Hello, I am an Indian citizen working (employed by an IT company) and living in Zurich on a B permit for several years. I am going to get married in India in 2-3 months and would like my spouse to return with me to CH. I guess I can apply for her B permit which takes 4-6 weeks? is that true? Also while we initiate that process, can she get a tourist visa for 3 months and travel to CH with me on my return? does she have to return to India to get the visa stamped after she gets her B permit or can she go to germany for a visa stamp? any help is appreciated.

Hello slal,
I am very much in your situation, and have been asking a few other friends.

I will give you the info as far as I gathered.

i) Get your & ur spouse' birth certificates in order, as in, it should contain your names (respectively) in it.

ii) After you marriage, get the marriage certificate as soon as possible.

iii) Get an affidavit stating that you and your spouse did not ( I am presuming this coming from India ) have any kids together or with anyone else before marriage. I am afraid I would not be able to tell what happens if any one of you DID have a child.

Take documents from point i) , ii) and iii) : get them attested by the local District Magistrate office, home secretary of your state and then the Foreign affairs ministry in Delhi.

After this you will have to fill a form in Swiss embassy in Delhi, deposit approx Rs 30k, submit all the attested documents along with the stipulated 2.5 room apartment contract (again no idea WHY 2.5 minimum but I have stopped asking ) in Switzerland and then wait.

If every document checks out, and your salary in Swiss is high enough (again, I have no clue how much is 'enough'), and you have not been doing any 'funny' thing in Switzerland till now, the process (I have been told) takes about 6-8 weeks.

In the meanwhile you can also bring your wife, saying the Spouse VISA is being processed and she be allowed to join you in Switzerland. The VISA she gets is for 3 months strictly, and by then she will have the Spouse VISA ready in Delhi for her.

I have also been told that one may gather the Spouse VISA once it is done only in Delhi , and not in a neighboring country like Germany or France. Validity of the sentence remains to be checked. If you find out otherwise, do let me know!

But definitely know that, all that you read till now is not from the horses mouth. Do make a call at the Swiss embassy in Delhi to know the exact procedure yet again. Just that you do not miss anything.

All the best and wish you a nice wedding ...

Hello slal,

Getting a dependent visa for a B Permit holder is difficult. Minimum it will take 3-4 months to get a dependent visa. I have faced this situation. Even my friends have the same kind of situation. By the time their spouse joined them their project is almost completed. Its better to get her on visitor visa. The problem with swiss visa rules is that in parallel you cannot go for 2 visa processings. Only one of them is allowed.

When you start the processing with swiss canton people, you need to submit some set of documents which includes the house agreement you are staying and some ... which other person stated.

Then Depending on the area you are living in india you need to contact DELHI or MUMBAI consulate for processing. The main hurdle that we have to face is that once you get married, you need to get the marriage registered and after that the marriage certificate has to be attested with the secretariat of the state. This will not take much time. But after you submit the marriage certificate to swiss consulate along with the amount they have asked, which will be in 5 digits for sure. They will give the marriage certificate to external agency to verify the certificate as well as the marriage happened properly. For sure the external agency person will visit your spouse house and some times they will visit the marriage function hall also(This happened for me). This will approximately take 6 to 8 weeks. After the legalisation process is completed by the swiss embassy people in mumbai, they will forward the respective documents to swiss canton you are living in. Then they will issue the residence permit for your wife which will take 4-6 weeks.

So overall this will take 4 months. Some times it will vary based on the canton you are living in. 2 of my friends are having L Permit and they applied for dependent visa, but they got very fast. That is just because of the permit they are holding. B Permit holders processing will take more time than L.

Hi,

Here are my 2 cents. The information provided by BenderRules is correct and clear in terms of process but in terms of timelines I would go with Sivam. It takes 3-4 months easily and whateve he mentioned here is good.

Still I have a few points to make here..
1. They don't demand any weird 5 figure numbers from you. They will ask you to deposit INR 30000 and when they do the verification (which might include coming to your home for verification and even demanding a photographs etc which happened to me) which is outsources to some one else, they get a bill. If the bill is more than INR 30k you have to pay more and if it is less you get the money back (in my case I got INR 3k back).

2. If you apply to for the application toget your wife here with a very logical approach they would allow you. I came here when my marraige verification and legalization was in process. My husbands company wrote to the embassy in india and I got the visa, but I had to visit the embassy.

3. The comment on to bring her on Visitor/Residence permit is not so sensible if you are on B permit and planning to be here for long. If you are here for 3 months or less then it is fine but if you plan to live here for 1-3 years or more than it doens't make any sense to consider visitor visa as an option over Residence permit. I think in that case you will need to the residence permit, like it or not with all its hassles.

Hope it helps.

Hi All ,

Pls let me know if you have any comments suggestion on my case ..

Tourist VISA for Spouse .....quite a confusion

Hello guys,

I recently got married and my husband is working in Switzerland on a B permit. This forum has been a great help for starters but now for some specifics.

