Ah Sam so you are the one person lurking in the dark corners of the forum ;) well welcome to glocals and soon welcome to Geneva.  While I don't have all the answers to your questions I'll answer what I can:

- Televisions: If you are using the old standard tube TVs then might be a good time to update to an LCD or Plasma as most of them work with Pal/NTSC and both voltage systems, where tube TVs will often only work with NTSC.  The single that is coming in digital is Pal, same thing goes for some DVD players.

As for a PAL to NTSC converter, never used them so sorry can't help you on that issue.  But if you have to covert your power and your signal it might be cheaper to pick up a new TV in the US or once you arrive.  US is cheaper, but will miss a few items like being able to select languages and a few other things from basic cable.

I have a couple very costly wall mounted CD systems, which were bought when I lived in the US and I needed to get a couple heavy-duty converters to run them here in Europe, it was very hard to find, but I found it at a high-end audio store that dealt in Asian electronics, as was being sold to people coming from Asia into the NA markets with high-end equipment.  I haven't seen them anywhere else and while they where not cheap maybe $150 a piece they did work perfectly.  I would try searching ebay for some and hopefully get luck in price and even luckier if they are within your city so can pickup.

Sending money back into the US, this can be done with standing orders at your local swiss bank and no problems with normal amounts, anything over 10k and you'll have more issues back home then here.  Also friendly note, once you make a transfer from a swiss account to a US account it the swiss account is exposed and I wouldn't be hidding from the IRS using that account. As for info to do the transfer, just the basic items such as swift, and account number.  Ask your bank in the US for the information to handle the transaction and once you are here the banks will be able to help you with the rest of it.

Roommate is possible, if you have a budget of 2,500/3,500 you can get a hotel room.  The roommate options are about 1,000/1,500 and I would check out this sites market place for people listing place, check their friends in the network and ask for references as they'll do the same with you so best to make sure both people are a little in line, but overall people who hit Geneva are stable and just trying to save some money by renting a room.

- Mandatory Health Insurance.  You will need to get local medical coverage as while I am new to the system it looks like a government forced private health care system, there is a guy in the forums offering cheap insurance for under 200 a month. 

Yes Geneva is much different then Texas, the closest thing I can think of in Texas would be San Antonio, in terms of a nice small business center and a friendly community feel and while we have oil tycoons here they wear a keffiyeh rather then a cowboy hat :)

If you have other questions let us know,

Stephen
Canadian, Apr 14, 2009 @ 21:59

[quote]Hi all,



I have been lurking for a few weeks now trying to get as much info, but it looks like me and the family will be headed to GVA in the summer from the US. I would appreciate some feedback specially from people who have gone through a move from the US. My main questions are:



- Televisions: Ok I know about the voltage difference US and GVA as well as TV standards PAL vs NTSC, but does it matter any more in case of using a digital TV or is it still a problem.

[/quote]



As said, it depends on the TV.

Please post precise model number , etc.

We can't guess what you have.



[quote]

- Is the cable signal sent by local cable companies using the PAL standard or it doesn't matter (I'm an AV/Electronics illiterate person).

[/quote]



I'm cable-illiterate.

Most likely, you need a local cable Set-Top-Box. That box will likely output PAL (or some HDMI-stuff for the HD-channels? Anybody with Cablecom subscription want to comment?)



[quote]

- Any one has experience using a PAL to NTSC signal converter? Are they good, ok, or a waste of money?

[/quote]



Most likely the later. Conversion is also bound to result in signal degradation...

I don't have a TV anyway ;-)



[quote]

- Electric: Anyone familiar whether it's easy and cheap to find heavy-duty 110-220V converters/transformers in GVA or is it something that would cost me as much as paying for the appliance itself?

[/quote]



What appliance do you have in mind that requires a "heavy-duty" converter?

I think fuses in .ch usually only go to 16A anyway (at least, that's what we have in Germany).

Do you want to bring your welding-equipment? Or a particle accelerator for home-use?

;-))





[quote]

- Dental work. How to go about to get insurance that would cover dental insurance. Would that be covered under complimentary insurance or how?

[/quote]



No. Dental stuff is not included in the mandatory health insurance.

