How it works
Five steps, in the order they happen.
Every step is simple enough to follow without a second explanation. Two of them cost nothing. CHF 250 gets you started. You decide at each step whether to go further.
Your first set
Your Handbooks
What happens
The library has a Handbook for every subject that decides a relocation: renting, schooling, immigration and residence, health insurance, other insurance, pensions and working, with taxation, succession, arrival formalities, buying property and company formation in preparation. You choose the three that fit your situation. If you would rather have help choosing, a coordinator spends fifteen minutes with you first, at no charge.
They arrive by email. If you chose them yourself, your coordinator makes contact ten to fourteen days later. Further Handbooks are CHF 50 each, whenever you want them.
What you walk away with
- Three Handbooks of your choice, each complete on one subject and kept current
- What is compulsory, optional or negotiable in your situation, and in what order
- A coordinator who already knows your situation, if you took the call
Orientation call
What happens
Read your Handbooks. Then write down the questions they raised – the rules that apply to you, the ones that seem to contradict each other, the decisions you cannot yet place in order – and send them to us.
Your coordinator reads them and books thirty minutes with you to answer them and to point you in the right direction. Relocation companies sell an orientation tour for CHF 1,000 to 1,500. This call is part of your first set.
What you walk away with
- Answers to the questions your Handbooks raised
- A clear view of which of your decisions has to come first
- A coordinator who knows what is difficult in your situation, and what is not
Nothing obliges you to go further. If what you read raised more than it settled, this is the call where your coordinator tells you what organising it would cover.
Your team
Organization call
What happens
You now know what has to be done. This call is where it gets organised. Your coordinator goes through your situation with you, puts your actions in the right order, and decides what has to happen first.
The call prepares step 4. By the end of it your coordinator knows which professionals your move calls for, and in what order you need to meet them.
What you walk away with
- Your actions, prioritised and in sequence
- The list of professionals your plan needs
- The meetings your coordinator will convene for you
Meeting your team
What happens
Your coordinator organises the meetings with the professionals your plan calls for and sits beside you at the first of them. The meeting is there so that you are comfortable with each professional before you commit to anything.
The most common first meetings concern home search, school search, health and other insurance, banking, legal matters such as marriage contracts and inheritance, and moving – cars, pets and the household. Whatever is a priority for you comes first.
What you walk away with
- The professionals your move needs, introduced by someone who knows your situation
- Your coordinator in the room at the first meeting
- Your own decision, taken with the right people in front of you
Each professional bills you directly, on their own terms. Several cost you nothing at all – an insurance agent, a letting agency – being paid by commission. What is free here is your coordinator's time at the first meeting; everything after it is step 5.
Optional
Your coordinator, retained
What happens
If you would rather keep your coordinator beside you, they remain available by the hour. They can come to a meeting where language is a barrier. They can help you with a decision. They can be there across your stay, to answer a question when you need it.
One hour is payable in advance. Time used is drawn down from it. A new hour is requested once the first is used up.
What you walk away with
- The rest of your team, met with your coordinator beside you
- A second sitting with the same professional, when a decision needs it
- Administrative appointments, and questions months later
Where it starts
CHF 250 gets you started.
The three Handbooks that fit your situation, chosen from the whole library, fifteen minutes with a coordinator to choose them, and thirty minutes with your coordinator once you have read them. By the end of that call you know which of your decisions has to come first, and what organising your move would cover.
If you decide to continue, the same coordinator puts your actions in order, convenes the professionals your move needs, and sits beside you at the first meeting. The step prices are above. Nothing is asked of you before you have seen what the previous step was worth.
Your first set
Steps 1 and 2
- Three Handbooks of your choice, from the whole library
- Fifteen minutes with a coordinator to choose them
- Thirty minutes with your coordinator once you have read them, at no charge
- A coordinator who now knows what is difficult in your situation
Or CHF 225 if you choose the three yourself. Further Handbooks CHF 50 each, any time.