Hi all,

I am to marry my Swiss bride to be soon and we are moving to Switzerland in August.

The reason for the thread is to try and get some help/advice please! I am a UK citizen and I am under the impression that as I will be married to a Swiss citizen I would be entitled to a residency permit. I want to try and sort this out ASAP so that I can hopefully gain employment quickly.

Can I apply for it before I move? Do I need it before I move? How long do they generally take to sort out?

The second part, which is kind of linked to the first, is about the physical move to Switzerland. We will be driving over in a van bringing all of our worldly possessions with us. As I will be moving and not going on holiday I presume that we will need to declare my/our possessions whilst crossing the border. I therefore want to ensure I have sorted any relevant paperwork prior to moving. Hence why I want to try and sort the permit beforehand. Also I take it there will be documentation to complete re bringing our possessions into the country. What are these forms and where do I get them?

I hope all of the above is clear enough and I look forward to your help

NB I have messaged the Federal Office for Migration (http://www.bfm.admin.ch/bfm/en/home.html), but as yet I have not had a reply, hence my post.

Hello!

I am currently in a similar situation. Some things depend on which country you are coming from and to which canton you are moving to. We were told many different things from the Gemeindehaus staff.

As an American I had two options:
1. Start the process in America (ie. get married, process documents through the Swiss Embassy). It seemed more costly than starting in Switzerland, so we chose that option.

2. Handle everything once you arrive in Switzerland. We were told by the Gemeinde that the whole process would take about two weeks. Not true... closer to a month or 6 weeks (still a lot better than starting in the US).

First you must have a "talk" with the marriage people at the Geiminde. If you set up this meeting before you arrive, the process will be quicker. You need documents: translated birth certificate (not older than 3 months), an affidavit, and your passport. You must hire a translator for the "meeting" and pay about 400 sfr for processing and documents. It takes 10 days to "review" and verify the documents and then you can have the civil marriage (translator required again), where they will give you the papers you need.
With your marriage certificate and other supporting documents, you can go to the house of migration or what ever they call it. You will also need an official address in Switzerland and a document verifying that you live there.

I submitted mine Friday. Called the office today and "the lady who takes care of that is not in today, but will be in tomorrow and then out for the rest of the week"... I can let you know how long the final process takes later!

I hope that helps. Good luck and if you have any other questions about the marriage/work visa process I'd be happy to answer them.

Kathlyn

Hi Kathlyn,

Thanks for your help. We're actually getting married (legally) in England due to all the paperwork involved if we wish to marry in Switzerland. We're having our church wedding in Switzerland, but as they have no power this has no baring on our situation.

So we will be married prior to moving and the main thing I'm wondering about is a residency permit for myself.

Bud

The best thing will be to have your fiancee call the office of migration in the canton where you will live. To get a residecnce permit, you'll need an address for both of you. I'm curious to hear what they say about you being married in the UK and not in CH. The marriage needs to be approved by the ZivilStandesAmt so you'll need the proper documents.
To be honest, we only needed three documents for the marriage here and 4 for the residency permit.
Good luck!

Just a small tip. I don't know how it is today because I (from the UK)married my Swiss girl in 1962, but at that time she had to make an application to retain her Swiss citizenship. Maybe it's changed.

Thanks for the advice guys I will donsome digging and let you know what I find!

Actually, you Swiss fiancée won't lose her citizenship. My boyfriend and I checked that one out as well, and it changed in like 1992. UK marriage should be legal in Switzerland, as we considered both getting married in a church in the UK and Switzerland. But as it turns out, cos I would be foreign in the UK, we would still have to go to some offices beforehand (so check out what you have to do in the UK).

You should get a B-permit on the fact that you are married to a Swiss woman with a validity period of 1-, 2- or 5-years.

We're not married yet, but as our circumstances change rapidly atm, I've researched every possibility so far

As an EU citizen, your situation is quite straight forward.

If you get married in the UK then you just show up together to your commune and declare your move to the relevant authorities. This should be done within 8 days of your arrival and then you will be issued an EU-B permit valid for 5 years.

You'll need various documents which your wife should be able to find on the website of the canton you are moving to including your wedding certificate of course.

To move your stuff you need to fill out the import form and make an inventory list. This is found on the customs website.

Your fiance should poke around on the official Swiss websites. She will find everything she needs to know. Well, you could do this too. Most of it is in English. What isn't then you could ask your fiance.

Also, look around here. All of your questions have been answered in detail with the appropriate links. It's a bit late for me to dig them out for you.

Good luck!

As Monkey said above, this hasn't been the case for a decade.

that sounds a lot more simple than I thought it would be! Thanks v.much. 100 days and counting!