Glossary: words you'll meet in Swiss admin
Plain-language meanings of the abbreviations and French terms used across this kit. Each entry points to the kit page that explains it and to an official page already cited there. Unofficial student guide: confirm on the official pages before you act.
Jump to: Permit letters · Commune & canton · EPFL study terms · Health insurance · Tax & social insurance · Money & everyday life · Driving
Permit letters (B, L, C, Ci, F, N)
These are residence-permit categories, not driving-licence categories. You do not normally choose the letter yourself: the authorities issue the type that fits your situation. → Permit & commune: permit letters · EPFL, Residence permit
- B (Permis B): the usual student residence permit (what EPFL says students typically receive). A B permit for studies is also the proof the Vaud AVS office accepts for a full student-AVS exemption → AVS.
- L (Permis L): short-term student permit, for stays of about 6 months.
- C: settlement permit (long-term, permanent-style status); not the usual first student card.
- Ci: residence permit for family members of certain international officials.
- F: provisionally admitted foreign nationals.
- N: asylum seeker.
Permit F is not driving category F. Swiss driving category F covers certain slow motor vehicles (maximum 45 km/h); it has nothing to do with residence permits. → Driving category F
Commune and canton
Commune
The municipality where you actually live, shown on your lease or housing booking. Around EPFL it is often Ecublens, St-Sulpice, Renens or Chavannes-près-Renens rather than Lausanne. → Permit & commune
Contrôle des habitants
The commune's residents' office (some communes call it Office de la population or Service des habitants). EPFL/Lausanne: register within 14 days; Renens (and Vaud canton): within 8 days, always follow your commune’s page. → Permit & commune: checklist · UCV, Contrôle des habitants directory
Attestation (commune registration attestation)
A confirmation of your registration that you can ask the commune for while you wait for the permit card. Banks and carriers often accept it as proof of residence. It is not a travel document and will not let you re-enter Switzerland. → Permit & commune · Bank
SPOP
Service de la population, the Canton of Vaud's Population Office. After commune registration, non-EU students may be invited to SPOP in Lausanne to give biometric data: follow the letter. → Permit & commune · Canton of Vaud, SPOP
eDéménagement
The Canton of Vaud's online service for announcing an arrival or address change to participating communes; some EPFL-area communes accept it, others ask students to come in person. → Permit & commune: commune offices near EPFL · État de Vaud, eDéménagement
Residence tax
A commune tax for residents (EPFL: often about CHF 37 per month for students; the amount varies by commune). It is separate from income tax. → Residence tax (not income tax)
VD
Short for the Canton of Vaud.
Corps électoral
The electorate. In a Vaud commune, foreigners belong to the commune electorate when they are 18 or over, live in the commune with a B or C permit, and have 10 years of continuous residence in Switzerland and the last 3 in Vaud. They are entered automatically in the commune's register (registre du corps électoral); there is no cantonal or federal vote for foreigners. → Voting as a foreigner in Vaud · État de Vaud, Droit de vote
Domicile politique
The commune where you are on the electoral register; political rights are exercised only there. Keep your commune registration and address current. → Voting as a foreigner: getting on the electoral roll
Conseil communal / conseil général
The commune parliament. Communes with fewer than 1,000 inhabitants have a conseil général, which the canton's integration office (BCI) says you can join on simple request once you hold commune political rights. → Voting as a foreigner: what it means for students · Vaud Bienvenue (BCI), Droits politiques
EPFL study terms
IS-Academia
EPFL's online study portal. You use it for the FRAC, course registration and exam withdrawal, and to print the enrolment certificate (less than 3 months old) that the commune asks for. → Semester dates: words you'll see · EPFL first, then commune
FRAC
EPFL's name for the academic reregistration form on IS-Academia. You confirm your personal and study details on it at the start of every semester, and you must submit it before you can register for courses. → Semester dates & FRAC deadlines
Matriculation
Your official in-person enrolment at EPFL, on set days just before the semester starts (Matriculation Days). → CAMIPRO & matriculation
CAMIPRO
