First, let me say I did a search, and couldn't find anything on this in the forum. If there is a thread that discusses it, I'll happily be pointed in that direction.

Our situation is that my husband is Swiss, and I am a US citizen. It looks more and more like he will be getting a position in the Zürich area.

My question is about the processing time to receive a spousal visa. I have no idea how the process works. For the UK, we submitted an application to a US Consulate with supporting documentation, and they issued a visa in my passport within a week. I'm hoping it's a similar process with Switzerland - that I can apply with the Embassy in London and it gets processed pretty quickly.

My fear is that it is a process that will take months. We know we will need to live apart for a while anyway, while I tie up things in the UK like selling the house. But if the real estate gods smile on us, and we can wrap things up quickly, I'd like to know I wont be stuck in limbo waiting for a visa before we (daugther, dogs, me) can join my husband.

Thanks for any insights, links or information you can provide.

Edited to add: I did find some links to residence permit info, and it did say I would apply through the Embassy. I guess what I don't know is about how the forms work. For example - for the UK you apply using one set of forms if you have been married less than X years, and another set if more than X years, and it influences the type of permit you get (the kind that has to be renewed, or indefinite). Is this the case with Switzerland - or does everyone submit the same form and they decide what type of visa to provide?

I'm not sure that you'll need the visa before you enter the country - you can simply enter the country as a tourist and have all the paperwork sorted out here - shouldn't have to be a big drama involving embassies?

I found these which may or may not help:

http://www.englishforum.ch/help-tips...ht=spouse+visa
http://www.englishforum.ch/help-tips...t=husband+visa
http://www.englishforum.ch/help-tips...ight=wife+visa

But you can stay for up to 3 months as a tourist, so why bother with the embassy?

The Brits have conditioned me

To settle in the UK as a spouse, you must apply for your visa from your country of origin, and you can't enter on a tourist visa and convert status. You used to be able to do that but they stopped it a few years ago.

It never ocurred to me that it would be easier going to Switzerland, what with the apparent love of rules, bureaucracy, etc. But hey, that would be great if that's the case - one less thing to worry about right now.

Thanks for the links. I'll check them out. If I pose any questions to the Embassy in London and get any responses, I'll update this thread for future reference.

Hi

I came to Switzerland using the 3 month tourist visa, I couldn't apply for my permit until my husband got his. They took their time getting his permit to him, which meant i went over my 3 month tourist visa, as soon as he received his permit i went and registered for mine and told them that I had entered the country 8 days earlier no questions asked, i don't necessarily want to condone this but it wasn't a big issue. Also not wanting to sound negative but we moved to Switzerland in January this year we put our house on the market in December 05 and to be honest we just stupidly assumed it would sell pretty quickly, its still on the market now 9 months later - hopefully you'll have more luck than us!


Nicky

I've generally found that embassies from any country, in any country are always more difficult to the deal with that the corresponding departments in their home countries.

If you entered the UK on a tourist visa (assuming you had that right), then could they seriously insist that you leave the country (and your husband) in order to complete a process to allow you to come back to join him? Seems pretty insane to me!

The exception would be if you were from a "bad country" which needed an application for a tourist visa from outside the country.

Sending you positive house-selling vibes. The UK market is - well, very different from what I'm used to in the US. Fortunately we are in a great area, and the market seems strong. The estate agent said he could have sold our house three times over - in fact people who were too late to get ours were knocking on our neighbour's door asking if they wanted to sell! So fingers crossed all the way round . . .

My husband is Swiss, so I don't have to wait on any kind of permit with him. I just found a link and emailed the embassy in London and will see what they advise.

Nicky - what kind of documentation did you have to provide with your application?

I am currently scrambling to get an "Issued within the last 6 months" copy of my birth ceritificate (from Alaska!) so we can register our marriage and our daughter's birth. We've been a little slack administratively and they didn't like the fact that we sent originals that hadn't been issued in the past 6 months (ie. marriage certificate 8 years old by now). Wacky, wacky stuff - but that's another thread. I'm just hoping if I need all this for a visa that I can finally convince the state of Alaska that I am who I say I am so I can get my daughter her Swiss passport. We've been lazy and she's just been travelling on her US one.

yep - it's done all the time. Insane, but it's the reality. I guess it's to crack down on what we in the US call "marrying for a green card" - coming as a tourist, finding someone to marry you so you can get a residence permit, and keeping a "sham" marriage until you qualify for permanent residence.

Hi

I just took along our marriage certificate, my passport, a photocopy of my husbansd permit and thats it I think, it was very straight forward although they took forever to get my permit to me also, applied in March didn't get it till July!!

When I went in to register they asked when I entered the country and I just told them I had entered the week before, no questions asaked.

If your husband is Swiss then I would imagine you could go to your local Kreisburo and register for permits straight away

Nicky

Ok - here's the scoop officially from the Swiss Embassy in London. I'm posting in case it will be of help to someone else in future. They got back with me in about a day or so, so good response time, in my opinion.

Ok, then let's put this another way. Are there any Americans out there that came as a spouse of someone with a permit and applied for their own permit in-country (as in Switzerland)?

If there are, then the embassy's statement that the permit must be applied for outside Switzerland is not correct. Personally I feel as though the information they have given you is not strictly correct, but since it has come from an official source it would be better to ask people who have first-hand knowledge of it not being correct to tell us their story directy on this thread

Does anyone else think that the embassy official has been economical with the truth?

