Because I haven’t transferred money to my US account since 2011, and because the company that used to handle the transfers has been bought out, I suddenly found myself having to reapply to transfer money to the USA.

This, however, was complicated by US law. I won’t go into details but the basic idea behind the law is “don’t trust Americans or we will hurt you because they are all tax-evading bastards”. Because of this, even Swiss banks have been playing ball, so to speak, and I had to fill out a fairly hefty application and copy two forms of ID. Then I had to answer any unanswered questions via phone calls and then wait long enough that I was worried I’d been rejected.

(Note: there are other ways to send money to a US account but they involve a trip to the post office, hefty amounts of paperwork each time, fees, and, on occasion, substantial profane language.)

Yesterday, though, I received notice that I had a registered letter waiting for me at the post office and She Who Must Be Obeyed called and arranged delivery today. The postal worker arrived at the very end of the requested time period–I didn’t complain because Sunday Delivery–and then he spent a full three minutes filling out paperwork. What shocked me was that 1) HE filled out the paperwork and 2) that he accepted a non-photo ID as proof of who I was.

I now have an account and a way to transfer money. That means I’ll have to actually attempt all that tomorrow. That’s when the real swearing will probably begin.