I have spent so much time on this subforum and have derived so much information from the vets (mostly Medea Fleecestealer) that I wanted to come back and outline how my whole permit process went including a timeline.

• 2010-2011 - My girlfriend and I live here for a year for praktikums.
• Jan 1 - Friend from CH returns to Canada for holidays, gets the thoughts flowing.
• Jan 16 - Girlfriend Erika (Dutch) starts to apply for jobs.
• Jan 29 - Erika travels to CH for third job interview.
• Feb 3 - Erika gets a job offer and accepts. I look into family reunification with common law... seems very unsuccessful.
• Feb 13 - Propose.
• Mar 22 - Get married privately.
• Mar 27 - Send an application to ETH. Knowing it will be hard for me to get a job until I have a permit in hand, I decide to apply to a MSc at ETH. The application for auslanders is in January and I did not have enough time to organize an application by then, but the early deadline is to ensure the applicant can be accepted and still have time to process a visa. I did not need a student visa and could apply immediately, so I appealed for the EU deadline to apply.
• Apr 3 - Get marriage certificate and send my application for D-visa by post from Calgary to Vancouver. Because Erika is Dutch and will have a B permit, I am also applying for B permit under family reunification.
• May 4 (4 weeks later) - We get an email from Erika's new company that I have received confirmation from the ZH Migrationsamt of my permit. This was not sent to me at all, only directly to the employer. The actual letter was postmarked a week earlier, so the 3 week turnaround was much better than the 3 months i was expecting.
• May 9 - Wedding.
• May 22 - Rejected from ETH during Honeymoon (boo).
• June 8 - Erika goes to Switzerland.
• July 8 - No Consulate in Calgary. Flying out of Vancouver. Drive there. Drop off passport at Consulate for stamping. They phone me as I am driving away with a problem... Although the letter I got from ZH says clearly that I must enter the country before July 27, this was not an inclusive date as I expected. I expected that this superceded the normal 3 month tourism limit. My passport expires in 2.5 months. Uh-oh. I go to the passport office and they rip my passport apart saying its damaged... great. Now because its damaged and I was born in the US I need proof of citizenship which is back in Calgary. I delay my flight 2 weeks as I get new passport organised. The consulate tells me that I will need to reapply with new passport number. I email ZH migrationsamt. Erika tried to phone migrationsamt with no luck (they really don't like using the phone for visa stuff either locally or consulates). I plan to enter the country as a tourist in two weeks and try to pick up the visa in Germany/France or sort out directly with the migrationsamt as I have seen some have recently had luck with.
• July 21 - I am back in Vancouver spending time with my cousin the day before flight. Erika picks up mail at our new place (where she is not yet living) and shoots me off the letter. I get this at 1255 in vancouver. I am 3 blocks from the consulate. I translate it and realise that ZH has approved for them to put the visa in my new passport. I run over to the consulate but they close at 1300 and I am a minute too late. GUH! Why they thought they needed to send a hard copy letter that just said "pursuant to your email you sent on this date" is beyond me. They could have just sent a bloody attachment since it was literally a picture taken with Erika's phone and sent to me that I printed out and used as proof for the consulate.
• July 22 - I am at the consulate when they open. My flight is in 6 hours. Despite normally needing to process overnight, they get me my visa and I make my flight with my visa. I enter schengen in Iceland. The border agent is confused by the visa but trusts what I tell her because 'I have an Icelandic surname'. Home free!
• July 27 - Register and have info sent to migrationsamt.
• Aug 5 - Earliest appointment for Biometrics at migrationsamt.
• Aug 11 - Permit arrives in the mail less than a week later.
• Aug 12 - Start applying for jobs! That part will surely take a bit longer...

And breath. Congratulations and hats off to the forums Media Fleecestealer.
All the very best for the future. Quick question..do you usually have Vinarterta cake at Christmas?

I have a great aunt in Calgary and it was not just a xmas thing, it was an all the damn time thing. I never liked it, but then I at a potluck, a friend found out I was Icelandic and looked up vinatarta on the web and made it with no scandinavian background... definitely the most delicious vinatarten I had ever had.

You just made me smile.

Thanks Curran919 for the info and timeline. Will be very useful for others I'm sure.

Congratulations and yes, take a deep breath and relax. You're here now so enjoy it for a little while before tackling the next task (job hunting).