Hello

Does anyone know if a company (SA) has to do any special paperwork to hire the founders? Or do they just write themselves a work contracts and apply for their permit renewals as normal? Especially the case for non-EU graduates of an Swiss university. The SA is already established/registered but the founders are still being funded through the university at the moment through grants.

Thanks

Founding a company here doesn't automatically give a non-EU citizen the right to a work permit. The company still has to prove it can't find a Swiss or EU for the job.

Edit - if the founders are recent grads on job seeker L permits, then theoretically they're on the same footing as EU nationals, provided the job is of "economic or scientific importance. Most student permits require the student to sign a statement saying they'll leave the country after studies so it could be tricky to say "yes I'll leave" then turn around and say "but I founded a company so I want to stay". But if they're presently funded by the uni, maybe someone at the uni knows the magic tricks to make such a plan work.

Sure, but graduating from a Swiss university does give non EU the right to work here. Do you know any resources of where to find the paperwork the company has to file?

They were PhD students, and never had to sign a document saying they were going to leave. Currently on formation B though the University, the plan is not to switch to a job seeker L because they won't be searching for a job they will have a contract. I guess the question is, since they are also in charge of the paperwork from the company side of things, it's not clear what the "company" has to submit to hire them, if anything.

No, graduating from a Swiss university doesn't give a person the right to residence, much less the right to employment. It does give a non-EU a better chance at finding a job than a non-EU without a Swiss degree.

The non-EU hiring criteria are here:
https://www.sem.admin.ch/sem/en/home...zulassung.html

Foreign nationals can be admitted to work without having to provide evidence of their status under the precedence rule in Art. 21 FNIA if there is a significant academic or economic interest in their employment.

Ok, the conditional right.

Anyways, do you know where the resources can be found that outlines, as the employer, what needs to be submitted? There must be a list somewhere with some standard documents. Switzerland has a thriving startup scene, but I can't seem to find this information.

The startup in question is nationally and internationally recognized having won lots of money and awards. It's a deep tech startup with plenty of funding, so scientific and economic value isn't in question. But the exact procedure in transitioning off of the university grants to being officially hired by the company is unclear.

This webpage and sublinks might assist the OP:

https://www.sem.admin.ch/sem/en/home...ensablauf.html

Take a look at the link above, and then link through to other pages from there. For example under the first section, there's a link to Procedure, which gets you to this page:
https://www.sem.admin.ch/sem/en/home...ensablauf.html

Edit - Mullhollander is faster with the links!

I would say the company should be prepared to go through the non-EU process. Why? Because that's the highest hurdle and anything else would be gravy. Plan for the most challenging route and be pleasantly surprised if it's easier.

I'm not saying it's impossible. But if it was that easy, you'd have already found loads of information on how others made it happen.

Great, thanks for the link. The requirements are clear now.

So update in case anyone is looking for this information in the future. After discussing with the lawyers there is a process you have to do at the federal level to get approval to work at your own company as a non-EU person. This apparently takes at least 3 months, and the paperwork is first submitted by the lawyers through the canton of the business. Once you have permission to work, you apply for your work permit in your canton of residence who gives you a living permit from their quota.

Strangely, this information was never offered by the lawyers when they were writing up the work contracts a few months ago but only after pushing them on the logistics.

I know someone who tried this. The Canton was happy, but the Federal Government blocked it.