Hi, everyone, me and my husband are moving to Switzerland and I am very glad to find this community to turn to for help. The position I get is at Basel. It is a permanent position in pharmaceutical company. The company is right now helping me and my husband with the work and stay permit. BTW, both of us are Singaporeans. I heard quite some stories about rejected permit. Based on your experiences and knowledge, how likely will our permit application be rejected? We are now in Singapore. Is it safe that I resign from my current position before we get the permit? Thank you very much for your advise in advance!

BTW, it is an B permit. I am a Ph.D. and have 5yr experience in this area.

The permit type is up to the authorities. Don't be surprised if you get an L initially.

As for rejection no one can say.

You should be OK getting the permit; the pharma companies here carry a lot of weight with the authorities (their and their employees' taxes pay for most of it!).

However, I still wouldn't resign until the permit has been granted because if you're rejected that's it. You'll no doubt have some small print in the new job's contract stating that the offer is subject to a visa.

As they say in the classics 'don't give up your day job'.

And be warned, it's pretty typical for non-eu to get an L permit for the first two years, and that means that your spouse can't automatically work. It's not impossible (I did it after 12 months staying at home to look after the kids) but it takes specialist skills, the right qualifications, CV, perhaps some sort of process to have your university education declared 'equivalent' to something, and a fair bit of luck...

But on the positive side, if they tell you it's going to take 12 weeks to complete the application process, it will, and if they are going to reject it, they will do that sooner...

Thank you all for the reply! Guess it is safer to wait for the permit then. The company said the process will take about 6-8 wks. Did not know my husband can't work if I get an L permit. That's too bad then.

I need to go back looking for the small print then,