First of all welcome! I really hope that you will be able to settle in Luzern happily, here are a few tips to help you.
The very first first thing I want to say is be gentle with yourself! Yes, Switzerland is in the heart of Europe, yes, a lot of it seems very familiar BUT it is a different culture, not only the language but the way things are done are different here. My rule of thumb is that it takes 3 months to roughly work out how everything works and for someone to get their bearings so be patient with yourself, it’s okay if you haven’t got everything sorted out straight away.
Here are some great resources for you to look into:
Obviously start right here, check through our posts and in particular our Life Circumstances page as a lot of good advice.
The town of Luzern has its on welcome page filled with useful information on what to do when moving here on their official website.
Another great resource for all things administrative is the ch.ch website.
Another expat friendly website is Lucerne4you, they have a lots of useful tips.
Comparis.ch is the website of choice for checking out the different offers on health insurance, cars, telecoms even to find an apartment.
If you are looking for an apartment or house there are several websites to help, newhome.ch offers many things you may not necessarily find elsewhere, the best known is homegate.ch
Next you’ll need to improve your German. there are many schools, one which is geared towards expats is The Language Professionals, Migros the supermarket also has a very comprehensive language school, and Alemania offers a great 4 week intensive course at good value.
You’ll probably be wanting to meet people, we wrote a comprehensive post about this and be sure to join our Facebook page for direct contact and advice.
Also I highly recommend you sign up to our newsletter and come along to one of our information meeting, we offer a coffee morning and an apero event, you get a free drink and the chance to talk to someone who has been living here quite a while and is happy to asnwer your many questions, check our events calendar to see what’s coming up.
If you have a partner who is looking for a new career direction then our JIFF programme is for them.
Our My Guide Luzern website offers you a list of expat friendly companies.
Hopefully this will help you ease into life here. Living in Luzern is an amazing experience if you start off on the right path!
