We are moving to Zürich, Switzerland

In the following months we are going to move to Zürich , Switzerland for professional reasons. We are really happy and excited about this change. We’ve pondered about it for quite some time and we finally decided to go for it, since we thought that it was going to make a really positive impact on our family and professional lives. We love the area, Central Europe, and we love the culture, the food, the people and the landscapes. We’ve been around before, visiting the Alps and living in Vienna, Austria, and we had always a great experience.

On the other hand, we have mixed feelings about leaving Finland. We have been quite happy living in Finland the last —almost— 6 years of our lives and we are leaving behind an important part of our lives. We have friends and some of them are almost like family. Also Finland has given us a lot and it’s the place where our son was born. Even when we complain a lot about some things related to this country —specially sometimes related to the weather— we are going to carry it in our heart forever.

Of course the change isn’t going to be free from challenges, threats and difficulties. First of all the coronamess situation we all are more or less involved right now. Since we’ll need to be in Zürich for the beginning of July, we were thinking to expend some weeks in between visiting friends and family in Spain so they can meet and enjoy our son. You have to think that some of them, like in the case of my parents, haven’t met him in person yet¹. However, we don’t know when we are going to be able to leave Finland for several reasons.

• First: our son doesn’t have yet his Spanish passport which is probably going to be needed even to travel across Europe. We started the process of getting it as soon as we could, but not until the first of March we got all the paperwork done. Then, it got stuck somewhere in the bureaucratic process between Spain and Finland, or even perhaps it’s still in Spain pending to be printed.
• Second: although we, as Spanish citizens, still have the right to enter in Spain —even when the borders are closed and our son doesn’t have his passport— we don’t really know if it’s worth to go to Spain to be locked down there or even perhaps be put in quarantine. At least for now, the situation in Finland is better and we still enjoy some degree of freedom.
• Third: Switzerland has closed its borders to the World and unless you already have a work / residence permit, it’s pretty impossible to enter the country right now. The issuing of work permits is halted for now and they don’t know when is going to start again. We were also thinking to move some of our things before July so our arrival is going to be easier, but with all of these problems that operation is halted for now too.

We know that this situation it’s going to eventually be sorted out and everyone is going to get back to their business after a couple of months. But, we all, for now, need to sit tight in our homes to try to curve the virus as soon as possible.

However, in our particular case, are still need to make plans, getting prepared for our next big adventure in the heart of the mountains in Central Europe and solve the problems we have head of us as a result of the moving from one country to another. Like organize the removal and import of our things from Finland to Switzerland, look for an apartment in Zürich, start to learn (Swiss) German , apply for day care for our son, figure out about health care —since it’s going to be the first time we are going to be in a private scheme— and a myriad of other stuff.

Anyhow, we are really happy about this opportunity and we hope to get the most from it. We are really happy that our son is going to have the opportunity to grow in an international environment in a multicultural country. And I’m specially happy to return to the mountains.

See you in Switzerland soon, either in the city or in the mountains.

1. My parents are quite old, specially my father, and they don’t like to travel, specially my father. Finland in winter isn’t their cup of tea and I really think that in the case of my father could pose a threat for his health. ↩