "praktikants" from overseas have already secured housing for them. Smaller companies often don't so this and in my experience they have no clue how difficult it is to find housing, short term and on a limited budget.

There are scams on every website, even the local ones though these are rare. As a pet owner I can understand not wanting to leave your cat behind for a year, and perhaps you have no options for where to leave him, but bringing your cat is going to make your housing search that much more complicated. Your company should have explained this to you.

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Oh, I knew that already. It's made things difficult for me a few times here in Canada already . But I don't have any other options, other than giving her up, which is definitely not happening. So, I'll just have to spend a lot of time searching the web once I'm done exams, and tell the girl who's been watching local ads for me to continue doing so.

Hello and welcome to the forum! Baden is a nice place to live, hope you'll find a place soon!

The local ads are primarily for unfurnished places and even then, most say no pets. I made a few inquiries.

I once helped a Praktikant who was joining a small company with his house search. The company had nothing for him, and didn't want to hire me to search on his behalf but they had no one with the time to do this either. I exhausted all my contacts and found him something, but it was really difficult. (and that was without a cat). Praktikants are not high on the list of preferred tenants. For him it all turned out well and he had a good experience here. I wonder if you are joining the same company

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Thanks, I really appreciate that! Obviously, it would be even better if you'd been successful, but the fact that you even tried is awesome.

I'm working with Creative Power Solutions. They have referred me to an apartment hunter, but she's quite expensive, and I'd have to pay out of my own pocket. They're also going to put an ad for me on the billboards at a few local stores, which might help with landlords who can't be bothered to advertise online. Fingers crossed. If only I could leave the cat behind!

Yup, same company. I am not violating any confidentiality here because my agreement was with the praktikant. You would think they would know better this time considering their experience with the last praktikant, also from Canada. I know they asked the company to pay me but they refused. Finding a place is not just about making phone calls, I viewed every place, took photos, sent a pdf to my client for each place, translated application forms, negotiated conditions, and finally the lease, all of which is very time consuming. I don't know what this other "apartment hunter" quoted you, so I cannot comment on what is expensive. At the very least there should be total cost transparency, and also, no success, no fee.

As I was hired on very short notice I worked under a lot of pressure to find a place. I can relate to the situation of the Praktikants, as they are nearly the same age as our kids. I would not want any of our kids to be facing a situation where they are taking a position in another country and have nowhere to live. I think employers have a responsibility to see to the housing for Praktikants they bring from overseas.

As for the cat, I totally understand why she comes with. Being an indoor cat will help I think.

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I certainly wish they'd hire someone for me! But, to be fair, I know the individual you speak of, and I'm pretty sure he was the first praktikant CPS had hired, so they didn't have any experience. When they first hired me, they actually provided me links to several available places; I could've had a place lined up back in November if it weren't for my gosh-darned furball.

It might be worthwhile asking personally if the landlord WILL accept animals.

The house we're in just now said 'no animals' on the advert, but when we actually asked if they would accept us AND Oscar (a cat) there was absolutely no problem, and we've all been very happy here.

Good luck with your move over and hopefully you've found something by now

Made it late Saturday night. There've been a few hiccups, and I'm still getting settled, but everything looks like it should work out quite well. Thanks for everyone's help and advice re: apartment hunting!

Hey! Welcome to the forums, fellow Canadian Engineer here. Iron rings unite!

What we're all dying to know is.... did you or didn't you bring your cat, and have you managed to find an apartment for BOTH of you.

Hope you settle in well....maybe meet you one of these sunny nights in the Biergarten?

I didn't bring the cat with me, but she is coming. She was supposed to come Tuesday, but the person who was supposed to drop her off at the airport got a bit confused, so her trip's been post-poned to Saturday. We are living in Wettingen, in an apartment with a nice old lady who likes cats.

I've seen signs mentioning a Biergarten. Where is it?

Hi, Welcome to Baden The Biergarten and Braueri are right behind the Langhaus which is across from the Baden Bahnhof.

Hope your cat arrives safely. At least you will have had a few days to get settled before she arrives.