Hi there,

I am an Irish citizenliving and working in Switzerland for nearly one year now, have an L visa and I am quite settled here. My L visa expires in august and I want to get a B visa as with the L you basically get treated like a refugee ( no phone abo cant rent a dvd etc). I have spoken to the kreisburo about the chances of it and they are very vague as to whether I will get one or not. I am looking for advice as to the best way to ensure that I get a B visa and not another one year L. Ay help would be greatly appreciated..

Thanks

You are an EU citizen. The transition period ends at the end of this year. I don't really see any reason why you couldn't at least get a B and then get treated like a slightly better refugee than you do now.

We've written extensive posts on this subject in other threads - you might want to go and study up and then ask some more questions.

The staff at the Kreisbüro were probably vague because they didn't have a clue.

The problem is that there is a limited quota of B permits and so many EC citizens have come into canton ZH over the last few years that they've run out of 'B's and are issuing 'L's instead. A German guy just moved into my office and only got an 'L' permit. Given that he was 'headhunted' by my current employers (a very large Swiss bank) it was really surprising that they couldn't get him a 'B', so things must be tight on the 'B' permit front.

I don't see that there's a lot you can do to improve your chances of getting a 'B' really - you just have to hope that you get lucky. As Mark said, the necessity of geting a permit for EC citizens is due to expire soon so maybe you'll just have to tough it out until then.

That said, given the attitudes shown toward the various grades of permits by certain businesses, I wonder how the 'no permit needed for EC citizens' thing is going to work. I also wonder what happens to those EC citizens who already have a long term residence permit - will they give them up or what?


Gav

Gav, just to clarify, they won't be removing permits entirely. You will still have to have one, but they won't be able to refuse it if you come from the EU. Quotas will disappear for EU citizens. The basic effect of this is that the quotas will be reduced for non EU citizens, making their life even harder.

When I moved to Germany in the 90's they tried the same thing - to make me apply for a permit. The situation was different because of course Germany was a full member of the EU so I told the authorities where they could put their permit. The case is different in CH - you must still have a permit, but you have an automatic right to it.

Of course having a permit doesn't mean that there's any guarantee that you won't be treated like dirt...

On this topic (L vs B) - I'm from the US, so have no automatic European-Union based rights. I could make some smart-ass comment about world wars, but I suspect the current administration in the States has just about evened all that out so I'll just keep quiet :-) Anyway, apolitically speaking, I was expecting an L when I submitted but got a "B"... and now am realizing the impact (we are treated as somewhere just above planaria on the food chain). Most significantly, there are the "trust" services - my wife and daughters can't get mobile phones (I get one through work), have troubel with insurance for cars and home, etc.

Is there any hope or recourse for me?

B is above the L on the foodchain and holders of such permits shouldn't have any of the problems you mentioned.