Thanks very much! Is it true they can also extend your resident\working permit since you were working in CH for a while (say 3+ yrs)? Or they are irresponsible for these issues.

Look at your permit, whoever issued it (e.g. for BL we have "Amt fur migration baselland")

Hey, I'm sorry but let me ask you about the law which allows fresh graduates students to hunt for jobs in CH? I'm working towards my bachelors which hopefully I will obtain it by 2012, does it work also for bachelor graduates or only for PH.Ds?

thanks in advance for your reply.

I believe it is relevant for bachelor as well, but you better send them an email and ask

I hope you don't have to use the employment and can find a decent placement before you complete your PhD. If not, is there a possibility to continue as a postdoc at ETH until you find something??

On another side note...I wish I had done my PhD at ETH . My PhD stipend was USD 15 K with only 14 days vacation (that too at the discretion of adviser).

Hi,

The people I met on the only RAV course I did were very well qualified, PHD's ex Chairman of a bank, an ex insurance guy who was in mensa.
I get a meeting every 2-3 months, I do freelance work on & off. My RAV contact likes to practice her English!

Well, staying t ETH as a postdoc would be a very decent Plan B. However it is not that easy to get a postdoc at the same place you have graduated

What sort of RAV course was it - I huess in German? Did you have to attend it on a daily basis?

Hi,

I have been here for 16 years, my Greman is very limited, however as I do get quite a lot of freelance work the RAV will not pay for a German course, I actually asked for French & was turned down.
The only course was a 6 day CV writing course in English, due to work commitments I turned up 3 times & enjoyed the company!
I am on my 3rd Ramenfrist! work about 60 days a year however my day rate is quite high so that counts as more than 12 months employment over 24.

Hi vlad,

have a look at my post here regarding the new rules for the unemployed fund Swiss approve the reform of the jobless benefit scheme. it could be useful to you.

As long as you are over 25, have paid AHV for a minimum of 12 months then you will be entitled to 260 working days/approx 9 months unemployment benefit. If you have piad AHV for 18 months out of the previous 24 then you will be entitled to 400 working days benefit.

Also as far as I am aware, if you are entitled to the unemployment benefit from the RAV/Arbeitslosenkasse for either 260 or 400 days then the RAV should extend your permit for that amount of time. As the RAV are effectively now your "new employer".

As a poster previously stated, you should go and register at the RAV office. There they will make an initial appointment for you, this is to register you on the RAV. They will give you a list of things you need to bring namely your AHV card, CV, Qualification certificates, References from previous employers and maybe some other things. They will more than likely speak german and tell you to bring someone that speaks german with you. At this registration meeting they will register you and go through how it works. You will then be given This form to fill out and to give it to the Arbeitslosenkasse, from this form they will calculate how much money you get on a monthly basis. It will be more than likely 70% of your wage if you have no children. Also when you hand this form into the Arbeitslosenkasse you will get a Name for your point of contact in the Arbeitslosenkasse.

The next step after the registration meeting is the RAV will send you a letter with an appointment to go see a RAV Berater (Aid) this is the person who you will meet with monthly and see how you are doing with finding work.

In the post each month around the 22nd of the month, you will receive 2 forms one has 10 questions to fill out regarding the month e.g did you work, were you sick, were you on course or holiday etc.. the other is the form where you fill in the jobs that you applied for each month. Depending on your job and your Berater you will be expected to fill in a minimum 8 jobs per month, however my Berater excepts 4 as there is not many jobs in my field in Switzerland. You are better asking him/her when you have your 1st meeting.

Ok so send the jobs form to your Berater or the RAV and send the 10 question one to the Arbeitslosenkasse the form for the Arbeitslosenkasse should be sent on the 25th of the month and the jobs form can be sent up to the 5th of the next month.

I don't know how it is in Zurich but in Basel at the RAV office there is 2 letterboxes where you can put these forms in. Also my BErater gives me envelopes with his name on it so I can post the jobs form to him directly, either way works for me.

N.B The Rav and the Arbeitslosenkasse are essentially 2 different bodies. If you have any questions regarding your money you will speak to someone in the Arbeitslosenkasse. If you have question regarding courses, work etc you speak to your RAV Berater.

If you want to do a german course you speak to your Berater. I was lucky enough to do 2 german courses with them, just finished my second one 2 weeks ago, each course lasted for 14 weeks, I would highly recommend it if they will let you do it or if they offer it to you. I went from having the very basic german, how are you? name etc as well as a few curse words to now having a B1 standard of german, which I am very happy about. Also when you are unemployed it is good to do these courses as it gives you something to look forward to and get out of bed for.

Anyway, I hope this information helps you, look at my other posts in other threads there might be more information to help you. Best of luck on the job hunt.

Thanks very much. The only point which I am uncertain about is the extension of my residence permit - it seems like the RAV are not concerned with visa issues, are you sure about this point?

Although I have never done this before, I have heard this is the case, you can check with the RAV or with the Immigration office which issued your permit.

Just sent an email to the immigration office. I will post their respond.

Their answer was:

Jedes Gesuch unterliegt der Einzelfallprüfung. Nach Eingang des Verlängerungsgesuches werden wir es prüfen.

But, since my wife is a student here in Zurich, I believe they will be able to extend the validity of my B-permit.

I have a similar situation. Can you please tell me your final result for the application of unemployment allowance?

It is an old fashioned idea, but have any of you thought about getting a job?

Sounds good idea but.... Getting a job is very easy like you say, especially in McDonalds or Migros.

finding a specialised/professional job needs more time and patience.

By unemployment benefit law, if you can't find a job in your field, you must look outside your field. No reason that McDonald's workers should subsidise you if your now over qualified.

After my PhD it took me almost a year and a half to find a job. ANY job. I would have happily worked in McDonalds or a manual labor job at a factory, but I got nothing but: Over qualified, underqualified, undergrad marks too low, not the right fit for the position, no grades from the doctoral studies etc. It's not always that easy and I avoided RAV for almost the entire unemployement time--but eventually, it was my money I paid into, why not take advantage of it--in the long run I'll be paying a lot more into it than I will ever take out of it so why not.
In hindsight I knew I would have gotten the job I wanted eventually so I should have taken the RAV right away and eased the financial stress.

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to my knowledge, that's something you have to do only when you're on welfare.

Unemployment insurance is an insurance, they're not social benefits.

In Switzerland firing people is easy and this makes our country competitive, the social disadvantages of this are offset by making the insurance mandatory. This way you get fired easily but you can also maintain your lifestyle (80% of it actually) while you look for another job at your level. There is no shame in using your insurance if you're not abusing it.

In other European countries, they don't have this, but to compensate they make it very difficult to lay off people and as a result they end up with lots of temporary employment contracts, entrenched unions, unmobile workforce, etc. and the people aren't happy either.