Hello,
I am a postdoc since April 2017 with a B permit. The family reunion visa demand to my common-law partner has been rejected three times.
Besides the “common law” status (we are both Canadians), or concubinage, the main issue picked by the authorities is that I do not have a “seed” in Switzerland since my permit is “Aus- mit Weiterbildung”, which I translate as “continuous education”.
I had to renew my residence permit, and Human Resources, kindly, sent a letter to the Migration office asking them to change the “Ausbildung mit Erwerbstätigkeit” status since Ausbildung means education... As a postdoc, I am not in training anymore, but working......but they did not change it.
We are very sad because it is hard to be so far always, and it seems that they is no way around ...
Any ideas, insights or suggestions ?
Thank you so much in advance,
Mar

Sorry Avellana, can't offer much hope. All I can say is someone reported in a thread a while ago they were told by Zurich that non-EU/non-EU pairing would not be granted a concubine permit by the canton. So I'm not sure changing your permit status would make any difference.

Hopefully someone else has been successful and can give you some guidance on this.

Get married, problem solved.

After three rejections within apparently less than a year, you might as well save the time for any further attempts for the same things.

Asking for a minor change in the wording on your permit has no effect whatsoever. This isn't the first application of this sort they've seen, they know you're still a postdoc even if you add "mit Erwerbstätigkeit".

THanks so much for your answers!
Well, as far as we understood it, the concubinato was not the ultimate problem but my status as “in training”.
For the concubinato, we present many papers, pictures and so on (including tax declaration). It is also possible they say we are getting married because of the papers, so we will “offer” to get married. We live alright as we are now; if they ask it, ok, we will do it.
However, as I said, the biggest problem for them was the Aus- und Weiterbikdung status “verfügen nicht über ein gefestigtes Aufenthaltsrecht”.
They took so much time too revise the application that my previous permit was ending ....so they said : your permit is ending anyways.
But now I have a new renewed permit ....I did not know it was so hard for postdocs ....

Would hope that would work Samaire13, but after 3 rejections they may see the marriage as another attempt to get around the rules. But at least it does offer a chance which another application with the current setup doesn't.

Family reunification criteria is here:

https://www.ch.ch/en/family-reunification/

And Article 44:

"Art. 44 Spouses and children of persons with a residence permit

The foreign spouse and unmarried children under 18 of a person with a residence permit may be granted a residence permit if:
a. they live with the permit holder;
b. suitable housing is available; and
c. they do not depend on social assistance."

https://www.admin.ch/opc/en/classifi...232/index.html

True, but I still sort of would be surprised if two married Canadians got turned down, even after multiple attempts before that. Of course no guarantee, but still a better chance of succeeding than to keep trying with this concubine thing which clearly doesn't work and likely never will.

But you still don't have that even if you add "mit Erwerbstätigkeit". Doctoral and postdoctoral assignments are typically qualified as education no matter what, the contracts are (normally) fixed-term, even if for many years, so yes, you do indeed not have a permanent right to stay here. Granted, many others don't either, but well, it is what it is. As said, three attempts with three rejections - plan A didn't work, so it's time to look into plan B.

Hello!

Thanks so much again for your messages.

Plan B is getting married?
We are just so frustrated that they imposed things into you...

well, anyways, we will see...Thanks again

Maricela

They impose "these things" in most countries, including - in some shape or form - in North America.