I'm a spanish PhD student living in Zürich with my boyfriend who is also spanish and looking for a job.
My family is coming at the early December by car to bring us some goods as for example:
- 2 bikes
- 1 blender
- 2 bags with clothes
- food: meat, olive oil.... (I read somewhere that the maximum of kg of meat is 1kg, but in other sites I read that is 3.5km... do you know which one is the correct?)
- and some other households effects
+ theirs bags
I was reading about taxes and duty-free goods to import to Switzerland and I have lots of questions.
I read here: http://www.ezv.admin.ch/zollinfo_pri...x.html?lang=en , that if you are student and you are moving to Switzerland bringing your households effects is duty-free if you fill an application form and you show at the Customs. So that would be applied for PhD students?
And what happens if I'm not with my parents in the car while they are coming to Switzerland? I mean, can they show this application or should I have to be there?
If this not apply for PhD students, do you know which procedure would be the correct one?
I have to clarify to my parents all this as they are not able to speak english and they would like to be sure that everything is correct and they have not to pay any "penalty" or something like that because they haven't declare goods.
1 kg of all meat, 5 liters of oil, per person. If the rest is clothes and bikes they could pass as tourists but since there are household effects i would do it the right way. In theory if these items are less than 300 CHF per person they would have no problem.
In the module you have to compile there is written:
I think that means you don't have to be present, but you have to compile and sign the form personally and hand it to your parents. You should give them all the proof they might need (rental contract and university certificate of attendance which you can probably download online). Even if you were not a student, your rental contract can be proof enough that those are household items you need for you new secondary house, but with a university certificate there's more certainty.
Also remember that Another thing, i sometimes see old spanish cars full to the roof being pulled out, be sure to not exceed maximum vehicle weight, make sure the cargo is fixed in place and not free to move around, and that you have clear visibility out the windows. They can stop you and not allow you to proceed.
Drive it right on through. Noone is going to say anything and if they do , they are tourists that want to bike around the lake etc. MAke sure there is no receipts if the blender is new etc and have them use it once or 2x before so it has user marks on it.
How many times have I gone through the border with way over limits for booze and meat (while stopped) and noone even cares to fill out any forms. Belgian plates, Dutch Plates, and Swiss plates.and the car stuffed to the brim with my stuff (TV , blenders, playstation, new matress from Ikea, new winter tires and other stuff.
My rents also used to celebrate Christmas with us in CH and load the Viano(Merc Bus) FULL of presents as the whole family would be there.
As long as you do not have drugs with you ; you will be fine 99% of the time and even for the 1% they will likely let you pass
Just make sure you have no marks on the vehicle (stolen, missing plates, lost license as a reason to stop you.
I always passed the border in late evening (after 9 or so) and they seemed to be a lot more at ease at that time.