Driving

I can count the number of times I have been in a car in Switzerland on my fingers. A Mobility car to move apartments, a van to Italy, a station wagon back, and a few taxi to get to meetings for work when the Swiss trains were running late (it happens!). I was not driving any of these vehicles. Nevertheless, if you stay in Switzerland for more than a year, you are not supposed to drive with your foreign license any more. In the event that I event do need to drive here in the future, I went through the process of applying for one. Even if I don't drive, it helps me establish/demonstrate residency and will ease transactions where I have to show ID (I've been using my residency permit, which isn't actually a legal proof of identity).

I downloaded a form off the internet, filled most of it out, then took it to a optometrist where I paid to take an eye exam with my glasses on. Then I went to my Circle's office so they could verify that I was who I said I was and send it off with my North Carolina license and a passport photo. 

I got a call the next day and was informed that I had forgotten to answer a question, my license was too new (I had just renewed it in October and there is no date saying since when I had gotten my initial license), and my photo was too pale.

See 4b? It means there is no expiration date!

One check mark, one photo, a scan of my previous licence, and a copy of my diving record (just to be safe) were sent back to them and two days later I received my new license and the old one (in a separate envelope), with a nifty "Not valid in Switzerland" sticker, which does not look very durable or official.

The whole process took nine days, about the same amount of time it took to get my renewal license back home. The internet told me this could take up to three months, so this was a pleasant surprise. It was also a fairly inexpensive process, 20 CHF for getting proof I am a person from the Circle, 20 CHF for the eye test and 8 CHF for new passport photos, which I need for some upcoming visa applications anyway. A steal compared to what bureaucratic actions usually cost here. *EDIT 10 DEC 2014: just got a bill in the mail for 85 Francs for the transaction... that's the Switzerland I've grown accustomed to :)*