Finding the correct Gemeinde to register when you move into Zürich city - or, public services done right ☺️
In short - Zürich city is split into district offices that handle your requests. You can quickly look up online which district your address belongs to, then engage with their online forms to request registration. Simple!
I recently moved to Zürich city, and I initially struggled to work out where I had to register as a resident. I knew there was a 14-day clock ticking from the date of move-in.
I couldn't immediately find the Gemeinde for my new address in Zurich. If you're wondering how to do it, read on...
In short - Zürich city is split into district offices that handle your requests. You can quickly look up online which district your address belongs to, then engage with their online forms to request registration. Simple!
In hindsight - I shouldn't have worried too much - a few days after moving in, a letter from the city arrived explaining all of the below...
How to find out which District Office of Zürich city your address falls into
At the bottom of the Moving & Reporting page on the City of Zürich website you can enter your address and house number.
You will then get a link to the online services section for your region of Zürich city, and you can click through to perform different services like registering an individual, or family, extending a permit, or registering a civil event (like birth or marriage):
I am continually blown away at the quality of cantonal services in Switzerland, compared to how things operated back in the UK. Generally in Switzerland, I am finding there is a clear, usable, well-designed form for almost all governmental interactions you would need to make as a citizen.
eMoving CH - deregister with your previous Gemeinde and register with your new one
I was super impressed with the above service from Zürich city... then it got even better... when it linked me to eMovingCH.
eMovingCH is a simple platform to register your move within Switzerland. It says it takes about ten minutes, but get the following ready for you and family members that have moved with you:
- Scan of Permit(s)
- Scan of Passport(s)
- Scan of your rental contract
- AHV number(s)
- Insurance Card number
You can provide all the information related to your move directly into eMovingCH, and it will handle deregistering your old location of residence and registering with your new location.
Once you've filled out the form on eMovingCH, it provides contact details for both residence municipalities. Super clean, super effective - brilliant!
Closing the loop - updating other institutions
It then also links to various recommended services. For example, you can set up post forwarding directly at Swiss Post. However - even Swiss Post has really neat integrations - for example, they can automatically notify other organisations, such as your bank - that you have moved address.
