Hello everyone,

I am rather sad right now because there is a chance that all my plans may be ruined.

I come from a non-EU country(Turkey) and I am doing my master's degree since Septermber 2010 at ETH Zürich. I have a friend back in Turkey with whom we wanted to establish a really small company for import/export, but definitely not something big. However, today I have heard(not sure) that if I become a partner of a company in my country, my Swiss student permit will be canceled. Is such a thing true or what is the exact detailed explanation for this.

Thank you guys very much in advance.
Yunus

How would they know?

I'm not entirely sure but if it was known, would this be a problem?

I am not sure, but have not heard of anything like this.
The forum experts might give you a decent answer tomorrow.

It all depends on whether the import/export business is intended to do business in Switzerland. If you are a silent partner then fine but if working in Switzerland for your company then your purpose for being here changes.

Thank you very much swissbob. By silent partner you mean that even having a meeting with a company counts as working i assume? How can I/they monitor this? I mean, I can work up to 15 hours per week but I don't think that you can count how many hours I spend on work.

I will get in contact with the Attaché of Education in Bern and ask for a concrete answer. But just out of curiosity: If I do a bussiness with, let's say Germany or France, does that still count for the regulations in Switzerland?

Thanks a lot for the answer by the way.

Yunus, they will never learn about your business in Turkey, here in Switzerland unless you go tell them.

You cannot work more than 15 hours in Switzerland, but you can work 9273937 hours for your company in Turkey, if you would like to.

Agree with that but I understand from the post that the op intends working for the Turkish company IN Switzerland.

you are allowed to do whatever you want in your country. However if you spend hours doing sales activities in Switzerland then that could be an issue. It's a student permit not a working permit.