I'm an Australian living in Como, Italy who has recently been given a job teaching english to a company in Chiasso. My problem is that i am meant to commence work on 16th April but the company who i will be teaching says they were told i cannot work in Switzerland. This is strange especially due to the fact that the Swiss Consulate in Milano has told me that my work visa takes 4-8 weeks.

What I need to know is if there is a fastrack process or if there is some temporary papework that can be issued until my work visa is processed.

Any advice would be helpful.
Patto

Hi Patto,

While your work permit is being processed, you can come to the Swiss on a business visa, based on an invitation from your employer. The business visa is granted for an initial period of 15 days, which can be extended to 90 days.

Not sure of the exact details .. the link below gives more information.
http://www.eda.admin.ch/eda/en/home/...saus.html#0004

Once the work permit is approved, you would need to go back and enter Switzerland again.

Best Regards,
Ned

Your employer is responsible for applying for your visa. If they have been unable to obtain the visa then there is nothing you can do. You need to find out what happened - did they apply and the application was rejected or did they just not bother...

Once you have established what the situation is, then you can decide on the next move.

Thanks for the info! Sounds like a bit of a grey area given that you can be issued a business visa but are not entitled to work.

I don't really see any grey area! A business visa is intended for people coming to Switzerland on business trips, such as business consultants and so on. These people are not here to take up a position with a Swiss employer, but will return home when the task is completed. A typical example might be a software engineer who comes from India for a month or two, to install a software package and provide initial training and support to the client company.

This is clearly not the situation in your case, so unless the school can get you a visa, you are out of luck. Sorry.

Best Regards,

Jim

Thanx Jim!

Going there tomorrow to try and sort the mess out so will post a reply on here of what the outcome was.

Patto

Still trying to get this processed. I left out one crucial piece of info in my first question and that is that I am a freelancing consultant who is living in Como, Italy and is being paid by an agency in Italy for business carried out in Chiasso. My contract is only for 40 hours upon which it may be renewed by the Italian agency. I will continue to reside in Como and travel for business each day. According to your link you sent me about the Tourist and Business Visa it says that if you hold an Australian Passport and the business is for less than 90 days then no visa is required.

If I understand correctly then, since I am a freelance consultant coming from Italy on business visits and being paid and contracted by an Italian agency then I am free to come and go with only my Australian Passport for up to 90 days providing no work is carried out for the Swiss company and my visits are deemed as business trips.

If anyone could tell me their interpretation of all this I would be very grateful as they were not so helpful at the Immagration Office in Mendrisio today.

I'm in fear of drowning in a sea of pizza and chocolate... HELP!!!

Patto

This seems reasonable, but I would think that the best people to talk to would be the Swiss Consulate in Italy. I doubt that the people in Mendrisio would have much experience or interest in this kind of thing.

Good luck

The result is a bittersweet one unfortunatley. Seems I can work in Switzerland after all. I don't even need to apply for the Business Visa as Australian Passport holders are exempted. The info you gave me was spot on. Unfortunately the countless official both here in Italy and also in Switzerland didn't seem to know about this until it was brought to their attention. All that is involved is to download a document from this website which you present to border control:
http://bfm.mit.ch/index.php?id=319&L=2

It takes 2 days to authorise and another 8 to take effect.


Unfortunately the agency broke their word and hired someone else even though they had given me a contract and promised to wait for a solution yeserday afternoon which I addequately supplied. Anyway enough of the griping...

The positive to come out of this is that if anyone is in this situation in the future they know they can work.

Patto