Hi Everyone,

I'm a non-EU national with a 2 years work permit and a yearly B permit, which expires on early Jan'09. My problem is that I badly need to be away from Switzerland for a month and half starting from early Decemeber. I was wondering if I could renew my permit in advance and then leave Switzerland. Else, I suppose I couldn't come back, right? If any of you've idea about how early (from its expiration) can such a permit be renewed then please enlighten me.

Btw, my passport expires on Oct'09. Does anyone know if I'll need to renew my passport before I can renew my yearly B permit (up to Jan'10) or are they unrelated?

Finally, thanks a lot for having this amazing forum.

-Silent

If your permit is limited to two years then it most likely can't be renewed unless your employer applies for an extension.

As Shorrick correctly replied, your employer needs to apply for the renewal of your permit, in which case, you can explain your problem to the employer and can ask them for an early request for permit-renewal.

Your permit status is not dependent on your passport date. As per my experience, they generally don't ask for your passport while they issue you the permit as it is assumed that you are not staying in the country illegally or with expired passport if you are working with/applying for a permit. Moreover, your passport expires in Oct'09 that means its still valid when they will issue you the next permit (till Jan'10) on your employer's request.

BTW its worth mentioning here that if you plan to talk to your employer, you better do it fast as sometimes you receive new permit very near to the expiry date (like in my case, my old permit expires today and i received my new permit just yesterday)

As you have not completed your profile, no one has any idea what country this passport is for...

The country of origin of the passport in inconsequential in context. An expired passport is an expired passport be it EU or non-EU. But agreed that profiles should be more informatively completed.

Back to the OP, i was surprised that passport validity is not important for the B-permit (as zyxel has mentioned). I have just had mine renewed in August and my passport expires in Nov 08. Had all the necessary documents from my Embassy proving that the new passport was being processed but would probably only arrive in Oct.

Kreisburo was not even interested in looking at it although the first line in the renewal form asked for the expiry date of my passport. I received permit 5 days later and valid for the full one year.

No, I didn't mean that validity of the passport is not important for permit B, I said that they generally don't ask for your passport . According to Silent Listener, his passport will expire after he receives a new permit (if his employer applies for it), so the expiry date shouldn't bother him concerning renewal of his permit unless he decides not to get a new passport

You can do this - Go to the communal office from where you initially received your B permit and ask for a form for B permit renewal. Your HR will fill that for you. Submit this again with fee CHF 65 in the same office. Hopefully you will get your new permit soon.

Renewal is not related to passport expiry, at least I did not face this issue.

As per the rule you should get this form by post 2 months before the B permit end date.

I am not sure what you mean by 2 years of wp & how it can impact

I was in a similar situation an year ago. I had a B-Permit which was valid only for 1 year and expiring by in Oct. I had to go out of Switzerland along with my family for a month in October itself. I was not aware about the expiry of my permit as i had an unlimited contract so thought it was the usual 10 years one. Strangely I even received the renewal letter in Aug :-).
My employer filled that form and i submitted to the commune. After 1 month i enquired and went to the foreigners office and employment office and found that my permit will expire so my employer will have to apply for another permit (long term one). My employer received few forms and then they filled it up and send it to the canton authorities. I asked the employment office that if i can get a retour (return) visa for 3 months which they said yes. So the next week i went to the foreigners office again and got the retour visa stamped for 3 months (costs CHF 36) which was more than enough.

So i guess you should also ask for temporary return visa after your employer asks for permit extension which can be done now.

Good to know that this kind of possibility exisits. Thanks

Thanks a lot for all the replies.

I've been to the Kreisbuero a while ago and they said I could begin the renewal process exactly 3 months before (Oct) the expiry date (Jan) and then I'm (most likely) to get the permit renewed before (Dec). If something goes wrong I could get a visa (as ITguy pointed out) to return, based on my on-going permit renewal processing.

Either way, I should be able to travel in the final month (Dec) before my permit expires (Jan), so I've decided to buy the air tickets as the prices will shoot up afterwards.

Thanks again to everyone for your valuable responses.

Hi,

I am German citizen and got a possible job offer with an international company in Zürich with unlimited employment (i.e. working contract is not limited for a year).
Can I get the B permit to start in Switzerland or do I get only the L permit ?
2nd question: If someone gets the B permit e.g. for max. of 5 years .. for how many can s/he leave Switzerland during the 5 years of such B permit e.g. to work abroad (Germany etc.) in case of sudden unemployment in Switzerland ?

Thx for any hints

Sorry .. I meant for how Many years you can leave Switzerland (for working abroad) during a 5 years B permit; so that the B permit will be still valid upon return ?

Your Passport expiry date is important for your POermit renewal.

In Bern Canton, the maximum date for your Permit is always 6 months before your passport expires. In order to get your Permit renewed, you need your passport renewed.

Also, regarding the part about travelling out of switzerland while your permit is in renewal, It should be possible to get a return visa back into switzerland.

Few days before leaving switzerland, go to your permit office and explain the situation, take proof of your travel with you in the form of tickets, etc and for a nomial fee of abt 40 CHF, they should give you a single entry return visa. This happened in the case of my daughters permit, and they were very kind in doing this.

B-permit renewal (non-EU, at least) can not be started more than 3 months before expiration date of B-permit. Your company would need to start the renewal process.
This is my experience last year and this year.

Same for me ( non-EU annual B), and quoting their email response:

A variation on the theme of B permit renewal for which I haven't yet seen a reference.
I have a one year renewed B permit which is good until July 2010. When I first got my permit (July 08), the company unfortunately used my Canadian passport, even though I had a British passport (expired).
I have now successfully renewed my British passport (incidentally within 4 days at the Paris office by post!) and would like to know if I can trade in the one year permit for a 5 year one as is allowed for EU citizens.