Hi,
I have L visa type from non-EU and will be working in Geneva from next month onwards.I will have my wife as a dependent with me. But it seems that she too will be given a workpermit at a later point of time in swiss. In that case is it advisable to process her dependent visa right now? or Is there any contraint saying a dependent will not be a given a work permit as long as her dependent visa is valid like that?.

Hey,

Welcome to Switzerland.

I am having a B permit which I am a dependent to my husband (a EU citizen).

I only process my permit when I'm here - come to Switzerland as a tourist and process my permit later with all neccessaries documentations (marriage cert, passport and etc).

If possible, maybe you can called up the Kreis Buro to check if you need to apply before hand or you can do it when you and your wife is here.

Your spouse can come on dependent and get a work permit if she can show proof of a job contract. There will be no problem.
This is what the authorities informed me when I had enquired.

With an L dependant permit your wife has no automatic right to a work permit and must go through the same hoops as anyone else to get a permit.

Unfortunately this is only true when the first partner holds a B permit. While on an L permit, as well as an employment contract, her company will also need to sponser her permit in the normal way.

My wife is in the process of applying for a dependent visa in Australia, whereas I will have a B permit. They've asked her to sign a letter that she "will not look for work in Switzerland". Is that normal? How will she be able to change to a normal work permit later?

Assuming you have a normal B permit then no, this is not normal. Your wife has the right to seek employment and there are less hoops to jump through for her employer to sponser her.

When you say "they've" do you mean the Swiss embassy or your local town hall in Switzerland? If the embassy you need to tell them they are wrong. A quick search in this forum will point you to the appropriate legislation.

"They" being the Swiss consulate in charge of visas in Sydney.

There are strange conditions to my permit too... I haven't seen my permit yet, but I've been told that the years on my current permit cannot be counted towards a C permit... Is this some new permit scheme not covered here?

This sounds like you have a restricted B permit - are you being relocated temporarily by your company? Are you joining a fixed term project?

It's a renewable postdoc position at EPFL... My lab director told me I have up to 4 years for this position. Does that change things?

Yes. You will typically have a restricted permit for such a role.