My wife and I recently arrived in Basel using our multiple entry Schengen visas. We moved after I accepted a position at the University. We brought our paperwork to the Kantonal authority and were given the letter that our residence permits are being processed. My question now is do we have to apply for a more permanent visa at the federal level, or are our B permits the "final" document? In addition, if I leave Switzerland for a conference or vacation after the 90 day Schengen expiration, is the Kantonal residence permit the document that is required for re-entry or is there something else? The Swiss embassy in the US was unclear about this so any help would be greatly appreciated.

I would like to mention that while my questions may have been answered in previous threads, I couldn't find them. Apologies for my greenness!

I believe that more permanent ID cards will be mailed to you, and that once you have them you should present them with your passport for entry. I believe that if the card doesn't come before your schengen visa expires, you can have the Katonical authority put a new, longer running visa into your passport for a fee.

But this is just my understanding based on reading some apparently non-existent threads. Hopefully the real experts will let us know if I got it wrong.

Your B permits are the only document you will receive and are all you need.