Living in Montreux as an expat

Vaud's law on residents' control of 9 May 1983 requires an arrival to be reported within eight days when a stay of more than three months is foreseeable from the start(LCH Art. 3, checked 21 Oct 2026). Montreux takes arrival reports through its online counter (Arriver à Montreux) and at the office, and asks people to book by phone to avoid long waits(montreux.ch, checked 21 Oct 2026).

For EU/EFTA citizens arriving from abroad to take up a job, the office lists the EU/EFTA arrival form, a copy of the passport or identity card, the employment contract or the employer-signed form for work of more than three months, the lease or a host's declaration, a recent passport photo, and a foreign criminal record extract where there was a conviction abroad(montreux.ch, checked 21 Oct 2026). The general steps are in registering at your commune and the permit types in Swiss permits B, L and C.

The commune is made up of about twenty villages, some with their own development society or residents' association(montreux.ch, checked 21 Oct 2026). On 1 June 2026, 213 homes stood empty, a vacancy rate of 1.34% against 0.84% for Switzerland(FSO vacancy count, checked 21 Oct 2026). Search services are listed under apartment search in Montreux, and course providers under language schools in Montreux.

Direct RE and IR trains run from Montreux to Lausanne in 21 to 23 minutes on a weekday morning (October 2026 timetable)(Swiss timetable, checked 21 Oct 2026); the Lausanne page covers the wider region. In the Mobilis fare network, a monthly adult pass costs CHF 71 for one zone and CHF 78 for two zones in 2nd class(Mobilis, checked 21 Oct 2026). The commune pays a subsidy of CHF 350 towards a GA travelcard (abonnement général)(montreux.ch, checked 21 Oct 2026).

For 2026, Montreux's communal tax rate is 65% of the cantonal base tax(vd.ch, checked 21 Oct 2026); the canton levies its own rate of 155% on the same base(ESTV, checked 21 Oct 2026).