Situated in a valley at the northern extent of the Alps as they cascade into central Europe, the Principality is notoriously particular about who and how many foreign nationals can live within the borders in a given year. For instance, they limit EEA nations and Swiss nationals to only 89 residence permits per year. Typically, foreign nationals from non-EEA nations who come to work in Liechtenstein are required to live in the neighboring countries and commute into the country for work. However, there is a relatively new visa arrangement between Liechtenstein and specific non-EEA nations that allows individuals and their families to obtain a 3 year residence permit within Liechtenstein. From what little information we’ve gathered about the permits they are typically awarded to the 2 or 3 largest international organizations with offices here and that after our 3 years are completed there is a 1 year “cooling off” period in which the permit holder is unable to hold any role based in Liechtenstein for the following 12 months. However, I’m currently taking this one with a grain of salt as I can’t find any mention of this anywhere!
Anyway, while you are in the process of obtaining your visa you not only have to show proof of employment but also proof of residence. And not just temporary residence but permanent residence. This puts the visa applicant in the very unusual situation of having to find a place to live without having issued an authorization for you to live here. So in February, Amanda and I embarked on a “house hunting” trip to find a place for us to stay so that the government would authorize our visa. Truth be told, by February we had already identified a place we were interested in online and entered a general agreement with the landlord but we still had paperwork to finalize, bank details to sort out and actually visit the place we would be staying to ensure it was suitable for the family. It also allowed Amanda to do some space planning so we would know what furniture to bring and what to leave behind.
It also served as an opportunity for Amanda to sign her new employment agreement with Hilti that she had been working to negotiate. SURPRISE! We’re a Dual Hilti Income Family!.
Anyway, the house hunting trip was successful, we signed all the housing paperwork and got to visit the School in Switzerland that Charlotte will attend and the Daycare Olivia will go to in the fall so at that point it was just waiting for word from the Liechtenstein government that I could proceed with my Visa application to enter Switzerland and then travel on to Liechtenstein to acquire my residence permit. That notification came about 3 weeks before I was scheduled to fly Zurich.
One problem... Olivia's name was spelt Oliva on her visa. We went back to the immigration folks to get it fixed, they said it would be about a week to reissue. Amanda looked into how long it would take to change Olivia's name on her passport to Oliva, we thought maybe the Swiss have it right & she should have been Oliva all along. (It takes longer than a week). We eventually got the corrected visa and immediately sent all the family's passports to the Swiss Embassy in Atlanta so they could apply the Swiss Visa to our passports. All this surprisingly took less than 10 days as the Swiss Embassy turned our passports around in under 24 hrs with Visa’s applied and mailed back to us. Got to love Swiss efficiency!
However, one is still not done with the process. Upon arrival into Liechtenstein you have 10 days to register with the local canton (think county in the US) to confirm with them where you will be living and provide proof of residence at the physical location. I had to show my authorization letter from the government and the original signed lease for our apartment. Additionally you must acquire the appropriate health insurance and submit all documentation to the immigration office so that they can finally process your residence permit. But thankfully I had assistance in the form of our real estate agent who also works with expats on the finer points of immigrating into the principality which was great because in a country of 38,000 people she also knows all of the people I needed to work with to finalize the permits, insurance and banking topics.
It’s now been about 3 business days since I completed and submitted the last of my documentation to immigration and then today received my actual residence permit so I guess I’m official now. And not a moment too soon as my first guest arrives in 2 days and now I can travel in and out of principality! Looking forward to sharing those with you soon!
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