What paperwork do you need after moving to Switzerland in 2026?

Register where you actually sleep. Use the Einwohnerkontrolle or contrôle des habitants, meaning the residents' registration office for that municipality, normally within 14 days and before starting Swiss work when that rule applies: Register your address. Bring the lease or written housing proof the office lists. Zurich city, Geneva, Basel, Bern, and Lausanne do not share one identical checklist, so read the local page before you book.

Finish the residence-permit process through the cantonal migration authority after that municipal filing: Apply for a residence permit. EU/EFTA movers usually prove free-movement basis locally. Most third-country workers must already hold the employer-led authorisation and any entry visa before they treat registration as routine. The municipal stamp is not the final permit card.

Secure housing you can prove on paper before you invent a temporary mailbox story: How to rent a home. Where you live also shapes which tax office and road office you will later visit: Where to live in Switzerland.

Choose an approved basic health insurer for your address and enrol each person within three months after the insurance duty begins: Choose health insurance. Timely enrolment runs cover back to the start of the duty; late enrolment can add a premium surcharge and leave a gap.

Your employer normally reports you for the 13-digit AHV/AVS social security number through its compensation office. Self-employed and some non-employed residents contact the office themselves: Get a social security number. Get a Swiss mobile early for bank OTPs and landlord calls: Get a mobile phone. Open a Swiss-franc account once identity and residence evidence are consistent: Open a bank account.

Create a SwissID account for private e-services, banking identity checks, and portals that still accept it: Set up SwissID. For cantonal tax and many authority logins, also set up AGOV or the canton's own portal rather than waiting for a future federal e-ID. File taxes with the canton that matches your registered address once the first return arrives.

Later steps sit after that trail is stable: list with a family doctor, enrol children in school, exchange a driving licence, register a vehicle, or finish pet import and AMICUS dog registration. They all assume the same address and identity already appear on municipal and cantonal records.