You can buy it, but it's usually not worth the money (unless you have kids and they are very young with still flawless teeth) because generally the insurances only pay 1000 CHF in the first year and you will have to go to a health-insurance-named doctor who does an inventory/assessment of your teeth, which will directly influence your monthly payments to the insurance. If your teeth are anything but excellent - forget about it.

If you have anything bigger coming, better start saving for it and go to Germany...



[quote]

- Mandatory Health Insurance. Can we satisfy the legal requirement for mandatory health insurance by showing proof of coverage in another country or no (even if you have a residency permit), mainly for the family.

[/quote]



Nope.

You need insurance for every person in your family individually. Swiss insurance. I'm not even sure they make exceptions for German private healthcare. They probably fear struggling with the foreign health-care provider over costs. And the authorities don't want you do go bankrupt over this struggle ;-)

www.comparis.ch for comparisons between different health-care insurance providers.



[quote]

I am sure I will have more questions. We are very excited about the move, but kind of overwhelmed with all the changes. I've always been fascinated with the international feel of GVA (as compared to oil-rich Texas or even Dallas), and can't wait to be part of it.

[/quote]



I don't think you can compare GVA (or ZH) to any city in the US. It's all very small and dense.

Get used to public transport ;-)





cheers,

Rainer
rainer_d, Apr 15, 2009 @ 02:11

Hi Sam, well I can answer a couple of these:



Voltage converters, dont bother unless you want your apartment looking like an urban design museum. I made the mistake of buying a US spec toaster .. the converter would have been over 200 bucks and weighed 7 kilos !! So if youre here for a while, ditch your appliances.



Money and Investments. For obvious reasons it is currently a big problem if you are considered to be a US person, effectively if you have a green card. If you just need a checking account, fine, but if you need an investment account I suggest you arrange it before you arrive because almost all european banks will refuse.



My firm does handle US client investments, but because of the banks' criteria, its bigger client only.



For transfers abroad, or for that matter if you are bringing capital to Switzerland .. you will really benefit from using a wholesale curency service.



Medical Insurance. If you are being 'assigned' and remain on a home country contract, then you can get away with home country insurance. If you are working for the local swiss entity, you have no choice but to get local medical insurance. as someone said, comapris.ch is the best start.



cheers

Phillip



[quote]Hi all,



I have been lurking for a few weeks now trying to get as much info, but it looks like me and the family will be headed to GVA in the summer from the US. I would appreciate some feedback specially from people who have gone through a move from the US. My main questions are:



- Televisions: Ok I know about the voltage difference US and GVA as well as TV standards PAL vs NTSC, but does it matter any more in case of using a digital TV or is it still a problem.



- Is the cable signalsent by local cable companies using the PAL standard or it doesn't matter (I'm an AV/Electronics illetrate person).



- Any one has experience using a PAL to NTSC signal converter? Are they good, ok, or a waste of money?



- Electric: Anyone familiar whether it's easy and cheap to find heavy-duty 110-220V converters/transformers in GVA or is it something that would cost me as much as paying for the appliance itself?



- Money and banking, anyone has experience with a cost-effective method to transfer cash to the US on a periodic basis? Do banks allow that, what info do you need?



- Housing. Ok I know about the neightmares of trying to find a place in GVA and stuff, but how hard is it to find a roomate-type situation for a couple of months?



- Dental work. How to go about to get insurance that would cover dental insurance. Would that be covered under complimentary insurance or how?



- Mandatory Health Insurance. Can we satisfy the legal requirement for mandatory health insurance by showing proof of coverage in another country or no (even if you have a residency permit), mainly for the family.



- Arabic/Middle Easter-specific questions. Anyone know of any GVA-based or nearby french-based arabic/middle easter/Lebanese supermarkets for meats, frozen veggies, etc?



- Arabic/Middle Eastern schools (not religioussunday-schools, but full-time schools), with the large Arabic community, are there arabic private schools?



I am sure I will have more questions. We are very excited about the move, but kind of overwhelmed with all the changes.I've always beenfascinated with the international feel of GVA (as compared to oil-rich Texas or even Dallas), and can't wait to be part of it.



Thanks guys in advance.



Sam[/quote]
wilycoyote, Apr 15, 2009 @ 11:37