What Happened?

When you move to Switzerland, you have one year to prove you have a valid license in another country and get a Swiss Driver's License. If you miss the deadline, you have to take the written test (in German, French or Italian) and take a road test in order to get a license and drive in Switzerland.

With the deadline/anniversary looming on 4 January, GLH and I went down to the Gemeinde Haus (Town Hall) last Friday. We filled out the forms, got a quick (and expensive!) eye test at a local optician and had really bad id photos taken at an automatic photo booth at the local train station. We then went and turned in all that stuff, paid more money and made certain they knew we needed our US driver's licenses returned.

Today GLH received two envelopes. The first envelope contained his new Swiss driver's license. The second contained his old US driver's license with a sticker that states "Not Valid in Switzerland."

I received one envelope. It contained a very short note that stated I should call Frau X (not her real name) with the Strassenverkehsamt des Kantons Zürich (Driver's License Department of Canton Zürich).

No explanation of what went wrong. No new Swiss driver's license. No old US driver's license. Nada. Zip. Nilch.

Just an order to make a telephone call as soon as possible.

To someone who is not answering her telephone.

Fabulous.

Now I get to worry about it all weekend long.

I just hope the Mysterious Frau X is answering her telephone on Monday...