So, the first doubt is whether I need to attest the ORIGINAL marriage certificate by the Home Ministry? Please refer to the clause below given in the requirements for B permit (for dependents)

2. Original marriage certificate issued by the Registrar of Marriages of the concerned State, duly legalised by the competent State Home Ministry (e.g. for residents of Maharashtra – Home Affairs, New Administrative Building, 9th Floor, Opp. Mantralaya, Mumbai 400 021).

Also, if I intend to stay in Switzerland on a visitor visa while the dependent visa is being processed ... how do I go about it?

As in should I apply for dependent first and then ask them to process a visitor visa as well.. or first get a visitor visa n then ask them to process the dependent visa ... or tell them before any application that this is what I have in mind?

Please help!!!

Hello All,

thanks for the very useful information by you all on this thread though my concern is little different. I am getting married in month of december and my would be husband is working in Zurich, Switzerland. I am IT professional and my current company has plans to send me to Zurich. But as this is fully dependant on the requirement of the post there in Zurich, they have not yet started processing my work-permit. Me and my fiance are planning to spend a month there in Zurich after marriage. So, for this either WP or atleast visitors visa is required.

So, now please tell me is it possible that by the time my company will start my WP processing which will be done till end of december or so, I can go to Zurich on visitors visa?

Means, can I have visitors visa and go to Zurich while my WP is in process?


Thanks in advance!
Trupti

Hello Slal,

What ever benderrules mentioned is the exact step by step procedure.
Just an idea...may be wild idea.. is it possible that you do the registry marriage now and start with the dependant visa stuff and after 3 months when you get socially married in December then you and your spouse will have the visa ready and can travel together.

Other wise you can keep the documents ready... specially both of your Birth certs ready and attested by the ministry of external affairs.

I am not sure abt visiting on tourist visa while you have applied for dependant visa. But as per my understanding you cannot, but Bender rules is telling you can.. I am not sure though, coz i remember that 2 parallel visa processing is not allowed was mentioned in one of their documents

I am sorry. I stand corrected on certain points made earlier by me.

"Bringing someone on visitor VISA when spouse VISA is being processed" - was told to me by a friend who brought his wife couple of years back under similar circumstances. He DID this. But when my wife was going through the same procedure a couple of months back, she asked that at Embassy in Delhi, and they confirmed what Nemo123 just said- "No parallel VISA processing; only one at a time."

Exact requirement of the affidavit I mentioned in the post before, should be clarified from the Embassy directly. It varies case to case.

Time frame for processing in Swiss Embassy Delhi, takes about 8-10 weeks.

Wish that you have a smooth VISA processing!

Thanks everyone, The forum has been really useful.

My case is a little different as I am entering Switzerland from UK and not India. I came to UK on a 4 year work permit last year and have now been transfered by my company to Switzerland. I have obtained my permit B for 3 yrs and have been given a date of 30th Nov by when I should register myself in one of the Cantons. However, my HR has just submitted my wife's details for processing last week and we would need to move by 25th Nov to switzerland from UK. That gives me a little more than a month.

1. How long would it take for my spouse to get her dependent permit B?

2. What is the best thing to do in case she doesnt get it by 25th Nov? She can obviously not stay legally in UK once I leave the country.

3. Would she need to go to India to collect her permit? How easy/ tough is it?

Thanks,

If you are non eu person meaning holding Indian Passport and you are married in India to an Indian then I think it doesn't matter much where are you entering from. If you are married to a european (non EU) then it surely will be a difference process.

Let us try to understand, it is a verification and legalization for your marriage which has happened in India. I am afraid, but according to my experience and many others I know you will have to go for the same process. Meaning they will verify your and your wife's details from your place of residence (as per the passport). I think you can apply for the same in the Swiss Embassy in UK.

Normally it takes anywhere between 6 to 16 weeks, though in my case it took more.

In case if you are able to bypass the procedure then it would be worth sharing as offlate some people are moving from US and UK to Switzerland.

Best luck and welcome to the gang

Well from what I have read so far, really a miracle happened today!! My wife's permit arrived and in 7 working days!! I am not sure if any of you have tried applying for your spouse visa through your company. As mine was an inter company transfer, my company applied for her permit and she already has it in little over a week. The details I submitted are:

Criminal certificate for the past 1 yr in UK.

Criminal certificate from india - applied in Indian embassy in Birmingham

Marriage certificate True copy

My work permit letter

passport copies

(all scaned copies and sent electronically to my HR in switz)

No birth certificate - my wife doesnt have one!!

And the process didnt cost me anything. I am not sure how much this helps. If you want to ask anything specific please do ask.

We are now moving soon. See you in switz.

Cheers!!

Company HR departments should be up on the rule and regs and should be able to move things wuickly - even so you have had an exceptional experience especially without a birth certificate. Nice one .

ps. please, Switzerland, not switz - google don't know about no switz

WTG, I would like to point out in this post as an info that non-EU spouse application should be sent as soon as there is a letter of offer for a work permit or along with initial app.

My secretary mistakenly told me I could apply for it only when I here. And I was very pissed (with her) when I found out from this forum otherwise.