New to the forum, been following the threads for some time, and so far this place has probably been the most useful with our move to Zurich.
However, do need a little help/advice. We arrived last week, have a temporary apartment until the 11th of Sept. and desperately looking for a permanent apartment. I know the apartment hunt in Switzerland is pretty devastating and all that. We have seen quite a few apartments in the past week and are now applying to some of them. Saw an absolutely gorgeous one yesterday, within our budget, the current tenants were nice and helpful, and, IMO we definitely left a good impression on them. So, currently filling out the application form with the help of my boyfriends business partner who's a local (so bonus points), and I've read online that a motivation letter/cover letter could go a long way with the Swiss people.
Am staring at a blank document right now and don't know where to start. I heard it's supposed to be a simple introductory letter, saying who you are, why you are here, why are you looking for a new place, yadayada.
However, how should the letter even look like? Is it very formal, with a "Dear Sir / Madame" beginning and all that? I've written a few cover letters for UZH when I was applying and some others in the past, so far I've gone the formal route of "Dear Sir/blabla", should I do the same with this one?
Also, how into detail should I go? How much should I praise Switzerland? Are there any pointers?
P.S! Since I'm already asking, I might as well add.. The whole Betreibungsauskunft thing. Been here for a week now, and staying at a temporary place as I said, we were advised to actually wait until we get a permanent place and then go to the Kreisbrüo to get your residence permit. So as of now, I don't have a permit, haven't gone to the Kreisbüro to issue it, which, as I gather, means I can't get the debt thing either, right? Our local friend here said that if we get a lette/contract from my boyfriends job that yes he works there, gets paid this much, has a contract this long yadayada, this should be fine and would substitute the debt letter. Also, since I'm a full-time student at UZH, I don't currently work, and my parents will be financing my part of the stay, so I was advised to get an official letter from my parents/their bank, that they will cover my living funds and they have enough finance to support me. We were told, that if we send these two letters, we might not actually need the debt thing at first.
WOW, long letter, sorry.