Hi,

I've been reading this forum as I am close to receive an offer for a company in Zurich (hopefully), and even if I don't, to be informed in case I have another opportunity in the near future.

I am Italian and living in UK since 2009 with my wife and daughter, they are from South-American countries (Argentina and Paraguay).

They still don't have official residence card in UK, we started the paperwork a bit late and it is in process right now. (so we dont have the passports).

If I receive an offer I had some alternatives in place.

First of all I need to request my passport to the Home Office urgently. I don't think this would be a problem as it is the EU passport, and they don't need to do anything else with it as soon as they check it is all right AFAIK.

Then, the options are:

1- Ask for the passports of my Wife and Daughter as well at the same time and travel together and try to settle over there somehow. (don't know if it is possible). I will have my contract of employment but not a home yet.

2- Travel alone and come back during the weekends until the residency for them is finished in the UK (can be 4 or 5 more months), and then bring them to Switzerland. (I would have a proper accommodation by them)

I don't know maybe I am missing something and we can't go together as I plan in option 1, and maybe we need to apply for the permit before they travel. But as I am EU citizen I thought they have the right to do that.

Any other idea, or in case I need to do any paper being separated do you know how long it takes. I don't have idea, I was reading a lot of this wonderful forum but I couldn't get all my answers yet.

(note: turist visas for my Wife and daughter are expired since long time ago, but as they have the right to reside here by European Law, it should not be a big deal.. I think).

Thanks a lot! Everybody! Great Forum.
Best Regards

You are EU and this is an agreement that is affected by Switzerland signing the Schengen agreement.

Basically, it is written in the Schengen agreement that they should give favourable assistance, and you should get the papers within a couple of weeks once you have all your documents properly lodged.

I recommend speaking to the consulate general of Switzerland in your home country (Italy) and then the UK to get it sorted out.

It should not take 4-5 months for the spouse of an EU citizen - only a couple of weeks at the most, *provided that all your passports, paperwork, marriage certificate, birth certificates* are acceptable.

http://www.eda.admin.ch/eda/it/home/...ta/reprom.html

thanks for the answer swisspea, It is good to know it doesn't take as long as in the UK where the EEA2 permit takes at least 6 months.
It is a very good idea and of course I would do it to contact the Swiss consulate/embassy in UK. (as we live here)

I just wanted to know in advance what to expect without going those places

But maybe you are right and I should not speculate with comments here and go directly to the official source of information.

Thanks again, and If anybody else have something to add I will truly appreciate it.

Regards!

Hi just tell u what I know

First of all, I don't know what you meant by 'official residence card'. But if you mean as perm UK residenceship then, I tell you that it is nothing to do with Switzerland. It is only useful if you live in UK perm basis.

Second before your Non-EU family members to travel to Switzerland, they need to get a family reunion visa based on you, is valid for 3 months. Once you all settle here, you can apply for a permit.

Third, I believe you already know about this, your family members need to present their passport when they apply for the swiss visa. So once you decide to take the job offer, then, your family members also need to decide what to do with UK residency as you might need to pull the passports. I saw somebody got her passport with a visa(she applied a residence permit based on her German Husband) more than 1 yr later from the home office. They couldn't(her n her husband) couldn't be out of UK over a year as their passports were kept at home office. This might be an extreme case but this could happen to you too.

Ah, as you are an Italian, you don't need a visa to come to Switzerland.


And lastly Family reunion visa is issued within a week. But give a 2 wk at least just in case sth happens.

Oi, I just read that they were on tourist visa. Then, the story could change.
One condition to get the swiss visa in the UK was they(your family members) reside in the UK for more than 6 mths(not sure the length sorry). What I am not sure here is that whether it has to be an official or not as they have no official residence visa for the UK. I think this one needs to be verified with Swiss embassy.(do this before your family members pull their passport)

Hope this helps.