This is not a guide to obtaining protection in Switzerland. I am describing what happened to our family: the route from Mariupol to Europe, the status process and the first roof over our heads. The figures and timing are ours; another person's case may be different.
Mariupol to Budapest, then farther west
We are from Mariupol. After getting out and reaching Europe, we first arrived in Budapest. My parents quickly decided that Hungary was still too close to the conflict and that we would feel safer farther away. We continued to Switzerland by train.
It was not a postcard-style search for a dream country. We were simply looking for somewhere we could breathe again.
One week in the reception centre
After arriving, we were received as refugees and placed in a reception centre. We stayed there for about a week. Officials took our fingerprints and interviewed us; in practice, they were deciding whether to grant protection status.
The decision came after roughly five days. They also found a host family willing to take us in for the first period. For us, that was a huge relief: instead of staying in the centre indefinitely, we had somewhere to live with people.
A farm, CHF 300 and a social worker
We ended up on a farm owned by a vegan woman. Our allowance was about CHF 300 per person each month for food. A social worker visited monthly to check that everything was all right, and social services arranged health insurance.
It gave us a pause. We could recover, eat normally and stop wondering every minute where we would sleep. Later came an apartment, school and French. But the first stage was exactly this: a reception centre, protection status, someone else's farm, CHF 300 and a person checking in once a month.
I am not a lawyer. Protection rules, amounts and procedures change. This is only our path, so check current official Swiss sources for your own situation.
We eventually lived in Switzerland for about two years. Protection saved us, while also showing that temporary and permanent are different things. Why we later moved to Uruguay: /en/shveytsariya/pochemu-uehali-iz-shveytsarii/. What the next move cost: /en/pereezd/tsena-pereezda-v-urugvay/.