Hi
I think I will be offered a job in Zurich starting January (apparently they are keen, but the people who did the telephone interview want to “see me”), which means that I will have to take the plunge, move over there sans job (I don’t live in the EU as I am contracting in the States) and hope I get this job. Anyway, reading your other posts it seems it would be better if I got a B permit, but might have to get an L permit if the quota has run out. I am a UK citizen.
How long does any permit take? I read in another post it was 4 weeks, but didn’t know if this was because poster was non-EU. I am worried that even if I get the job, I will be doing nothing for over 1 month and even then I may not get a job. I am also worried that I won’t get any short term accommodation as I don’t have a permit.
Any help is much appreciated.

Hi
I moved here with my husband's job in August, he's german, i'm australian. We found and rented a house before we even had our permits. We were told to register pretty much as soon as we got here, the permit took about 2 weeks once we had all the papers... (ie passports, job contract, house rental contract, health insurance...) and we were given the L permit being told that the quota was full already for the B. We're hoping to get it next year when we reapply. I'm sure you won't have any problems apart from availability with getting temporary accomodation. Will the company use a relolation agency to help you with settling in?...

Hi,

It is unreasonable to expect you to fly over with nothing remotely concrete. It is very typical to have telephone interviews to filter out the chaff and reduce the total number of candidates to say 6. Thereafter there will be an interview and then a second interview. Permits typically take 2 - 6 weeks very dependent on where you will be based and what the current backlog looks like. Zurich is typically 3 or 4 weeks. You will not get accomodation without a job offer in writing or a valid permit. Sorry that is the way it is.

Richard