I am suffering so much. Remember I need to stipulate a UVG insurance in order to be registered as ANobAG? Well, it turns out that all the UVG insurers I asked are happy to insure me, provided I can show them the confirmation letter from SVA/AHV that I am registered as ANobAG.
AYFKM?
Yes, you got it right, it’s a typical chicken-and-egg problem. I don’t know why this happens, maybe it’s a canton-by-canton thing, but I know of at least another big canton in addition to Zerneve where this problem appears.
Eventually what I am doing is to PUSH the insurer by phone, telling them FIRMLY that the SVA/AHV told me they have no right to request the letter in advance, and kindly suggesting to issue me an UVG policy conditioned on me sending them the confirmation letter “as soon as possible”. This strategy seems to work, I have already received a quote (f**k, it’s EXPENSIVE), now I will collect other 1-2 quotes and then pick one in the next couple of days.
Regarding the registration as ANobAG, the news are grim. I called SVA/AHV and they told me they need 3 MONTHS to start looking at my application, because “there is a lot of people doing ANobAG”.
AYFKM? Last time you told me this ANobAG thing is not well known because there are not many people doing it!
I explained that I cannot wait three months, and kindly asked if I could bribe do anything to speed up the process. Here is what they told me:
Well, you can call us in one month, and then we can see if we can start the processing at that point.
WAT.
It’s two different employees who told me this, on two separate occasions, so it must probably be true. I inquired, and it looks like all requests go into a queue to be processed, but it is not possible to “manually pick” an element in the queue before 30 days. I find this explanation ridiculous. If true, somebody shall pay with blood. Actually, the same applies if it’s not true.
Doing some math, it seems that even if I call on the 30th day, and they process my application quickly, there’s no chance for it to be done before end year holidays. Luckily, from what they told me, this is not catastrophic. Even if I start working on Jan 1st without being confirmed as ANobAG yet, this is not a big deal, as the ANobAG status can be recorded retroactively, I will just have to pay the contributions for the previous months as soon as I’m confirmed. The crucial thing, instead, is to be UVG-insured before the beginning of my employment contract, it would be very illegal otherwise (in addition to being risky, e.g., what if I have a car accident while not insured?).
Oh, and there is another funny question. Just today I received a letter from AVS/AHV where, in order to process my application, they request my “employment contract as ANobAG”. But I am sure I have already submitted a copy of my work contract when I filled the registration form, so either 1) they missed it, or 2) (more likely) they need some additional form that I have not submitted yet. I have to investigate this urgently. (UPDATE 27-11-2024: yeah, looks like they had missed it, I called by phone and told me to disregard the letter.)
Finally, the 2nd pillar question. It is ridiculous. As some other people already warned me about, you won’t find any financial pension institution willing to offer you a 2nd pillar solution if you are employed by a US-based employer. I did not want to believe this initially, but it’s apparently true. Nobody could explain me exactly why, but the guess is because of the horrible burden caused by FACTA (if you follow the link you’ll see what I mean). The only exception is the Swiss federation-backed AEIS institution, which has the specific task of providing a 2nd pillar to basically anyone who applies. But I have to check carefully their conditions, I have heard somewhere that they will cap the 2nd contribution to a maximum amount which is relatively low, it might be more convenient to do an “extended 3rd pillar” (roughly 35k CHF/year) at the end. This is anyway not urgent, as AEIS requires proof of registration as ANobAG before, and I can open a 2nd pillar or extended 3rd pillar account any time before end 2025 without incurring in extra complications.
I could have saved myself all this hassle by seeking help from an accountant, but: 1) numbers I found online seem to indicate a cost of over 3000 CHF (3400 USD / 3200 EUR) to start with, and 300 CHF (340 USD / 320 EUR) per month as maintenance costs; 2) I strongly doubt that an accountant can do much more than what I am doing right now, in particular I don’t think they can speed up the AVS/AHV time; and 3) I called a couple of them, just to inquire, and they are all booked until mid-December.
So, enjoying the ride!
Are You Fucking Kidding Me 