Originally Posted by
Nick Art
Luckily I will be going to Denmark as a student, but will remain employed in Switzerland. I've already heard that even then it's quite a hassle because Switzerland as a non-EU country is special. Hooray to my second french citizenship which could finally come in handy.
Well, now I'm not sure I even want to go to Denmark! As I'll be going to Copenhagen for studies (and am not planning to own a car anytime soon), I think living in Sweden instead is sadly not an option. Furthermore, the current plan is to only remain in Copenhagen for six months, unless I decide to do my Swiss unversity mandated internship there as well (Was planning to go to Norway or back to Switzerland for that).
I wonder if they will accept my Swiss taxable income for the CC application... I must confess I thought getting a CC was much easier and I now realize this is much more complicated than I imagined. I have an AMEX platinum in Switzerland and being denied an Eurobonus credit card in denmark didn't even cross my mind.
It doesn't matter even if you have an AMEX Centurion card and want to apply for a CC in DK, they don't care.
Originally Posted by
fassy
Na, they assign a CPR much faster than that. It took about 4 weeks or so to get it done. The level of idiotic bureaucracy was just hard to understand... remember... I'm German! I thought have seen every stupid process or rule in existence. But Denmark seems to be a strong contender for enforcing stupid processes.
The 6 months waiting time for the language courses, some health care benefits, education, etc are another thing and have nothing to do with getting the CPR.
They must have changed that, as it was about 20 years ago when I went through Danish language course and learned about those issues my German classmates.
Originally Posted by
Nick Art
I really appreciate all the comments and the discussion going on, I've already learned quite a lot.
Do you guys have any general comments about things to note when moving to Denmark?
I for one know that I'll have an absolute blast using SAS youth fares between Copenhagen and Switzerland. Might even make it to Diamond because of that!
If SAS is still there by then, what they put me through I would never step foot on SAS again (we are all EBG).
About moving to DK, car is a big thing to consider (you'll be penalized like X if you are bringing your car into DK). If your university helps you with accommodation then it's not an issue for you, otherwise finding a place to stay can be a big issue in Copenhagen + Malmo area. If you need a place to stay, there are a few things you need to be aware of. If you live in a city and ride a bike, make sure you bring it into your home and buy a lock that's approved by insurance etc. - there are bikes stolen daily, even where I live people drive a truck and take bikes along the way. Make sure you know the rules well like what ticket to buy, and your bike needs ticket etc. as the fines here are not little. 100 EUR if you got the wrong ticket.
Healthcare - make sure you get everything fixed/done before moving here, medicine can be expensive (no idea about the cost in Switzerland). Dental treatment is expensive (no public clinic even though you get some kind of subsidies but it's tiny, plus they like to add extra things to bill you - like you want to have your teeth clean they will try to teach you to brush your teeth and charge you 100 for that).
Get used to crappy supermarkets and forget about Swiss standard when you come here - you pay the same in price but everything is of lower quality. Public transport too - I don't take public transport normally but I do hear traffic report over the radio and delays and cancellations are common on trains, and there's always a reason for it: too cold spring, too hot summer, fallen leaves and storms in autumn and snow in winter. The last time I was in Basel was 10 years ago and the train station announced a 2 minute delay with an apology and there's no trash anywhere - clean and safe. We had a great impression and we were thinking about moving to Switzerland and it's not easy with kids who can't attend local schools (they have been in international schools their whole lives).
If you need a bank account, there's an online one that seems to have no restrictions (I couldn't open a bank account with COOP and there are people saying that they won't let anyone who is not born in DK to get an account - my husband got it and they denied mine). Let me know when you have a CPR number and you can open a bank account with 150kr bonus - it's like any Danish bank with payment services and comes with a free Visa card and you can pay bills too.
Let me know if you have any questions! I moved from the UK to DK more than 20 years ago and after obtaining my DK citizenship we moved to Sweden to have a children. We moved back 2 years ago (now I looked back and it's a mistake - we should have moved straight from Sweden out of Europe). The main gain from this move is Mr doesn't have to drive 250km a day to and from work, a nicer house, safer environment and my kids are finally learning at their schools. But our bank account drain a lot faster here compared to Sweden.