Hi All,

I am an Indian national on a restricted B-permit. Recently I came to know that there is restriction on how long such permit holders can stay. Swiss labour office will not renew their permit after 72 months from the date of arrival. This is due to a bilateral agreement between the two countries.

It is true? Does anyone have any further information?

Thanks in advance.

Cheers

Tis is not true, and Its depend on the the officer , who process your permit but bfm.admin.ch/bfm/en/home/themen/einreise/merkblatt_einreise.html this may help

Thanks bijugt, one of me friends B-Permit was just rejected on this ground. So it's puzzling.

Was your friends B-permit a project specific one? These are easier to get so companies often apply for those.
That might explain the non-renewal after 72 months. I doubt there is any bilateral immigration treaty between Switzerland and India.

Yes Kosti, my friend has a project specific B-permit. Have you come across any information regarding such restriction?

Hi,
Can anybody please specify how to know if it's a project specific B permit or not?

Regards,
Nick

From what I know, its only Indian nationals from a certain company whose permits are not being renewed after the 6 year boundary. Some funny reason about the company not having a dedicated presence in CH or something.

The real reason could probably be increasing immigration from EU states (Greece etc) stressing the local employment situation, forcing the authorities to reduce the non-EU workforce. Just my theory though, could be completely wrong ..

Hi

This rule of 72 months is only applicable on B-Permits which are currently on deputation to Switzerland. There are recently some cases where B-Permits were not renewed after 6 years (72 months). I will try to explain this using below examples.

1. Employee is currently on deputation payroll in Switzerland (means employee is still not transferred to Switzerland payroll) -- In this case B-permit will NOT be renewed after 72 months. This is the case for companies which are not regiserted in Switzerland.

2. Employee is on transferred to Switzerland payroll (means employee part of Company's Switzerland payroll) -- In this case B-permit will be renewed after 72 months. This is the case for companies which are regiserted in Switzerland.

I hope above explanation will help you understand the reasons for B-Permit extension and refusal.

I have heard that there are certain companies which are able to convert the L Permits to deputation B permits with the condition that maximum 2 renewals will be allowed. That makes the maximum possible stay in Switzerland as 5 yrs and not 6 yrs. Note that this is even done by some companies which are registered in Switzerland.
From 2010 onwards Swiss authority has made the criteria of getting new L and B permits more strict. Qualification and salary are now playing an important role for issuing new permits. As a result many companies are currently opting for deputation L permits (which I believe easy to obtain) that cannot be renewed after 2 yrs.

Regards,
Nick

Hi, I have been transfered to the Swiss employee list with a local contract around the 59th month since we expected the same complications on the 60th month (5th yer renewal). The 5th year renewal was inturn a breeze since it turned out that the AWA had extended the above thumb rule last year (in 2011) to 72 month i.e. 6 years.
Now in 2012, on my 6th year extension (will start next month), HR has advised that my renewal will be very difficult since the AWA is not providing extensions beyond 6 years even if you are not deputed but employed by the local Swiss arm of the company.
Has someone seen the same issue crop up?