I have moved here to Zurich as an American. In most of my travels, I was able to enter pretty easily. I would flash my fancy American passport and be on my way, my passport one stamp heavier. When going through the visa process to move here, it came down to the wire. Every day I was more and more nervous, but finally, the visa came through a week before we flew out. In the Swiss consulate of Chicago, Tony and I spent a couple hours filling out paperwork, answering questions, and paying fees. When it came time to turn everything in, they looked through my paperwork with a fine tooth comb. They then took one look at Tony’s Polish passport and said, “Oh, you just show up.”
Hmmm…that easy, eh? Upon arrival to Zurich, we had no issues. Everything was super simple. Even getting registered with the local Kreisburo was easy peasy. The woman said to us, “Well, since your husband is Polish, I will register you under him. It will make things easier.” We sighed with relief – how great! Good thing Tony had EU status. This move would be a breeze.
Unfortunately this was the beginning of our troubles.
First, it started with the letters. Lots and lots of letters mailed to us in German. Tony spent plenty of time using Google translate and came to the conclusion that they were looking for our marriage certificate. So Tony went down to the immigration office with a copy from the Skokie courthouse. The lovely people thanked him and sent him on his way. A week letter, more letters came. When Tony translated them, he saw they were asking for a Polish marriage certificate. “Um, we weren’t married in Poland,” I said, stating the obvious. Tony rolled his eyes and headed back to immigration to get everything straightened out.
Now at this point, we had been in the country about 4-5 weeks and still hadn’t received our permanent residence cards. This is something I as an American need in order to stay in Switzerland. My entry visa is only good for 3 months. Yikes.
Round 2 at the immigration office found that they in fact did need a copy of a Polish marriage certificate. I was confused why they needed this information. I had a visa to work and Tony was my spouse who didn’t need a visa because he was EU and Switzerland has certain treaties and agreements with the EU. Right? What am I missing? Well after some investigating, turns out that we have to be all or nothing. We are either both American or both Polish. And to top it off, it would actually be easier and more beneficial for both me and my working internationally to be “Polish” vs being on my American work visa. *Sigh.* Freedom really does cost a buck o’ five, or more like a few hundred given all the stupid fees and documents.
So that brings us to today – about 7 weeks in and still no residence cards. Luckily Tony’s dad was kind enough to not only translate our wedding certificate but also get an official seal on it. It arrived on Tuesday and Tony headed down to Bern where the Polish consulate is to turn our stuff in. Now the marriage cert on its way to Warsaw to make us “legit” by Polish standards and then we should be able to get our residence cards. Phew. Freedom sure isn’t free – I just can’t wait until tax time comes around. And I guess I will now have to change the name of this blog from a Swiss Missus to a Polish Missus. Hey, at least I will now be part of the majority population in Chicago. Bardzo dobre!
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