Me and my Swiss boyfriend are moving to the UK. He is 31 and has roughly 50 days military service outstanding. He is going to call them and find out what the deal is, I just wondered if anyone knew? Is it easy to get out off and will he have to pay and how much?

Thanks

The amount that you will have to pay is based on your (husband's) yearly income. My partner paid about 3% of his yearly salary for the remaining 6 weeks of his military service - which worked out to about 2,500.
Ouch! And now that we've moved back to Zürich, he'll get a refund and have to serve his 6 weeks.

It's not that difficult to get out of, just expensive sometimes.
Any chance of negotiating with the army to allow him to do his time, or at least some more of it, before he leaves the country? That way he would be able to minimise the expense.

The rules are here:
http://www.amz.zh.ch/www/wehrpflicht...zjahr_2004.pdf

Apparently, no penalty for those above 30.

And here is the info concerning the "Auslandurlaub": http://www.vtg.admin.ch/internet/vtg...de/urlaub.html. There are some conditions to fulfill, so make sure you ask them directly. If you're moving for good and changing your "Wohnsitz", then there should be no problem in obtaining an Auslandurlaub. If you're planning to move only temporarily, this might not be your best choice (depending on circumstances): as long as the request is well motivated, you can repeatedly ask for a year's exemption -- this is what I did, four years in a row.