Before writing about the process of getting a Swiss driver’s license I need to at least mention the terrorist attacks in Paris on Friday.  The whole situation is very sad, and hits close to home because of both our nearness to France, and our studying of French culture.  I think it will be the biggest news story in Europe for a long time, and affect the mood and thinking of all European countries. Already in Switzerland the debate to cease having open borders was started by a member of the presidential council in response to the attacks. In the coming weeks and months we will more clearly see the effects.

On Monday this week I finished up my last big Swiss bureaucratic form filling out adventure (at least for a while I hope), and received a Swiss driver’s license.  Neither Melissa nor I have driven here yet, but in Switzerland, after a year of residence, it’s illegal to drive without a Swiss license.  It’s too scary of a thought for us American’s to not even have the option to drive, so we decided we had to figure out all the hoops to jump through.

A simple search on the internet brought me to the website for the “Service Cantonal des automobiles et de la navigation”, where all the required paperwork is listed… in French.

The required documents are:

• A form to request a Swiss license
• The eye exam section of the above form filled out by a certified optician
• A color passport photo
• An ID (passport or residence permit)
• My Minnesota driver’s license
• A document showing the date my first driver’s license was issued
• A declaration of residence form

None of the requirements seemed too difficult except for the form showing the date of my first driver’s license.  Because of privacy you can’t get that information for free on the internet.  I had my mom look for my old licenses, but she didn’t have my original that showed the date of first issuance.  So I had to get a form from the Minnesota DMV.  The Minnesota DMV requires the records request to be mailed into them, but luckily Melissa’s mom Janell helped us out to save time.  We filled out records request forms, and privacy authorization forms, scanned them to Janell, then she mailed them, with the required fee, to the DMV.  The certified driving records came back in a week or two to Janell, then she mailed them to us, and they were in my hand within a week of her mailing.

The rest of the requirements weren’t as difficult.  I found an optician near the grocery store I shop at for the eye exam, and took it all in French.  I mistakenly had spent my time studying the pronunciation of all the letters in the alphabet instead of the directions, shapes, and numbers that were the answers for the test. I was able to muddle through though, but felt a little dumb when I was slow saying the words for things I could see clear as day.

For the passport photo I still had one left over from the last time the Swiss government needed one, and I double checked that everything else was in order, before I rode the bus 40 minutes to the driver’s license office.  At the office I grabbed a number and when I was called up presented everything I had to the clerk.  He said everything was good, except my declaration of residence form. The one I had listed our original address in Lausanne instead of Chavannes-près-Renens.  So I had to come back to the Chavannes-près-Renens hotel de ville and have someone there verify my address.

Back up to the driver’s license office.  I talked to a different clerk that made me wait nervously because she couldn’t read the English on my driving record.  A different person came to verify that everything was in order, and they told me to go downstairs one floor where surprisingly my new license was printed on the spot after paying for it.  I found some Swiss efficiency!