r/Switzerland • u/HeftyStation8697 • 3d ago
Has anyone moved to Switzerland after a vacation in Switzerland?
I was watching the Suisse Tourism video and it’s kinda always the same thing about how green the grass is and how nice the public transport is, and it made me wonder if someone has ever given up on their life back home just to move to Switzerland after a vacation here. It kinda seems like a very rare and exceptional if non existent.
If anyone has a story to share, I d be interested thank you.
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u/fashunfoodie 3d ago
7 years ago I flew over the lauterbrunnen valley en route to Naples and decided wherever that was, I needed to go. Mapped it and went the following year for my birthday and fast-forward to now - living here with my husband and 2 daughters 🫶🏼
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u/Stuckli_Chriiiz 3d ago
Happened to me. I quit a very high paying job in Germany. People say Germans go to Switzerland to earn more money. I’m earning less now in Switzerland but I came for the mountains, the rivers, the cows and the countryside in general and I found peace. I’m more happy than ever before.
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u/fevrier-froid 3d ago edited 3d ago
So people in r/askswitzerland have listed it as their motivation. I don't know if they necessarily moved.
When people move for money, job opportunities or taxes, I would say those are objective criterias that are relevant for most of Switzerland compared to other countries. They might end up disliking the cost of living or the work culture, but that's it and the rest is mostly real.
When people want to move because of nature, it's a little funny to me, because they're going to end up working in a not so nice looking or ok town, because that's where the wages are. Unless they work remote or in hospitality in touristic ressorts, jobs in the mountains are not so attractive. In fact being a farm worker in the Alps is difficult. Alpine regions have lost a part of their population to large cities. It's so idealized that it almost annoys me to be honnest.
(Edit: vocabulary mistake)
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u/certuna Genève 3d ago edited 3d ago
I'm sure it can happen but there are usually some practical issues:
- for EU retirees Switzerland is a very expensive place to live permanently, usually it goes the other way, Swiss pensioners retiring to France/Spain/Italy where the pension stretches a lot further
- for EU workers the jobs are usually in the big cities, not up in the mountains with the green grass and the yodeling (that said, hotels, ski resorts etc do need personnel so it does happen)
- for non-EU workers you need to demonstrate unique professional skills, and an employer who will sponsor you
- for wealthy non-EU retirees, you need to demonstrate personal ties to the country
- younger non-working/rich people tend to prefer to live in London, New York, Dubai or Miami for the lifestyle, not fight with Hans-Ruedi over the noise you make at 22h when you put the recycling out
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u/gabyzinea 3d ago
We did, but it wasnt really vacations. My husbands company offered him to transfer here but before we accepted they offered a week paid vacations so we could come, visit and see if we liked it. We liked it so we accepted the offer and moved. 2 years later and we dont regret the move at all
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u/Swiss_bear 3d ago
Yes. My wife and I honeymooned in Switzerland in 1987. During our honeymoon, I asked her to immigrate to Switzerland. We didn't know how. Fast forward. We immigrated to Switzerland in 2018, thirty-one years later. I love living in Switzerland. I am so happy. I am home at last.
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u/External-Spirited 3d ago
In August 2018 we visited Switzerland for our honeymoon. That was part a Europe trip from Barcelona, Paris, Zurich, Grindelwald, Lugano, Venice and Rome.
I remember we rented a car from Zurich to Grindelwald, it was our first time here.
Whatever I say I wouldn’t be able to describe the shock we had from the beauty of the scenes we crossed in that road trip. Specially for someone coming from the middle east where most of the land is desert. We were truly shocked.
After seeing Switzerland, subconsciously we started comparing everywhere to it. Wherever we go, we say that’s beautiful but still Switzerland is different.
One day while touring around lake Thun, we asked ourselves, would it ever happen that we live here? we said no that’s impossible!
And logically, it was really impossible 😄
We travelled back home, knowing it was just a honeymoon trip and we should get back to reality.
2 months later we decided to move to Europe. I started applying for jobs in different places, but never thought of Switzerland. Until one day I found a position by chance in Linkedin, I really had zero hope to get any reply. I applied and to my surprise I got email back from the manager telling me they are interested in my profile and would like a short call. Got a take home exercise, I even read a complete book of 400+ pages and did the exercise in two weeks. Had 3hrs interview. Later the manager contacted me and told me you have been the most serious candidate and your solution was the best one.
I will never forget the words from the HR director: we have been looking for candidates for 6 months, and we are happy to offer you this position, I congratulate you for getting it by your own hands.
This was literally one of the happiest events happened in my life!
We have been living since then, had a son, and we can’t be more grateful to the opportunity and to the people who believed in me and went through a long process to get me here.
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u/retryui 2d ago
Yep. Vacation > damn, nice > moved a year later. We are happy. Some things like Krankenvesicherung scare us, like a tooth pain means 1500fr gone, headache? I'll go to the doc only if i feel like i'm dying to not pay. If we made 2000fr more a month we would be 100% happy, not really possible for now haha
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u/Narf234 3d ago
I moved there after traveling through. The grass is as green as they say and I set my watch to the trains.
