Thank you for the great information. Would someone be able to clarify a few things that are not clear to me.

I am an Italian citizen currently living in Australia with my 2 children. My partner has lived in Switzerland for about 40 years as a permanent resident (and has C permit). We want to go over to join him and stay for about one or two years initially.

I was told by the Swiss Consulate here that as an Italian EU citizen I can work freely in Switzerland without a permit. Does that mean that I can apply for a B permit? I work for myself and run a couple of online businesses so I would not be looking for traditional work as such.

I was thinking that family reunification would be the best approach, however I can't find a definition of "spouse" in this case - does it mean wife or is a de-facto partner also accepted. And would there have been a time period that we would need to live together before being considered a couple under the Swiss rules (we have not lived together long term as yet) and been together for 2+ years.

I would also like to know how easily would my children be able to go to the local Swiss school (they are Italian/Australian citizens).

Be great if someone has been in the same situation and can give me some idea of this.