Your first year in Switzerland: the clocks from your arrival, and a language choice
After arriving in Switzerland more clocks run than you think: fourteen days for your registration, three months for your health insurance, ten days for your dog, twelve months for your driving licence, and for anyone paying Quellensteuer 31 March of the following year. Plus a broadcasting bill that arrives by itself and the decision without a deadline that determines the most: in which language your children go to school.
4 min read
Written and checked by Auke on , against the sources at the bottom. Is something no longer right? Report it below and I'll fix it.
In your first year in Switzerland a few fixed deadlines run, in a fixed order. The paperwork peaks in the first weeks:
- within fourteen days you register with the municipality, and in any case before you start work;
- within three months you have health insurance, with the premium from your day of arrival.
Then come the dog, the driving licence, the broadcasting levy and, for anyone paying Quellensteuer, a deadline the following spring. Quellensteuer is tax your employer deducts directly from your salary.
Those later steps look modest. But that's exactly where people run into deadlines nobody told them about.
The full order with the steps is in the route to Switzerland; this piece puts the clocks side by side.
Which clocks run from your arrival?
| What | Deadline | Where |
|---|---|---|
| Register with the municipality and apply for a permit | within 14 days, and before your first working day | residents' office of your municipality |
| Take out health insurance | within three months, cover and premium from your arrival | a Swiss health insurer |
| Register your dog | within ten days of entry | vet (AMICUS) and municipality |
| Driving on your Dutch licence | twelve months | Strassenverkehrsamt of your canton |
| Broadcasting levy | automatic, per household | Serafe, CHF 335 a year |
| Deductions under Quellensteuer | by 31 March of the following year | tax office of your canton |
Why mustn't you leave the health insurance?
Because the three months aren't a cooling-off period. The BAG, the federal health office, puts it this way:
- Anyone who takes out insurance in time is covered from the day they came to live in Switzerland. So they pay the premium for those months retroactively.
- Anyone who's late is only covered from the day they join. For an inexcusable delay, that is, one without a valid reason, they pay a premium surcharge.
So waiting saves nothing. Every family member is insured separately, including the children. What it costs and how you choose is in Swiss health insurance.
What happens to your driving licence after twelve months?
Then you may no longer drive on it in Switzerland. Unlike within the EU, you have to exchange your Dutch licence. For a Dutch licence that happens without a driving test, but with an eye test. You don't get your old licence back. How it works is in your driving licence in Switzerland.
If you bring a dog, the deadline is even shorter. Within ten days it must be in AMICUS, the national dog database, via the vet. See your pet to Switzerland.
Which bill arrives by itself?
The broadcasting levy, for radio and television. You don't need to register anywhere. Serafe, the organisation that collects the levy, gets your household's data from your municipality's residents' register. So registering on arrival is enough, and the invoice follows.
The levy applies per household, not per person, and regardless of whether you have a television, radio or smartphone. A private household pays CHF 335 a year. All adult residents are on the invoice and jointly liable.
Paying Quellensteuer? Then put 31 March in your diary. Anyone without a C permit (settlement permit) pays tax via the employer. If you want to deduct something, such as contributions to the Säule 3a (tax-favoured pension saving), you apply to your canton for a nachträgliche ordentliche Veranlagung: an ordinary assessment after the fact. You do that by 31 March of the year after your arrival at the latest. That deadline can't be extended; see working in Switzerland.
In which language does your child go to school?
This is the decision with the longest effect, and the only one without a clock. Under the free movement agreement, the treaty on the free movement of persons between Switzerland and the EU, your children have the same access to education as Swiss children.
But education is cantonal, and the constitution lets the cantons choose their own official language. The school language therefore hangs on your address. If you still have the choice between cantons, weigh the language as a school choice, not just as a choice of where to live. When your child starts and how school is structured is in school in Switzerland.
In Vertrekklaar this is phase 5 of 5 of the route: the same steps, but applied to your situation — in your order, tickable, and with the deadlines watched. See the whole route to Switzerland.
What this rests on
The facts in this article come from these official pages. Rules change. When in doubt, go by the source, not this article.
- SEM — frequently asked questions: register within 14 days and before you start work — sem.admin.ch
- BAG — compulsory insurance: three months, with retroactive effect — bag.admin.ch
- ch.ch — driving with a foreign licence: twelve months — ch.ch
- Canton of Zurich — exchanging a foreign driving licence — zh.ch
- Canton of Zurich — animal registration (AMICUS) — zh.ch
- Serafe — overview of the broadcasting levy — serafe.ch
- BAKOM — the levy for radio and television — bakom.admin.ch
- ESTV — Quellensteuer: the application before 31 March — estv.admin.ch
- Free movement of persons, annex I article 3 — equal access to education — fedlex.admin.ch
- Federal Constitution article 70 — the cantons set their official language — fedlex.admin.ch
Read on
- SwitzerlandArrival4 min
School in Switzerland: from age four, for eleven years, and in your canton's language
In Switzerland your child usually starts kindergarten at four, and it already counts: in most cantons compulsory schooling lasts eleven years, kindergarten included. The school year starts in August, and a child who is four by 31 July starts after the summer. The pitfall is the language: the canton decides which language your child learns in, and you make that choice with your address.
Updated 26 September 2026
- SwitzerlandArrival4 min
Buying a house in Switzerland: first the Lex Koller question — are you allowed to buy yet?
In Switzerland a house purchase doesn't begin with the viewing but with one legal question: do you already live there? Whoever as an EU citizen genuinely lives in Switzerland buys freely; whoever wants to buy something from the Netherlands in advance falls under the permit requirement of the Lex Koller. After that the canton determines almost everything: the notary, the costs and the Handänderungssteuer. And for tax purposes your own home counts as notional income until the end of 2028 — the Eigenmietwert.
Updated 26 September 2026
- SwitzerlandArrival4 min
Your driving licence in Switzerland: exchange within twelve months, no driving test
Unlike in the EU, in Switzerland you do have to exchange your Dutch driving licence: twelve months after arrival you may no longer drive on it. For a Dutch licence it's a formality, without a control drive or extra theory, but with an eye test. You don't get your Dutch licence back, and according to the government the cost is probably above 100 francs.
Updated 26 September 2026