Planning your visit

Depending on the length of your visit and on your nationality you will need a residence permit and/or an entry visa for your stay in Zurich. This will, depending on the length of your visit, either be organised by the FIM or by yourself (the FIM will inform you which one is the case).

If you are a FIM guest, we will organise accommodation for you - a hotel room for shorter stays and a studio or furnished apartment for longer stays. You will be contacted by e-mail with the details of your accommodation.

In case you need to find your own accommodation please see here for a list of hotels and furnished apartments.

Health insurance is compulsory in Switzerland. Therefore, as a general rule, all people residing in Switzerland (even if only temporarily) are required to take out basic health insurance with a recognized Swiss health insurance company. Proof of a valid Swiss health insurance policy needs to be produced within three months of taking up residence.

Due to this period guests staying for less than three months do not necessarily need take out insurance in Switzerland. However, it is strongly advised to make sure that your home insurance will cover any medical issues you might need to have treated while in Switzerland.

Taking out health insurance
If you are staying for more than three months you need to take out basic health insurance with a Swiss insurance company. You are free to choose the company, but make sure it's a recognized one. The companies are all obliged to provide the same benefits, yet monthly premiums can vary to a great extent. It is therefore advisable to compare the rates, and you'll find a very helpful guide on the website external page Comparis (insurance > health insurance). If you don't know your postal code yet, choose 8006 (the area code of the ETH main building).

Zurich has a very good public transport system, whereas parking spaces are scarce and fairly expensive, and we therefore do not recommend you to bring a car. In case you do need to bring a car we have put together some information here.

Public parking spaces

There are two types of public parking spaces: white zones and blue zones. White zone parking spaces have to be paid for at the parking meter. Usually parking is only allowed for one or two hours. For the blue zone parking spaces you need a external page parking disc, on which you will have to indicate the time of arrival. For the blue zone there is the possibility of obtaining up to 10 day permits at the cost of CHF 15.00 per day. The permits can be bought at the external page Dienstabteilung Verkehr, Bewilligungsstelle, at local police stations, or via external page internet (in German only, credit card needed).

ETH parking garage

Personal parking spaces in the ETH parking garage must be applied for and cost CHF 160 per month. If you need a parking permit please contact the FIM staff, they will help you with the application.

Furher information:
external page Parking in the city of Zurich (in German only)
Flyer Download "Parking in the blue zones" (PDF, 711 KB)