I have got admission in University of Zurich for the Master's Course starting in October.
Although my visa is in process, I have got couple of issues which for which I need advice.
My passport expires in March 2015 while my course will end in July/September 2015. Since doing a renewal of passport in India would have definitely delayed my visa process, so I have requested to consulate that once I come to Switzerland, I can get it renewed from the Indian Embassy in Bern. Is there possibilities of this getting rejected?
The other question is I have been asked again and again "why I want to study in zurich"? Is this a normal questioning or Swiss authorities are finding something wrong in my application?
The reason for me being apprehensive is I am working in India at a decent position in IBM and have already resigned believing my visa would come easily since my credentials are good and I have sufficient funds.
But due to these time and again questioning I am getting a bit frustrated and wondering how wise it will be on my part to leave my current job and wait for the Visa process to complete which may end up in rejection?
Your entry visa allows you to enter Switzerland legally before your course starts in October. Once you have your student permit the visa is effectively obsolete so it doesn’t matter about renewing your passport in 2015. So long as you have a valid permit you don’t need another visa stamped in the new passport - unless you are planning on having a multi-entry one if you’re planning on travelling outside the Schengen area a lot. But then you can just arrange for it to be transferred to your new passport.
Question-wise I don’t know. Maybe they’re just being Swiss thorough, maybe they’re wondering why you’re leaving your job to study here. The Swiss don’t give out permits easily so some serious questionning has to be expected.
Oh!! I don't know.Did they actually call you and asked 'Why Zurich'?This is quite weird!!
My visa for University of Zurich is also in process.Today I received that the decision had been made and my application had been forwarded to The Switzerland Visa Application center and was ready for collection but the problem is that its been only 1 week since I applied for visa....hopefully there wasn't a problem!!Can someone actually tell me something about this....(I have stayed in Switzerland for 1.5 years before).
I'm actually quite worried because due to some personal reasons I had come back to my country before my last permit expired - I got my health insurance and permit canceled.I hope I did everything right because you never know with Switzerland....
there’s lots of info on permits in general - it’s the Swiss Federation website so is the authority as it were. There’s also contact info too if you want to ask a particular question. I found them very helpful when I was enquiring with a permit question a few weeks ago.
The restriction is in place to stop newbies from spamming everyone. Keep making posts and be patient, the ability to send PMs will return. And don't post your personal email in a thread - not only is it against Forum rules, but do you really want the entire internet to know your email addy?
i am a student from Iran , accepted in HEAD-Geneva , applied for student visa 4-5 months ago and still have not get the visa unfortunately. i don't know what the problem is, the last news from my visa is the email that Migration office of Geneva sent to the school:
Madame,
Nous accusons réception de votre message.
Le dossier de la personne citée sous objet est toujours à l'examen auprès de notre Office et aucune décision n'a encore été prise pour l'instant.
Compte tenu de l'ensemble des dossiers à traiter, une décision sera prise probablement d'ici une semaine.
Par la même occasion, nous attirons votre attention sur le fait qu'en cas de décision favorable de notre service, le dossier devra par la suite être soumis à l'Office fédéral des migrations pour approbation.
Dans l'intervalle, recevez, Madame, nos salutations distinguées.
the email is for 2 weeks ago , i want to ask is anybody can help me with this. if the final decision of Geneva is yes, how long will last for a final decision from federal???
i already missed 1st month of my studies and i'm paying for my room from 1st September!
Honestly, after this much time, they will have to. My guess is that they probably just forgot about the application. I've seen it happen before (guess they're only human too and the workload can be massive...). So my experience in such cases is that once attention has been brought to the issue of such a severe delay, it doesn't take them much longer to process the application (whatever the outcome might be, though I think as a student, you don't need to worry much).
So do give them a call today. By all means, 5 months is more than long enough and you did hand in the application well on time - it's only fair you should get a decent feedback now!
Additionally you could also write back to Canton Geneva's Migration Office.
Since they communicated in French, here is a possible reply that you could send them:
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Madame, Monsieur,
Suite à votre courriel d'il y a deux semaines, je me permet de vous recontacter afin de vérifier l'état d'avancement de ma demande de visa d'étude. Selon les informations que j'ai reçues, le visa devait être traité en principe dans un délai de 12 semaines; or 5 mois se sont déjà écoulés depuis le dépôt de ma demande. Le problème est que mes cours ont déjà commencé depuis maintenant deux semaines et malgré mon absence, je suis en train de payer depuis presque 2 mois pour mon logement d'étudiant.
Je vous serais très reconnaissante, si pourriez accélérer le traitement de ma demande.
En espérant de vos nouvelles, recevez Madame, Monsieur, mes salutations les meilleures,
Your Full Name here
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Replace Madame, Monsieur, by "Madame," (if your correspondent is a woman) or by "Monsieur," (if a man). Keep it as is, if you don't know the gender.
Bear in mind that Geneva has by far the worst administration in Switzerland!
The inherent inefficiency of GE Cantonal government bureaucracy is notorious in Switzerland -> e.g. Genferei / Genevoiserie.
In this regard the cantonal admin in Geneva resembles more like an inefficient French one than a typical efficient and organized Swiss administration. The fact that many Geneva govt employees are French nationals commuters, with all their bad habits, doesn't help either!
Hopefully one day Geneva will look more toward Lausanne, Zürich, Basel, Berne instead of Paris, Lyon.