Hello

I have received an offer to go Canada for a couple of years. As we probably come back we will request to put our C permits on hold. I will be getting a Canadian contract which means that pension plan in Switzerland stop and the amount in my 2ieme will go into a dormant account. I know that because we will move to a country outside the there is normally the possibility to collect this money after I have moved to Canada.
What I don't know and i cannot find info on this if there is a restriction when you put your permit on hold. Has anybody had any experience with this specific case.

I know that the idea is to come back and use this money in the future but because the interest is soo low I am considering to take it out and invest in something better. Also the CAD/CHF rate is very good.

As it's unlikely you'll be able to put the permit on hold to start with, this isn't going to be a problem. The only acceptable reasons for putting a permit on hold are being sent to work abroad by your Swiss employer, military service or further education. For everything else the default position is "no". Simply wanting to take up a new position in Canada for a couple of years isn't going to cut it. You'll have to deregister and hope that in a couple of years' time you'll be let back in again and get another B permit.

Nor would you be able to take the pension if you could put the permit on hold. You can only take it out if you leave Switzerland permanently, i.e. don't plan to ever come back.

Thanks Medea Fleecestealer for your response. The move will be within the same company but I will need to accept the local Canadian contract. As we also are keeping our house in Switzerland we assume this would be enough to convince the authorities that this is temporary. We will only know when we see their response.

On a logical basis I would agree that you can only take the funds when leaving indefinitely but how would this be checked. Would be good if somebody could share their experiences here.

When you leave definitively & deregister.........then you have left, nothing to stop you returning if you can get a permit.

Ah, in that case you may be able to put it on hold.

I would assume your pension provider would want something like a copy of your deregistration document. If you're still working for the company though they presumably would know this, even though you've switched to a local contract.

This may help:

https://www.sem.admin.ch/dam/data/se...zialvers-e.pdf

Thanks, very useful document