Hi,

I moved in Zurich last month for a permanent work. After a few days that I came, I had news from my wife that she is pregnant. After going to the doctor, due to a) her difficult job and b) the corona virus, he gave her a paper to remain home. So now she is on paid pregnancy leave. However, she has to come here with me as soon as I find a permanent house. Now, as we know, she will have to get a private insurance here (its mainly public back in Greece where we are from). So the question is: can she keep her public insurance there in order to retain all her pregnancy benefits in Greece and at the same time get a private insurance here and actually give birth here? Is simultaneus insurance in two countries possible/legal? Any hints or advice? Or maybe some official authority that I can contact? Thanks a lot!

As soon as you register here, she needs to apply for local Swiss insurance (which is very good in my opinion).

No, because she will no longer be a resident of Greece, but of Switzerland. She can/will have to get Swiss health insurance cover within 3 months of arriving and she can also give birth here. Swiss health coverage for pregnancy is very good so don't be concerned about that. Everything after the first 12 weeks will be covered.

https://www.ch.ch/en/pregnancy-health-insurance-covers/

Thanks for the quicks answers. However, I feel like these not fully cover my question...I mean, yes of course, she will get an insurance here, give a birth, etc. So far so good. But can she also remain insured back in Greece, keep her job and remain on paid pregnancy leave while also insured here?

My Hungarian friend started working here three weeks ago. His pregnant wife joined him a few days ago. He's paying for her health insurance here. It really isn't' a problem.

You are basically asking us what is the situation in Greece, if she moves to Switzerland and continue to claim benefits in Greece... This is probably not the best form to get an answer to such a question.

For the Swiss side:

• Your wife can reside here since you can support her.
• All residents of Switzerland must have obligatory medical insurance.
• Swiss medical insurance can be bought only by persons with a domicile in Switzerland (with the exception of old-age pensioners, in some particular cases, but this is not your wife's situation).
• Your wife (with you) is taxed in Switzerland, on all her assets and income, worldwide.

The Swiss do not accept two domiciles. Here, a domicile is where the "middle point" of one's life is. This is the intersection of one's private, social and public life. If your wife moves to Switzerland to live with you, then she will be transferring her middle point from Greece to Switzerland.

Your wife needs to find out those same things from the Greek side, and in particular, whether the Greek employer thinks that she can work remotely. If not, and if she wants to keep her job in Greece, then one option might be for her to continue to live in Greece, and just visiting you from time to time.

Yeah, I know, I thought maybe someone had a similar experience with Greece or even a different country and made it work...Anyway, as you (and others) have suggested I will try to ask the question on the Greek authorities as well. Its just that I dont really trust them and I was searching for a real-life example . Thanks for all the answers!

I could be wrong, but I’d say your chance of finding a Greek in the same circumstances on this form is about zero.

Yes, in the same circumstances, that's unlikely. But Greeks? We have them, too!
https://www.englishforum.ch/members/...stvisit&pp=100
OP, perhaps one of these members would be able to advise you about how to find out the info in Greece. If you want to contact them, be sure to sort by the date of the "last visit".

Perhaps you could ask a mod to change the name of your thread to show that it's about Greece and Switzerland. That might get the attention of forum members who'd know what you need to know.

Hey thanks for all the replies. I think I will keep it as is because I am generally asking if someone had experience with a similar situation, maybe from another country also, not just Greece...

Hi Georgios,
First of all, if she works 100% in Greece, she might be entitled to an exemption from the obligation to be insured in Switzerland. You may contact the Städtische Gesundheitsdienste and ask them all your questions. You can also find some useful information related to this matter here:
http://www.jgk.be.ch/jgk/de/index/pr...0Befreiung.pdf
Feel free to contact me should you need further information.

Luckily, for Giorgios, you are indeed wrong

From the Swiss side of view I do not see any issues. As long as you have at least the mandatory basic health insurance coverage you are good. More is always possible.

This looks more like a Greek issue.

Are you actually concerned about Greek health insurance? The way I understand it, you are mostly wondering whether or not she can collect maternity benefits in Greece after she's had the baby, even though she's residing in Switzerland, and the birth will be covered by Swiss health insurance. This isn't about Greek health insurance, it's about social benefits, i.e. you want to know if she can:
I would be surprised if the Greek government would pay out maternity leave to someone who has left the country, but the only way to know is to ask them.

A few years ago, I was insured in both countries, not because I wanted to, though. In Greece, health insurance is somehow combined with the pension fund. In the past, and especially for engineers, you would have to to contribute to the pension fund and the public health insuarance regardless of your employment or residence status. Of course, this changed, but the first three or four years I was here, I was paying health insurance and pension fund contributions in both countries. A simple form from AHV confirming employment status and contribution to the swiss pension fund was enough to de-register from the greek pension fund and get a refund of my pension contributions, but not the health insurance contributions.

Since then, quite a few things have changed in the health insurance and pension funds in Greece. I suspect that if your wife wants to continue paying for the health insurance and pension fund, nobody is gonna stop her. But claiming benefits is not gonna be easy. After all, if she moves here and gives birth to your child here, this means that her residence is in Switzerland, she would have to deregister from the local tax office and move to the "Greeks living abroad" tax office and I guess the health insurance is gonna check tax status before they start giving out money.

Oh, by the way, if she moves here, then she will want to move to this special tax office, otherwise you would have to declare your swiss income (actually your global income) in the greek tax return and be taxed at greek tax rates.

Thank you so much everyone! All suggestions and insights have been dully noted! You have given me great direction in what to search for! And to the fellow engineer from Greece: I am an engineer myself. Things are a bit easier now, you just request using a form, to de-register from the engineers' branch (TSMEDE). But how much time it will take to get processed is another thing...So the latest update for future use (if anyone finds him-herself in the same position) is that it can actually be done. But the thing gets trickier as DarkOrion said with tax, you may get taxed for the part of the year with the Swiss salary back in greece - you dont want that...I may have to make separate tax statements next year with my wife to avoid that. I will update this thread when I have my final course of action for anyone interested. Power of the community! Thanks again!

FYI - in Switzerland, married couples file together. Not sure how that works if you file separately in Greece and you need to use tax treaties between the countries to your advantage.

It is perfectly feasible. Don't hesitate to contact me for details if necessary.