Germany keeps its border checks, and the September calendar comes into view.

The week

Germany extends border checks with Switzerland to March 2027

Germany has notified the European Commission that controls at all nine of its land borders, Switzerland included, will run to mid-March 2027. It is the fourth extension since the checks were introduced in September 2024, and it is contested on legality within the EU. Nothing changes about your right to cross. What changes is how long it takes, and how often you are asked to prove who you are.

Source: The Local Switzerland

What that means if you commute to Baden-Württemberg

Checks are selective rather than systematic, so most crossings are waved through and some are not. Carry your passport or ID and your permit card, every time, not just when you expect to be stopped. The practical cost is the queue at peak hours on the Basel crossings, which is a scheduling problem rather than a legal one.

Source: The Local Switzerland

The 2027 health-insurance premiums land at the end of next month

The Federal Office of Public Health announces 2027 premiums at the end of September. The comparison platform Comparis expects around 3.7 percent nationally, which would be gentler than the 4.4 percent announced for 2026. If you intend to switch insurer, the deadline to cancel basic insurance is 30 November, in writing.

Source: The Local Switzerland

This week if you're arriving

• If you are crossing from Germany, keep your ID and permit card on you rather than in a drawer at home. Selective checks are still checks.
• Registration at your Gemeinde is due within 14 days of arrival, and the clock starts the day you land, not the day the furniture does.
• If you arrived this summer, your first premium notice will look like a bill for a service you have not used. Pay it anyway; lapsed cover is far more expensive than the premium.

City in focus: Basel

• Three countries inside a tram ride, which is the charm and, this month, the friction.
• The German and French crossings behave differently at rush hour; ask a colleague which one they use before you settle on a route.
• Rents are gentler than Zürich and the trade is a smaller job market, so weigh the lease against how easy it would be to change employer.
• Fasnacht is in February and the city genuinely stops. Book nothing that week in your first year, and go and watch instead.

A quiet note

A border that was open and is now watched is a small thing on paper and a large thing in a life. It is ten minutes on a Tuesday, and it is also the quiet reminder that the arrangement you moved into is something people argue about. Both are true. Carry the card, leave earlier, and do not let a queue become a verdict on whether you belong here. You do. The paperwork is just paperwork.