Folks,

I am from India, travelling to Zurich to work under a 12 month L-permit. My wife & son are accompanying me as dependents.

My qs is:
I have heard that in Switzerland, the residency permit is also a work permit. Will the dependent residency permit of my wife also allow her to work in Zurich? If not, is there some application that can be done in Zurich that would provide her the ability to work?

Thanks a lot in advance for any help you may be able to provide.

- Prad

Generally the answer to both questions seeing as you are not EU nationals is no!

The standard permit that a non-EU spouse will receive does not allow them to work. Interestingly if you were non-EU and she had an EU passport then you would both receive EU permits and she would be entitled to work.

With the non-EU B permit it is possible to apply to allow a spouse to work but as far as I am aware not with an L.

Oh well, that isn't good news at all. Anyways, thanks for your reply Richard.

Hello everyone.

My wife just started working in Zurich and she's going to get her L permit soon this days. We were expecting that she would get a B permit but this is not the case We are from a non-EU country (Macedonia). Does anyone know if I can ask for a family or visitor visa to join her because I think that I've read somewhere that only if she has B or C permit the spouse can ask for joining visa for non-eu countries. Also if asking for visa is possible then maybe someone knows what are the chances for my visa application to be rejected (considering that we gather all the needed paperwork).

Thanks,
Damjan.

Hi Damjan
You can apply for a visiting visa or simply a tourist visa which entitles you to stay here maximum 3 months. I ve also heard that within 1 yr you can not apply for a second time(not sure about this, will check it out later).

It s not hard to get this visa as long as you have all the paperwork. To increase the chance the financial guaratee from your wife side (or by yourself) is crucial, the minimum is 20k; the bigger the number you have in your bank account, the better.

Damjan, what advice did the Swiss embassy in your country give you?

I have a 'friend' who arrived in the country without a visa, just as a tourist. 'He' then enrolled in a language school and immediately set about looking for work. With a confirmation of attendance document from the school and - perhaps crucially - a partner here who wrote a letter saying she was prepared to financially support 'him', 'he' went to the local government office/Gemeinde and asked if it was possible for an L-permit to allow continued study for up to 18 months.

Presto! It worked (I guess the Gemeinde reasoned that if my 'friend' was contributing to the economy but not being supported by it, then it was OK). With permission to stay, my 'mate' then job-hunted like crazy. After a long while, 'he' found a job whereby 'he' had to use 'his' mother tongue English. At the time it was difficult for the company to find anyone with immediate notice and English fluency, but had the little issue of the L-permit to deal with. And true to form, they wrote a letter to the appropriate authorities and claimed they really needed my 'friend', and after a month or so a B-permit arrived.

Fancy that!

Maybe you could investigate the possibility of having your partner write a similar letter testifying to cover your financial needs. If you can bring a wad of cash over with you too, I'm sure that would help. Worked for me, erm, I mean my 'friend'

Hi Mark.

Actually they were not very helpfull and polite at the embassy. They told me that I can ask for a visitor visa which is for 3 months max. or that I can ask for a family reunion visa which is for 1 year but for this visa my wife has to stay there for at least 1 months before she can be the guarantor.For other details they said that my wife should ask in Switzerland.Also, the company that my wife works for told her that they can apply for my visa but after a 3 month period but we would like to be together sooner.
I was going to apply for a visitor visa at first and later for a family reunion visa but the thing that confuses me is whether I can do this with my wife L permit since we expected for her to get a B permit.
I've considered a tourist visa but the embassy requirements specify that I need to have a hotel vaucher for the duration of the tourist trip and since I will be staying with my wife I don't think that I will be able to apply for tourist visa.

Damjan.

Hi guys,

well.. I am sorry to hear about all these difficulties.
Probably I will have as same problem.. or at least similar..
Now, I do not know what my situation is .. actually we are EU members (but new EU members) and according to swiss law we are treated like non EU..
We are considering moving to Switzerland as my spouse was offered a job. I do not know what kind of permit he will get but I was hoping we will go together with children.
Now it looks like it is not that easy.
Does anyone know what the situation with new EU members is? Will we be able to relocate together without applying for a visa and so on.

cheers,

adzia

I think this is good enough, no? After one year your wife probably has a B already and you are naturally entiled to stay!!

Otherwise the way that Uncle Max's friend did was brilliant!! and lucky enough too

Uncle Max - your "friend" was from a "good" country meaning that he could enter the country without restriction. Those from "bad" countries have to have their visa before they arrive or they get turned back at the border.

Damjand - I would then go about applying for a tourist visa as soon as you can, and figure out the rest later. As for proving accomodation, simply get your wife's company to write a letter that she will be working for them, and then get your wife to state that you will be staying with her. That should be enough to convince the authorities

Adzia - The information you have is not correct. According to this factsheet [German, admin.ch] as long as your husband has a permit of any type, and he is a citizen of an EU state (old or new doesn't matter) then you and the family have an automatic right to be with him. If the family is from outside the EU, then they still receive this right as long as they have been living in the EU and the permit holder is an EU citizen.

These latest posts were almost identical to the same question asked 10 days ago - I've therefore merged the threads.

Hi Mark,

What a relieve
Actually, at the beginning I was thinking that we should not have problems entering Switzerland as EU members.
However, when it occurred that we would have as same "rights" as non EU when looking for work permit I started to lose my hope

well.. thanks a mil 4 good news!!

adzia

sorry for mistake Mark. I meant relief of course

First of all I would like to introduce myself. My name is Jonathan. I live in the US. I go to switzerland every year for a month to visit and want to reside there in the future. I am 22 and have been married for three years. All of my wifes family lives in Switzerland and Austria. Her parents are from Macedonia. She has a sister who lives in Birmensdorf and cousins and uncles who live in Zürich. To make a long story short, she was seperated at a young age and was raised in the US. My main question is how to obtain a B permit on an anual basis? Also to qualify for the "C permit" it states that education time does not count. Does living in Switzerland un-interupted with family count towards time for the "C permit"? I would like to find any way possible to integrate into Switzerland because my wife has no family here in the states and I just want to get away from my family. We are currently going to college and have and intermediate command of french. We also have a three year old daughter who speaks mostly french also. I would settle for any kind of job in Switzerland as lond as im able to get by. Her family said that they would help us if we decided to make the move. We could stay with them for a while if needed. Does the Swiss government consider other family besides spouses and parents for residency purposes? I am willing to do anything to live near our family in Switzerland, I just need to be pointed in the right direction. I have been looking up the laws on the www.ch.ch website. A friend thats in my French class that lived in Switzerland for two years told me that it would be easier for me to live there since my wife has family connections. Is a study visa the best way to start the integration process?

I am from Non-EU contry and have a Permit B now. I would like to let my wife (still in our homeland) to come to Lausanne to live together with me. Which kind of visa should she apply? And after arriving here as a tourist, could she get a restraint Permit B or L?

THanks a lot.

If you're married, I believe your wife will be entitled to the equivalent residency permit. You're best to ask at your local permit office.

I assume you're both of the same nationality and have been married some time?

This thread was 3 separate spousal-permit questions.

permit wife husband join me in Swizterland

To Goldtruth and Mistael, the obvious first step is to phone the Swiss Embassy in your country of residence, they should be able to give you all the info you need.

Nick

Well said! It seldom seems to occur to people to use "official" channels for the information though... I'd say embassy first, then come back here if they give an answer which is not the one the applicant wants (since sometimes the embassies have been known to talk rubbish when it comes to this stuff).

of course a point to note is Goldtruth seems to be here so his issuing permit office would be the best place to ask