We knew since we arrived that we had 12 months to exchange our international driver's licence for a Swiss licence. And of course, we waited until the last minute - meaning we arrived in March 2008, so of course we did it in March 2009! If you don't exchange it within 12 months, you have to take the driver's test (read: expensive hassle) - so don't delay!

We started by picking up a form for the exchange. The first step of the process is to fill out the form and get an eye test. The form is pretty straightforward - name, address, driving class and a bunch of boxes with medical illness names that you have to check to say whether or not you suffer from Nierenkrankheit (kidney illness) or Geisteskrankheit. And because we forgot to bring the forms with us to the eye test, we had to fill them out again at the eye test - so for about 20 minutes I would ask "Was ist Geisteskrankheit?" and we would play charades with the optician until we figured out what it was and that we were lucky enough to not have it.

After that, the eye test is pretty painless - you can get it at any eye doctor or eyeglass store (ask at the optometry places if they do a 'Führerausweis Sehtest'). Pay CHF 20 per person for it, they sign off, and you are onto the next and final step.

Luckily, we figured out that instead of having to go to Zurich Strassenverkehrsamt (driver's bureau) to hand in the form, we could take it to our Gemeidehaus in Urdorf and they take care of the rest. That saved us a lot of time. I believe we paid another CHF 20 each and handed over two passport-sized photos, our American driver's licences and showed our passports and L permits as identification and that was that.

Then about two weeks later we got a letter saying that we should call the Strassenverkehrsamt ASAP. So the next morning I did... and here is where the trouble started. It seems that you can exchange a foreign licence from the US or Australia for a Swiss licence. However, the foreign licence has to show that you have had a licence for at least 12 months (I believe, or was it 24 months?) prior to moving to Switzerland. We changed our licences only a few months before moving to Switzerland and the dates on them were within the last 12 months, so they were invalid!

The lady on the telephone was really nice and said that if we had another licence that showed we were licenced earlier, we could send those in and proceed... I asked her what kind of other licence, and she said sometimes people have old licences they keep as SOUVENIERS or something, and that perhaps one of those was older and we could send that in... I mean, WHO DOES THAT?! Um, well, it would appear we do because after searching I found our old Australian licences from years ago and we sent those in and voila - problem solved!

And, the big question you all want to know - how is the driving on the new licence?

HA ! I have no idea. I take the train everywhere.

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