Hi everyone,

this is going to be a bit complicated so please bare with me because I need all the help I can get.

I am a canadian citizen in my mid 20's currently living and working in Germany, I also have another non-EU citizenship which I am not using at the moment. I lived in Switzerland for a year during my studies but because of my canadian passport I couldn't find work there so I was forced to relocate to Germany. I plan to work in Germany for a few years or at least until I get the German residency permit card (niederlassungerlaubnis) which is normally delivered after someone lives and works in Germany for 5 years. I relocated to Germany in October 2019 and I began working in January 2020.

Here are all my questions:

1) What's the earlier date at which I can get the German niederlassungserlaubnis based on the fact that I began working in Germany in late January 2020?

2) Would I finally be considered as an EU citizen simply with a German residency permit card or would I still be unfortunately viewed as non-EU due to my canadian passport (even if I were to renounce my canadian citizenship)?

3) Is the German residency permit tied to the passport (citizenship) or not?

4) As a canadian citizen, is there any legal document from Germany besides the residency permit card that would allow me to come back to Switzerland and work there?

My short (long) term goal is to come back to Switzerland and work there without having to wait like 15 years for that to happen..

I think you're making it far too complicated. The simple answer is that as a non-EU citizen you have to jump through any and all hoops in order to be allowed to work in CH. Lots of existing threads about this if you do a simple search. there's even a sticky post about it.

The fact of your German residence status, of whatever type, has absolutely no bearing on this. Only if you were to gain German citizenship would your ability to work in CH be affected.

Why not take the bull by its horns and jump through the hoops to find a job in Switzerland. Others have done it, so can you.

Or else you could try to find a job in an EU country, where the path to citizenship is shorter than it is in Germany (Ireland?). Once an EU citizen, then the door to Switzerland opens.

1) Ask on a German site.

2) No.

3) Ask on a German site.

4) Only German citizenship would allow you to work here, NOT German residency.

Tom