Sunday 28 November 2010

Leaving Switzerland

The past weeks were the most eventful so far.

I had my company farewell party with many of my colleagues that went down really well with a great speech of my previous manager and myself. We had a lot of fun.

This week marked the end of my 3 years with my company. Although I am really looking forward to moving to Cuenca, it was also sad to leave a great team behind. I had a good time there, was always treated in a nice way and had a steady income. Especially the last point will not be the case looking forward. It will completely depend on myself and my partners to make a living.

The final event in Switzerland was a Thanksgiving dinner this Thursday. As I was sharing a flat with an American work colleague for my last 2 months in Switzerland, he had the idea to invite friends and colleagues and have an American style Thanksgiving dinner. I liked the idea and offered to do most of the cooking as it should be on my first day in unemployment. It was a great success and a lot of fun. I even managed to convince my mother to come to Switzerland from Munich.





Since Friday I am now in Munich and feeling quite relaxed and at ease with how things are progressing. There is not much left for me to do before my flight leaves in 2.5 weeks apart from reducing my luggage load by about one third. Not easy, when you receive small gifts from friends to take with you to your new home. But I will manage that somehow

Wednesday 17 November 2010

Certifications. Tick off!

Originally, I wanted to apply for an investor's visa straight away. This would have required to have the company set-up before I actually went to Ecuador. A bit difficult, if you are supposed to be present to form the company... So, the only option was to apply for an extended tourist visa and sort out the investor's visa once we have formed the company. The investor's visa is valid for life and gives you all freedom in terms of work, and residency, etc.

In order to apply for a 6 month tourist visa, you need to supply the following items:
  • 3 passport pictures - not that difficult :)
  • Valid passport - have
  • Flight confirmation - sure
  • Police clearance certificate (dt: Polizeiliches Führungszeugnis)
  • Health certificate stating that you have no communicable deseases
  • Finance statement that shows that you have enough funds to support yourself during your stay. This can also be a simple bank statement.
As of today, I have all of the above (apart from the bank statement that I can print myself at the end of this month). So, actually, not much can go wrong from here :)

Since I had time at my hand, this was all very easy to get hold of. Of course, being a German citizen living in Switzerland, I had to drive across the border to get my Police Certificate Request Form (lol) authenticate by the major's office. No big deal really. If you are in a hurry though, this could be a bit of a test of patience.

Friday 5 November 2010

So many last things

It is becoming apparent that my leave from my current employer is less than 3 weeks to go.

There are more and more things that I do for the last time now. The last trip to Sweden this week, the last meeting in a series next week, last pizza Thursday in 2 weeks time, and generally seeing people for the (probably) last time who are not working at our Swiss office and will not be around during the next few weeks.

All this is obvious if you leave a company (and I have done that a couple of times) but the feeling attached to those events is much stronger if you are leaving the continent and are likely not to come back for at least a year. In the past 11 years of my business career all those good-byes were feeling temporary although most people I actually have never seen since then.

I am looking forward to my farewell party next week though. It should be fun to celebrate my three years with the company and say good-bye with a nice event. In the end, I am leaving to build something up and not because the competition recruited me… :)