Student Visa for PhD student at ETH
 

Hi,
I am a non-eu citizen and i am about to start my PhD at ETH Zurich which they offered me a research assistant position. I have already applied for the work permit(B-permit) and other formalities and i have sent the work permit application to the the immigration office of Zürich canton . I was wondering if i still need to apply for visa separately or the immigration office will issue the visa for me and how long will roughly take to issue the visa?

Cheers.:)

Re: Student Visa for PhD student at ETH
 

I presume that you are presently in your home country. If the application for the B- permit has been made already (the ETHZ will have had a hand in this), then you can expect to receive a letter (in german) basically outlining that the relevant office issue you the permit (keep this safe). You will then need to take this letter to the swiss consulate/embassy in your city and they will issue the visa with no problems and no undue paperwork.

At swiss passport control in Zürich they may ask for the purpose of your visit, if you say to begin Ph.D. you will need to show this letter to them. You will also need to take this letter to your nearest kreisbüro (the city is divided into 8 kreises and which one you need to go to is determined by where you will stay), who will issue you with the actual B-permit.

Hope this helps

Re: Student Visa for PhD student at ETH
 

Thanks for your prompt reply.
I am in Australia now and will apply for the visa at Sydney . As you said i have applied for the B-permit through ETH nearly 2 weeks ago. But i do not know how long will take to issue the work permit which i can take to the Swiss consular?.

Many thanks,
Roozbeh

Re: Student Visa for PhD student at ETH
 

Unfortunately, these things take time and you could expect up to three months. In addition, you should bring with you originals and certified copies of your school leaving certificate, your university qualifications (BSc. hons, MSc.). Once here you will need to go through a process called immatrikulation (basically acceptance that your Australian qualifications are swiss equivalent). This is also a long process and i suggest you arrange to do this whilst you wait for the permit. I'm not certain how it will work for the ETHZ but the UniZH has a website that may provide you with some guidance. http://www.mnf.uzh.ch/administration.../index.en.html

Remember those originals as the administration with new registrations (non swiss) can be quite stickly here and it will reduce the grief of having to get them couriered from Aus. at a later stage.