For several months we thought we might end up in either Switzerland or Austria as visa restrictions are much more lenient in those countries than in Liechtenstein. From the way it has been explained to me there are a limited number of Swiss or Austrian visas available to Hilti on a yearly basis and the company typically prefers to use those for employees who will be taking longer term assignments at headquarters. And since my assignment is specifically for 3 years it turns out that it is easier for Hilti to support us via a residence permit for the Principality of Liechtenstein. Which is great. It means I’m guaranteed to have one of the shortest commutes I’ve ever had. But it also comes with a small restriction, Amanda can only work in Liechtenstein. We debated this point for awhile but ultimately decided to take the leap of faith that Amanda would find an amazing job in the Principality or she could start a Real Housewives of FL (that’s Liechtenstein’s abbreviation in case you wonder) spinoff and we’d see what happened. More on that point to come, but spoiler alert, we won’t have the folks of Bravo following us around with cameras.
Back to house hunting.
From a housing perspective it’s probably beneficial to know a few basic facts about the area:
- The entire Principality is 62 sq miles. To put this in perspective, Dallas County is 909 sq miles; the City of Dallas is 386.
- There are just over 38,000 residents in the Principality. This is 3,000 fewer inhabitants than my childhood hometown of Coppell, Texas which is a quarter of the size of Liechtenstein.
- It’s in Central Europe bordered by Switzerland to the South, West and North and Austria to the East. It’s one of two double landlocked countries in the World.
- Hilti is the largest employer in Liechtenstein and accounts for >32% of Liechtenstein’s sales revenue.
Um. No.
In order to get said visa, you have to have a lease for the duration of your visa being issued. Which means we had to sign a three year lease prior by the end of February in order to have all the paperwork processed for our visas so I could start work April 1. Right. Okay. Let’s find a week where Amanda can take off work in January or February…anyone see this happening? Anyone ever seen Amanda stop working before 11pm in January or February? Because I’ve been a PwC spouse for 17 years now & I haven’t. Somehow she managed it. I’m still not sure how. She worked super hard and filed a client on a Friday in February, her parents came up to watch the girls for a week and we flew out Saturday morning (as an aside, I’m pretty sure Amanda worked most of the 12 hours she was on the plane over the ocean).
We landed Sunday morning in Zurich (another aside, with 62 sq miles, you don’t have room for an airport, so visitors will fly in/out of Zurich or Munich). Picked up a car rental and headed out. We got to our hotel and by luck managed to check in - there were no people at the hotel, only a kiosk and …surprise… everything was in German so we muddled through options until a plastic room key appeared out of the box and a three digit number displayed on the screen (we guessed well that this was our room number). We met some coworker friends for lunch and then drove around a bit to get the lay of the land and to keep ourselves awake from jet lag.
The next few days were a bit of a blur off looking at houses, signing the paperwork needed for the visas, attempting to open a bank account, touring daycares and Charlotte’s school. We also, at the request of a certain four year old, verified that there are playgrounds in Liechtenstein.
It was a good trip, we got a lease signed, we settled on Charlotte’s school, we picked a first choice day care for Olivia; it was waitlisted so we picked a second choice daycare for Olivia, we signed a bunch of paperwork for a bank account and we felt like we got a little taste of what living here would be like in a very short time.
Photo barrage with captions :
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| Our drive from Zurich to Liechtenstein was a bit rainy but you still can't beat these views. |
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| Classroom at Charlotte's School - it was their February "ski" break (yes, that's a thing here) so there were no kids while we visited. |
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| Olivia's daycare - keeping it in the family, it's a Hilti facility too ;) |
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| We sent Charlotte this picture of a playground while we we visiting so she could see that there would be playgrounds, she then requested (demanded? It's hard to tell some days) that she see how the playground worked... so ⏬ |
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| This, and a million other reason, are why Amanda is getting Mom of the Year this year. Playground demonstration for a four year old. |
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| Who has a Swiss (Franc) bank account? ⏫ These guys! It took about 3 hours guys. And little did we know, we still weren't done... |
