maj

Q: I'm actually living in Montreal with my family but would like to move to Geneva for June or September this year. Citizenship French-Canadian, we were wondering how we had to proceed to live and work there, if it's difficult or not. I'm looking for an administrative assistant position and my husband for IT Technical-support.

A: You really have two options, depending on what you feel comfortable with. You can either wait and try to secure a job and work permit (which you do not need, by the way, if you are working for a UN agency) or plan to go out there for an extended visit and try to find work in person.

At least when I was there (a few years ago), border control was not very strict if you had a US, Canadian, or (especially) EU passport. In my three years in Geneva, I was never asked to provide any type of visa other paperwork at the border.

*But* you will need either a visa or document proving UN employment to rent an apartment or buy a home. Luckily there are always a large number of sublets available as Geneva residents tend to come and go quite a bit (I sublet my apartment for over a year while I decided if I was going to take another contract).

For administrative assistant positions you will almost certainly need to find something in person, usually through informal network since very few positions are publicized outside of the organizations. IT positions are a little easier to come by through formal channels.

If you haven't already, take a look at my other article, UNemployment: Finding a job with the UN (http://www.escapeartist.com/efam/43/Finding_Jobs_UN.html). It's a little out of date as you can now find most UN org positions at http://jobs.un.org, but it may have some other helpful info.

I hope this has been helpful!