My sister in law , a Costa Rican citizen, married a Swiss citizen and she move 2 years ago into his apartment. Once the honeymoon was over, things became very uncomfortable. He invited to all family gatherings his ex-wife !? and when my sister in law complained he just ignored her. Told her that is the way it is in Switzerland (really ?). The month went by and she was pretty much left on her own- he did not explain to her how the system works , where she could learn the language (french) and where she could look for work. Seems to me he is isolating her and making her extreme dependend on him. By accident a neighbor arranged a job for her- to clean offices part time. Once she came with money home- he stopped buying food, soap, toothpaste and even a coat for the winter was denied.
Today he explained to her, she needed to get more "busy" as he has plans to retire soon they would need more money in the house to compensate.
Now the real crazy twist: my sister in law saw his bank statements and
had to learn that he has over $400.000 SF on his account . He is also treating her very bad, yelling at her daily and she is trained now to bring him food and beer to the sofa so he feels comfy. My sister in law is totally frustrated and does not think there is a future with this selfish man. But she does not want to go back to Costa Rica either. She likes it a lot where she lives . Just to mention it as well she has worked in CR as a teacher for over 10 years. Question: Does she has any rights to stay in Switzerland if she moves out ? Can she expect any support from him or the welfare office while trying to establish a life for herself ? My sister in law does not speak English that is why i am posting this one . Any advise is very much appreciated . Thank you all.

The short and simple answer is yes she probably does. She should go contact a good divorce lawyer in her region. I'm sure a search on this forum divorce + Name of the Canton in which she lives will turn up some results.

Hello and welcome to the forum! This is a useful site for you to visit and explain to her of her rights and entitlements.

There are many threads with good advise that you should search for and read up as well such as this and this.

I am sure there will be other members who can provide more useful advice later on ( tis midnite here ).

I have to agree with with Lynn. And the quicker the better....

Also, there should be women's centers that she can probably find out about via her local hospital - they do a VERY good job here in my experience with taking care that women have some place to find out about how things truly work here - everything from women's rights to financial system and such.

So, advise her to ask her gynecologist about what programs are available in her area.

Can anyone comment about the permit renewal, I had read that the marriage has to exist for 5 years, or else the relationship is considered as a marriage of convinience
Can somebody comment on this
Regards

i don't know anything about the law or her rights but if she wants to get in touch with another tica tell her to p.m me- pobresita, no es facil and it sounds like she needs someone. but i would say she's also better off in costa rica!

She should go back to Costa Rica with half of his 400k and get a big house on the beach

Wow, she has got it made and does not realize it yet, half of his fortune, plus half his pension and anthing else he has, she could go back home with a big smile on her face,

Get a lawyer:

http://www.hg.org/firms-switzerland.html

the money he had before the marriage is his personal property, not joint, and will not be divided after divorce, not likely he acquired all the 400K during the 2 years of marriage. But yes most likely she would have right to some maintenace payments as well, so talking to a lawyer is a good idea.

Oh, you'd be surprised...

I don't have any practical experiences with Swiss family law but except for some special provisions like the family home, I would be very surprised if the courts could decide differently from the law. do you have any examples of this when the personal property was divided?

Well that was certianly not the case with me, I got 50% of everything including my lawyers fees were paid paid by my ex due to the circumstances of the divorce.

But I agree totally always seek legal advice to see where you stand, talking about it on a forum may give you some courage to make the next steps, I am glad I did back in 2004 and never looked back with regret.

Get help from divorce lawyer as lynn told.
milk him out of all his money before he tries something similar in future
Try to be independent and move on

Simple steps but difficult to follow

So this actually sounds like an easier divorce to deal with than most because there isn't (shouldn't be) any senimentality here. He doesn't sound like a nice person at all. This means you can go and find a great divorce lawyer, only communicate with the husband through the lawyer, and be as litigious as possible. Best of luck and hope you squeeze the sponge dry.

She should surprise him with the infamous phrase...

"I WANT HALF!!!"

That will make him **** his pants!!

And then girls go and wonder why men/boyfriends are very reluctant to marry nowadays....

The law actually says that all possessions regardless of acquisition are by default to be split equally between the spouses. You have an option to opt out of this scheme and either be married under full separation of assets regime, or partial split regime (i.e. only assets acquired during the marriage) - but that needs to be done before getting married.

well this isn't about a marriage ending with mutual disagreement, this is about a guy being an unmitigated ba****d and her needing to screw him to the wall.

If you listen only to the womans standpoint then ALL to be divorced men fall in this category.

My point is just, with the laws regaring marriage and divorce and such, as a man I would almost say you have to be either stupid or totally sure of your relationship before entering into marriage