Hi All,
Just asking if anybody is in the same situation. I am moving to Switzerland for a job - I come from an EU country, so no probs for me. My boyfriend is a Refugee in an EU country and we were planning to move together in Switzerland. He works in IT, he had an interview and all went well. Now the Company "offered" him a job but needs to get info about the possibilities for him to work in Switzerland.

I need to sign my contract by Monday and I do not know how long is going to take for him to know if he can move or not to Switzerland.... if not, I wouldn't move either. Has anybody a similar background and can tell me if it was easy or not? To recap, he is a refugee in a EU country (he has a work permit in that EU country) and he works in IT. He had a work offer from a Swiss Company. Do you think it would be possible they refuse him a work permit?

Thanks!!!

It's very possible that he will be refused a work permit, and even if it were possible it will take some time (probably months) to apply for and obtain the permit.

However, it is the Swiss company who should be making the enquiries about this matter with the relevant authorities. I doubt very much whether anyone here can be of assistance to you.

So I'll help you with two pieces of advice - unless your boyfriend is highly skilled he's got very little chance. I can also say with almost 100% certainty that you are not going to find out the situation before Monday. How would that be possible - it's now the weekend and everything is closed.

Thanks for you reply. I know that I have to wait at least until Monday but I was wondering if anybody had to face the same situation and could tell me about his/her experience.

So you think that there are good chances that authorities can refuse it.... I read on a few websites that if the Company can prove nobody within EU can do that job they should get a work permit for him. He is a Software Architect with 15 years experience and even if I am sure there are lots of them I would hope they can get the permit for him. Just wondering if the fact that he has been living and working in EU for more than 15 years could help him..... for sure I will have a terrible wknd!

... about being skilled, he is for sure. He is a great cv and they offered him the job after only one hour the interview had started! So let's hope everything is moving quickly for the permit too

His residence within the EU probably wouldn't help him - which country he comes from will make a difference. The wheels turn quite slowly here, especially if this company doesn't have experience getting work permits.

But again - your boyfriend needs to ask these questions of the company, rather than you of us.

He basically falls under the category of a non-EU skilled worker. You can browser many other threads on this forum which covers this case (the fact that he was a refugee doesn't really enter into things). You can also read information in English on the Swiss government websites.

Well, you were helpful. At least I can prepare myself to the fact that could go wrong. I will look for and find more info on Swiss government website then and wait for news from his company... that probably, as you said, does not have that big experience getting work permit because it is pretty small. Cheers!

Just a thought - is there a reason your boyfriend has not acquired UK citizenship? In this case it would have been a no-brainer.

I am not from UK and in my country you need ten years to get citizenship. He is going to apply in July because he is waiting for some important documents he could not get before (but necessary for getting the citizenship). And he didnt really had money before to start all procedures.

Anyway, he was not planning to leave my country before meeting me because he had his own business and he was fine with the permission he had. I work with languages and for me it's easier to get a job abroad... this is the main reason I am moving to Switzerland and we were planning to move together. We have spent last year travelling around Europe to be able to stay together. And I thought we could finally live together....

Sorry, I assumed UK was your country because your additional profile fields like nationality are blank, and your location lists UK. I guess "your country" is supposed to stay secret for some reason. Sometimes if you reveal relevant information people might have more to say. Switzerland doesn't always count the EU as one bloc, especially when it comes to work permits.

No prob about that. My location lists UK because I am in UK at the moment.