Hi everybody, I am in a big dilemma here and don't know where I can search for an advice. I am a non EU citizen (my country will join the EU in just few years) and my girlfriend is a French. She had to move due to her job in Switzerland, now is a holder of B permit. We used to live together and her relocation was a big chance for her, so we decided to go along. I entered Switzerland just few weeks ago, I don't need visa or anything as long as I stay 3 months. We would like to continue living together and me finding a job here. We have looked through all the possibilities and it seems that our best shot is to get married so I can get a work permit.

Can we get married in Switzerland without going back home? If it is possible to do it in Switzerland, what kind of documents will I need?

Thanks in advance.

No offence but if you are going to get married just for you to get a working visa you might as well forget it. Ok i know you love her and stuff but its not right (from the sentinemtal point of view-im a bit emotional today)

To answer your question now: Im sure i have seen this question before. Search and you shall find!

The thing is, if we want to continue living together as before and stay together, for legal purposes of me not being illegal in Switzerland at least we have to register and get marry in city hall otherwise I should come and go every 3 months and stay only 3 months. Not the best solution. Marriage would have been later for us I guess if it wasn't this situation. I've been searching for this topic with no luck.

Thanks for the advice.

Easy: Go to the Gemeinde/city hall and ask them. There are different requirements per country (as the documents per country are slightly different) - so it is impossible to say "in general". I would say you have a 99% chance that you will need to go back home and arrange some paper work though.

Hi V,

I'm a non-EU (Australian) and just got married to a Swiss man. We decided to get married while I was in Switzerland as a tourist (like yourself), but I had to go back to Australia to apply for the marriage; I spoke to a lot of people and it seemed there was no other option.

In Australia I had to take my passport, birth certificate and a notarised document stating that I was single to the Swiss Embassy in Sydney, then fill out the application for marriage forms while I was there.

They informed me it would take 6-12 weeks to process, but in only 4 weeks I had my temporary visa (Visa D) and could return to Switzerland and get married.

The process is obviously a little different for each country, and the time line may also be different; if your documents need to be translated it could take quite a bit longer.

Good luck with it all!!

hi , well you can get married here like a tourist, depend of the rules from your coutry (sometimes i not necesary go back to your country)
normaly need a document to show you are not married already in your country, birth certificate and that you need to traslate with official stamps , i traslate here in zurich.
take some time to make the papperwork, but when you start you dont have problem to stay, of course the permit take longer ( i wait for mine 1 year! )

Hi V,

I am also an Aussie in a smiliar situation. We want to get married but wondering what we need to do. So your reply was really helpful to me.

I was not totally clear, did your guy have to come back to Australia to get married there or did you just have to go home to do the paper work there and then come back to get married? How did that work?

As I want to precisely work out what I need to do, I was wondering do you have any idea who is the best local authority to contact in Switzerland to get the info required on what's the necessary proceedure/rights/obligations etc?

I also want to know if I will be able to work after we are married and I come back to Switzerland to live. Was this your case ie. were you able to work on a Visa D (did it get transmitted into a B permit?) or did you have to do the stay at home thing?

Thanks alot!
Janice

The process of getting married in CH takes between 4 to 9 months. You need to go through the communal, cantonal and then federal authorities. They request a number of documents (e.g. birth certificate, certificate of clean record, family certificate showing u have not been married b4,...). You should check with the communal authorities where you plan to live on what to do.

I actually agree with you.

I got a green card for the US a few years back, and for obvious reasons my GF could not come with me as she didn't have one.

We decided that getting married for the wrong reasons just wasn't right so I went back to the US embassy and returned my Green card. We're still together and will get married at some point.

Had we tried some funny business, the authorities would have caught us. They are not stupid so taking chances are outright stupid. To be honest, your case is also a little too obvious and you will be found out one way or the other. I'm just being realistic...

Get married because that's what you really want to do and coming from a country who will "almost soon" join the EU is not an argument (a little like I will soon win the lottery)...

Would you mind letting us know what country will soon join the EU?

Just my 2 cents... but I wish you the best of luck!

I took us three weeks.

Tom

Found this website helpful for arranging our marriage...
Good luck!

http://geneva.angloinfo.com/countrie...d/marriage.asp