Never Say Never?

We are the proud owners of brand spankin'-new C-permits. These are the permits that allow "us" to continue working and living in Switzerland. I went to our town hall right after coming back from Chicago a couple of weeks ago to apply for them, so the fact that we got them isn't really that much of a surprise.

There was a moment of concern, however, when I noticed as I was waking in to renew them that Mrs. TBF's previous C-permit had actually EXPIRED A COUPLE OF WEEKS EARLIER!!! The expiration on my permit was August 16th, but Mrs. TBF's was actually in July.

Oops!

However, after I brought it up (aren't I honest?) with the town official, he told me there was absolutely no problem at all. You see, MEN RULE IN SWITZERLAND. The fact that my permit had not yet expired - even though Mrs. TBF is the one who works - meant that we weren't violating any laws. However, I'm kind of enjoying the thought that, technically speaking, Mrs. TBF was a schwarz Arbeiter for a couple of weeks.

Upon receiving the new permits in the mail a couple of days ago (with a rather arbitrary bill for CHF 66), I noticed that the new ones are good for five years; the last ones were only good for three.

Wow! Five years!

Now, I generally try to never say never, BUT...

The chance of us still living here in Switzerland when the new C-permits expire, five years from now, are extremely small. I'm not going to say it would never happen, but...

I'm definitely thinking it!

Mug Shot

Our C Permits that allow "us" to live and work in Switzerland expire in a month.

Has it been three years already? Wow!

When we had B Permits, Mrs. TBF's company had to arrange for them to be renewed. Now that we are "big-time" C Permit holders - we're on our own.

The problem was: I didn't really know how to go about getting our permits renewed.

Mrs. TBF told me that I should just go to the Gemeindehaus - kind of like a town hall - and ask them. I snorted back something to the effect of: "If you think that's so easy, why don't YOU do it?" After winning the short debate that ensued (I basically refused to do it!), Mrs. TBF became convinced that my suggestion was a winner; having one of the Swiss administrative assistants at her office call the Gemeindehaus to find out what we need to do instead of me standing at the Gemeindehaus, speaking broken German, sweating through my shirt, and looking like a dork with my Daumen herauf mein Arschloch.

Besides...what choice did she have? I just REFUSED to do it! MWAHH-ha-HAAAAAAAAAAAAA! I'm going to have to try that one again sometime!

So...

Swiss assistant called...

She squoli squonked with the Gemeinde person, AND...

All we have to do is go to the Gemeindehaus and hand in our current C Permits. We also need a couple of current passport photos and we have to pay an unknown amount of money. After a couple of weeks, we'll receive our new permits in the mail. PLUS...and this is the best part...the assistant said that Mrs. TBF can expense the cost of her C Permit to the company.

HA! We wouldn't have found THAT out if I hadn't held my breath and folded my arms across my chest until you agreed to have the assistant call for us. See?

I TOLD YOU SO!!!!!!

Yup, I was feeling pretty smug about the whole thing until today when I went to the SECOND passport photo booth (first one ate my money and didn't give me any photos) and got these AWFUL photos which will be on my C Permit for the NEXT...THREE...YEARS! Unless, of course, we move back to the U.S. before the three years are up when I'm assuming we'd have to hand our permits back in to the authorities. Now THAT'S incentive to move!

Or, I guess I could just go and have new pictures taken.