Visa Update

We returned to Switzerland on Wednesday afternoon. We went through our mail and were discouraged to find nothing about the visa. Thursday's mail was more exciting. There was an official letter from our town of Pully.

Okay, we thought, hold your breath, this is it. With great anticipation we read it only to find that Pully sent us a card allowing us to use the city recycle center. Nothing more. Big deal. Huge disappointment.

Friday's mail had another official looking letter. This time from the Service de la Population, Division Etrangers. Now we were really hopeful. It is a two page letter reviewing all the steps we have taken so far starting with our request of December 2011 in San Francisco to stay six months, and their denial as a tourist visa is limited to three months.

Then the letter, translated loosely by google, goes something like this:
As of April, you have taken a domicile and are living in Switzerland while seeking authorization to remain as pensioners. On this occasion you have produced diverse justifications of financial resources.

It continues:
In this connection, we inform you on the one hand a stay as a pensioner is defined in the law of 2005 as taking a permanent home in Switzerland and abandoning completely your previous home. The center of interest then is clearly placed en Suisse.
(This is not our case as we plan to return to the US.)

It continues:
On the other hand, a stay of the requirements for admission may be envisaged within the meaning of another law for our intended stay of less than a year.

Therefore, to enable us to decide in full knowledge of your case on request please send us the following documents:
Copy of your lease
New copy of our marriage certificate as the one submitted was not readable
Exact duration of your requested stay in Switzerland.
Failure to respond will mean that we cannot evaluate your case.

We have one month to reply and submit the documents which we have already submitted. We resubmit and wait. Perhaps it will take until October for them to make a decision and by then we will be ready to leave.

Today was Tern's birthday party. Despite being rained out at the park a great time was had by all seven children and seven adults in the apartment. The cake was a train cake of course. It was wonderful being here for the occasion.



Other news:
We ate the first of our balcony grown cherry tomatoes yesterday for our 45th wedding anniversary. We spent the morning at the gym working off the Irish pounds, then at the Euro version of Home Depot buying parts to make J&H a hanging pot rack. In the evening we had an unexpected visit from our old friend from Cypress Semiconductor days, Giuseppe, who was up here on business from Turino. We shared a glass of wine then went out to a Chinese restaurant with Jed & Helga joining us. It was a lovely day.


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