After arriving in the canton, you will be accommodated in the refugee reception center. Conditions vary, but most often up to 20 people live in a room. Gradually, on a first-come, first-served basis, you can be resettled with a family that is ready to accept refugees, but this process often takes up to several weeks. When you find a job and can support yourself, you can rent an apartment.

Federal Asylum Centres FAC: These are usually the first point of contact for refugees - and offer up to 9,000 accommodation places. Registration takes place here. Those who do not yet have a place to stay are accommodated for a short period (1-3 nights) in a FAC. They are then assigned to a canton, which assumes responsibility for the care of the person in need of protection from that point on.

Cantons: As a rule, registered refugees are allocated to the cantons in proportion to the size of their population. SEM compensates the cantons with a global lump sum of around CHF 1,500 per person per month (including for health insurance premiums). Private accommodation: The Swiss Refugee Council in cooperation with partner organisations (Swiss Church Aid, Caritas, SRC, Salvation Army, SAH and Campax) coordinates the accommodation of Ukrainian refugees with private host families. In each case, the canton responsible decides on any compensation to be paid to providers of private accommodation.

Further initiatives: Hotels can report free capacity for accommodating Ukrainian refugees on the website of the Swiss Refugee Council or Camapx. If the hotel booking was ordered by the federal government, the federal government will bear the costs incurred for overnight stays until another accommodation option can be found (until the person seeking protection is assigned to a canton). The Federal Office of Housing has also called on a number of real estate associations to report vacant apartments.

More information here .

Refugees may be housed in collective accommodation or with host families. Numerous offers to house Ukrainian refugees privately have been received from the public. The Swiss Refugee Council (SRC) is coordinating these offers and is working closely with the cantons to arrange accommodation with private hosts or at cantonal facilities once a Ukrainian refugee has registered at a federal asylum centre.

Useful brochure about living in Switzerland.

You can also find accommodation on your own on the following sites:

• UnitedForu.org
• www.campax.org
• icanhelp.host
• support-ukraine.ch
• host4ukraine.com

If you plan to look for housing on your own, you should consider that the search procedure can take more than one month, as the competition in the country is very high. You can find an apartment on the following websites: Homegate , Immoscout24 and Immoclick . The average cost of renting a house in Switzerland is about 1000€ per month.

EU4UA is a platform for finding housing in Europe together with other Ukrainians

A new roommate search function has been launched on the EU4UA platform.

Renting housing with other people will allow:

• save money by sharing housing costs with other people;
• have a greater choice of housing;
• to find friends, expand the network of social contacts and feel supported in a new country.

Go to the platform via the link .

The distribution ratio also applies for those who have arranged private accommodation by themselves. This means that your existing private accommodation can only be taken into account for cantonal allocation if the distribution ratio can be maintained. Otherwise you will be allocated to another canton, which will then find new accommodation for you. On the day you register at a federal asylum centre, SEM will decide which canton you are allocated to, based on the distribution ratio, and tell you in person.

Important: Your current private accommodation can only be taken into consideration if you bring a printed copy of the ‘Confirmation of private accommodation’ , signed by your host, to the federal asylum centre on the day you register. You must have this ready to present.