Good Day,

I have a special situation. My wife is US citizen and yesterday she arrived in Switzerland with D-Visa (family reunification). We registered at the Gemenide yesterday itself. Now question is how long does it take (including biometric) to actually get the physical permit. She will be flying back to US on 19th Feb. Incase we are able to do the fingerprint before 19th Feb, can she fly out of Switzerland without the permit ? After biometric, i know it takes maybe 1-2 weeks for the physical permit to arrive by post.

Pls help...

chances are she's not going to have the permit in hand before then as it seems to take at least 2 weeks right now - took 2 months for ours but that was over December when it seems no one did much with issuing permits.

I don't know how it works with having the family reunification visa already stamped in there (is there a date on it for when it expires??) but you could just call the migrationsamt (they speak english) and ask them if she requires a reentry visa. We had to do that to go home to Canada in November, and it's an easy process - you just have to go down in person with your passport and as long as her information is in the system and shows the process is active, you pay a few francs and they fill a page of her passport and she is able to come back into the country without having the actual permit card in hand.

Our Gemeinde booked us in straight away for the fingerprinting when we lodged the registration papers - did you register in Zurich ?

It should be pretty quick - but I'd go back to the Gemeinde and tell them that she will be travelling and what should you do about it ?

There might be a back-log of appointments, or someone might have missed the appointment, or maybe they just aren't in a hurry...

Did they issue you a temporary paper ? They can do that on request - it costs a small amount of money - I'd go back to the Gemeinde and ask (politely, don't stress, we find the Gemeinde extremely helpful !).... I'm sure it's easily solved...

Thanking you for the post..

We are registered in Olten (Kanton Solothurn)... If I understood correctly, I can ask for the document (paper) which is equivalent to the actual permit for travelling purpose. Just a question, how long can the spouse stay outside of Switzerland- max 6 months???

Regards,

Aargau, biometric, 2 months (B-Permit) + 8 days for appointment

Went to Kreisboro 11 to submit my application for my B permit, offered a biometric appointment 8 days later. Arrived to the biometric appt with them showing me another letter they sent to my flat requesting a few more documents, that was only postmarked the day before my appt.
Times can vary, especially if they decide midway they want more documents. I don't think that would happen to you if you already have the D visa; they wanted me to jump through a few more hoops since I didn't start any of the application process on US soil.
But like others said, 1-2 weeks after all paperwork/biometrics is in, if not sooner.

Registered at Gemenide on Monday.
Got appointment for Biometric that afternoon.
Received resident card Thursday morning.

Ta da!

Good Day,

Finally did the biometric in Solothurn. They told the permit arrives in 7 days per post. American citizens can travel out without a permit. But for entering the permit is required (if registered under family reunification).

Thanking all for your inputs..