Your EPFL student card, a kind of EPFL ID card with an electronic chip. You use it to pay on campus, open some locked rooms and get discounts; it is personal. (Campus bike-sharing: PubliBike Campus ended Dec 2025; Lime is current with EPFL-email rates, see Getting around / CAMIPRO bikes.) Validate it at a terminal every semester. → CAMIPRO · EPFL, CAMIPRO Card
Student Services Desk
EPFL's main contact point for all student questions. → Where to get help
BP 1229
The room of the Student Services Desk: room 1229 in the BP building (postal address: BP 1229, Station 16, CH-1015 Lausanne). → Where to get help
Foundation year
The first year of the Bachelor's programme. → Semester dates
CMS
Cours de mathématiques spéciales: a one-year preparatory year in maths, physics, computer science and chemistry, taught in French, for some students whose diploma doesn't give direct entry to the first Bachelor's year (and Swiss maturité holders who choose it). → Semester dates · EPFL – CMS (French)
Mise à niveau (MAN)
A compulsory one-semester refresher course, in spring only, for first-year students whose "block 1" average is below 3.50 after the winter exams. → Semester dates
SHS
EPFL's Social Science and Humanities programme, part of every study plan. → Semester dates · EPFL, SHS Program
AGEPoly
EPFL's general student association. Its shop takes cash to load your CAMIPRO, and its office refunds money left on the card when you leave. → CAMIPRO
Health insurance
LAMal
Switzerland's compulsory health insurance (German: KVG), taken out with an authorised Swiss insurer. Students must take it out or apply for the Vaud dispense within 3 months of taking up residence. → LAMal
Dispense
The Vaud exemption from the compulsory health-insurance obligation for foreign residents who prove equivalent cover, requested through a Vaud online service. → LAMal: applying in Vaud · Vaud dispense request
EHIC
European Health Insurance Card. Non-working EU/EFTA/UK students covered at home can use it for treatment in Switzerland. Vaud accepts an EHIC copy as proof when you request a dispense. FOPH and Vaud do not say every EHIC holder must file the Vaud form, and they do not say an EHIC alone with no cantonal contact is enough for OVAM. Campus guidance (EPFL health page, ALSL) recommends filing the Vaud online dispense within 3 months so OVAM has the exemption on record. → LAMal: EU/EFTA/UK students
Tax and social insurance
ACI
Administration cantonale des impôts, the Canton of Vaud's tax administration. → Student tax
Impôt à la source (withholding tax)
Tax deducted directly from your salary by the employer; check your payslip for "impôt à la source". → Student tax: two different systems
TOU
Taxation ordinaire ultérieure, an ordinary subsequent assessment: a full tax return for someone who is taxed at source, mandatory in some cases set by the canton and possible on request in others. → Student tax (see "Advanced")
VaudTax
Vaud's online tool for filing the annual tax return. → Student tax: ordinary assessment
e-Délai
Vaud's online service to request an extra extension for filing your tax return. → Student tax: ordinary assessment
AVS / AHV / OASI, AI, APG
The Swiss social-insurance contributions students may be invoiced for (student contributions go to "AVS/AI/APG"). AVS (French), AHV (German) and OASI (English) name the same scheme: old-age and survivors' insurance. AI is disability insurance and APG is loss-of-earnings allowances. Leaflet 2.10 spells out AVS, AI and APG in French; AHV/OASI are the German/English names for AVS. → AVS for students · Leaflet 2.10 (federal)
Civil domicile
The place Swiss civil law treats as your settled home, not merely where you stay temporarily to study. → AVS
Money and everyday life
TWINT
A Swiss smartphone payment app. You can use it to load your CAMIPRO, and a Swiss number and bank account make it easier to use. → Mobile phone · Bank · TWINT
Serafe
The organisation that collects Switzerland's household radio and television fee. You don't register yourself: billing uses the commune residents' register. In a recognised student hall the establishment pays. → Serafe · serafe.ch
SBB / CFF and tl
SBB (German) / CFF (French) are the Swiss Federal Railways; tl runs Lausanne-region public transport (metro m1, buses). → Getting around
Driving
SAN
Service des automobiles et de la navigation, the Canton of Vaud's authority for driving licences, including exchanging a foreign licence (form 220). → Driving licence exchange · Vaud, Exchange a foreign driving licence (French)
VD-CH
The kit's shorthand for exchanging a foreign licence into a Swiss licence issued in Vaud (VD = Vaud, CH = Switzerland). → Driving licence exchange
Driving category F
A Swiss driving-licence category for certain motor vehicles with a maximum speed of 45 km/h. Not the same as residence-permit F. → Driving category F