Not sure if this matters, but I'm not coming as the spouse of someone with a permit (husband is Swiss). I'll be interested to hear what any other US citizens have to say.

Also, wondering is the residence permit a sticker they put on a page in your passport? (the UK one is like that) I'm hoping not as I don't want to have to be without my passport for 6 weeks.

Embassies aren't always up on real life and practice, I've found.

When I moved here, it was as the fiance of a Swiss citizen. The Swiss Consulate in Chicago (the only one I was allowed to deal with, because of districts) told me I needed to apply for a visa directly from them, submit all of our paperwork to get married, etc. with them and wait quite some time.

They also told me I"d have to have quite a few things translated into German, at considerable cost from them. None of this was necessary from the local offices.

The person who handled the marriages in Dietikon (where we were married and where my husband lived then) told us no, just come in a day or so after moving there, fill out the paperwork and take it from there. I had my L permit within 2 weeks, or less. After we were married, I automatically received my B permit.

Well if your husband is Swiss then it sounds even more ridiculous to me! Would you be denied entry? I very much doubt it!

Your residence permit will be a little booklet with your photo in it. It will be be called a "Foreigner's Passport" (translation). Unless this embassy has some other kind procedure in mind, your passport shouldn't need to be taken away from you.

So then I'll rephrase - are there any US citizens out there who were married to Swiss spouses who were forced to apply for permission to stay OUTSIDE of Switzerland (in addition to Evilshell)?

I wanted to add to this thread, in case it can help someone else. I inquired about whether my passport would be retained while me visa was being issued (the "up to 6 weeks") and was told that it would not be retained - they just have to see it when you submit your application. This was a huge relief as I have several trips booked to Switzerland in the next 6 weeks for my daughter and I to visit my husband after he starts his new job.

The reason behind my inquiry had been that the British visas are actually placed into your passport so it is required by them while your application is being approved.

Hopefully this can be helpful to someone else. I will also come back and update the thread with the actual processing time once I get the visa back.

I'm still a bit baffled as to why you are going through all the trouble of applying for a visa from the embassy when all you'd have to do is turn up to the local government office where your husband lives and have them get the permit for you. In practical terms the information given to you by the embassy does not seem to be correct. The fact that you will be entering Switzerland multiple times before your get your visa/permit demonstrates that you have the right to enter and stay on a temporary basis (3 months) without a permit.

Your permit can most definitely be applied for "in country" as almost everybody else I've known in the same situation as you did not deal with their embassy, they dealt with their local community office.

The embassy route is likely to be more expensive, subject to additional delays and possibly other surprises. I've never been impressed by dealing with embassies anywhere - I try to avoid them wherever possible.

The reason that your passport is not required is because it isn't a visa as such (since you have the right to enter and stay on a temporary basis without a visa). It's a residence permit and will come as a separate little booklet that you are expected to carry with you at all times (which I don't).

Good to see that entry to Switzerland is still as confused as ever. It was the same 18 years when we came here, despite having a Swiss spouse.


The Swiss embassy in London advised us that I would have no trouble as I was married to a Swiss national and that all we needed was an entry permit/ settling permit (Niederlassungsbewilligung - I've learned to spell it now ). We completed the form for this 3 months in advance, but never got it, but came here anyway. The only person who wanted it was the customs warehouse man, who didn't worry too much when we didn't have one.

The problem was getting my B permit. Despite various visits to our community office - in Zurich Kreisbüro, elsewhere the town hall - and the 'foreign police' office and even advice from a lawyer, all we got was conflicting advice. Nobody seemed to have any idea what the correct proceedure was - well they did, but everyone had a different idea. A friend who came to live in Winterthur at about the same time was required to get an X-ray of his chest in order to live here and had to go back to the airport after living here a week to have it taken, as it had to be done at the place of entry. But arrivals to the town of Zurich were not required to have an X-ray.

The community office stamped my UK passport and said that to obtain work I should simply show them their stamp in my passport and my British marriage certificate. This didn't cut much ice with the language schools I visited. I was only after living here for 6 weeks that things started to click and that was because I got a job. A school finally believed my passport stamp and when they put my job into the system evrything started clicking.

I was 'invited' to come to the community office and bring 2 passport photos and CHF70 (ish) and was given the B permit with the name of the school on it as my employer. Out popped a 'Family Book' too at further expense. What's that all about? In case you forget the names of spouse or how many children you have? We have never used it, looked at it or been asked for it during the last 18 years.

I am left wondering, had not got a job, would I still be waiting now for a B permit? Also I imagine that there are as many different experiences of this scenerio as there are people with Swiss spouses. So stick with it and be assured that if you are married to a Swiss, then you will not be prevented from living and working here - it can just be a bit complicated...

The residence permits for the UK are placed in the passport, hence why I wondered if the passport would be needed.

I wont bother updating the thread, as there doesn't seem to be much point, since everyone thinks I'm nuts for doing what I'm told by the embassy. Maybe this bodes well for my integration into Swiss society.

As for future permits, I am already eligible to naturalise as the spouse of a Swiss citizen (because of how long we are married). I plan to start that process as soon as we are settled so that permits will ultimately not be an issue.

AFAIK you'll need to resident in CH for 5 years to apply...

Or you can apply, after six years of marriage to a Swiss citizen, from outside of Switzerland.

I wonder if moving here will make her have to wait five years, then.