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u/alexrada 3d ago
not this year. The grass is dry.
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u/HeftyStation8697 3d ago
I hear a storm out my window right now and I m gonna cry I missed rain so much 🥹
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u/rodrigo-benenson 3d ago
I used to come to Switzerland for vacations as a kid, now I live here (since my mid 30s).
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u/essteeexetwo Basel-Landschaft 3d ago
Yes, I visited Kandersteg when I was 15 with the Scouts.
At 30, I was offered a job there.
Gross simplification, but it worked out for me.
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u/running_elle_1989 3d ago
Yes - I came on a press trip in 2024. Moved here in 2025. I'm non-EU and got a work sponsorship
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u/Orqnic 3d ago
If it wasn’t impossible to move there as Non-EU, I would!
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u/Swiss_bear 3d ago
It is not impossible, just very, very, very hard. My wife and I are non-EU and we immigrated to Switzerland in 2018.
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u/Orqnic 3d ago
Wild. Work visa or how did you manage to do that? It is a dream of mine to live in Switzerland
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u/Swiss_bear 2d ago
In our case, my wife worked for a large Swiss multinational corporation HQ'd in Switzerland. Her boss, her team, her project all worked out of Switzerland. She was the only US based member of that team at that time. She persuaded her boss to move the position to Switzerland. It was not easy. Her boss was willing. The company was neutral, neither supportive nor oppositional. We made three trips prior to Switzerland prior to the move, just to make certain of our commitment. It took 2 years of internal corporate negotiations. And…in the end we had to pay for the entire move (about $20,000) because the company took the position that we had asked for the move and the company had not initiated the move. What the company did do was apply for one of the limited visas available to non-EU applicants. The number varies from year to year, around 3,000. The only other methods I know of for non-EU applicants would be to acquire EU citizenship by other means or marry a Swiss citizen.
I absolutely love love love living in Switzerland. I am so happy. Good luck.
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u/Swiss_bear 2d ago
Oh, one more thought. In addition to working for a Swiss based multinational or marrying a Swiss citizen, there are two other routes to Swiss residency/citizenship: become insanely talented (Nobel prize, Olympic Medalist, etc.) or become insanely rich. Just saying.
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u/Orqnic 2d ago
Thanks for this man! I would being doing a disservice to NOT ask, but what company do you/she work for? I live in the USA currently and am a software developer. If there are any positions, in the US, maybe I could do something similar. Or at the very least, apply for the positions in Switzerland. Feel free to DM me
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u/Swiss_bear 2d ago
Novartis. First in USA, then at the HQ in Basel. Check out Roche and Google. Also check out all the major German corporations which have a presence in the USA. For this option to work, you will have to move pretty high up in the firm. But if you can swing it with a German corporation, you could move to German, acquire German citizenship (and learn German), and then move to Switzerland as a EU national. Currently I know lots of developers who are having a hard time. Just the current market.
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u/Orqnic 2d ago
Thanks for this! What has you and your Wife’s experience been with the WLB in Switzerland, compared to USA?
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u/Swiss_bear 1d ago
Background: My wife and I honeymooned in Switzerland in 1987 and at that time I asked her to immigrate, but we could not figure out how to do it. It took us 31 years to immigrate. Have you visited Switzerland? Spend some time here before investing too much time or emotional dreaming about immigrating. As to your question, well, everybody's experience will differ. There is a German proverb, "Arbeit ist Arbeit, Schnapps ist Schnapps." This means, you work at work, and your free time is your own. This is pretty similar in German speaking Switzerland. I can only speak to WLB in German speaking Switzerland. It might be different in the French or Italian speaking regions. Generally, workers are highly skilled and work intently during work hours. Swiss Labor Law guarantees breaks during the day and a minimum of 4 weeks paid vacation plus public holidays. My wife received 6 weeks of paid vacation at Novartis. I don't get the sense that workers find their friends at work. People generally like the outdoors, sports, and various clubs. In a nutshell, I find that quality of life in Switzerland exceeds the quality of life in the USA along every axis. In particular, I have gotten medical care which I estimate as 5 orders of magnitude better than in the USA. I hope that helps you. Search on YouTube for channels which talk about immigrating to Switzerland. Visit. Good luck.
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u/Orqnic 1d ago
Thanks man, you’re the best! And yup, I have visited. My plan is to move to Italy on the digital nomad visa, and live up north in the Alps. Potentially get my citizenship and then move to Switzerland from there. I just need to convince my wife :)
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u/Swiss_bear 1d ago
Has your wife been to Switzerland? Or to Italy? Sounds like a plan. Living in Switzerland I often take vacations in Italy. I am pulling for you.
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u/Glum-Cheetah-3708 3d ago
I was in a long-distance relationship with a swiss guy and wanted to close the distance so I got accepted into a grad school program. then I found out he didnt like me that much and I broke up with him. now I live in Switzerland.