Hello everyone!
I am Croatian citizen (23yrs old guy) who recently got a job at Swiss company. Company tried to get my work permit but it was denied as they can't prove that I am the only one in Swiss+EU region fit for the job.
So, my girlfriend (24yrs old on C permit with Dutch citizenship + she also has Croatian citizenship) and I decided to get married as soon as possible so we can go through family reunification process. Company decided to wait for me to get permit through that way so they can hire me.


How much time does it take to get married in Switzerland?
What papers do we need (we already went to Civil registry office and they told us to wait until they e-mail us)?
How much time does it take to get through family reunification process?


Btw. we were planning to live together (and we already have apartment here) so that isn't a problem.


Thank you all!

You're going to have a problem with this idea because you both have to be residents of Switzerland to marry - and you won't be because you won't have a permit.

https://www.ch.ch/en/civil-wedding-ceremony/

What you could look at is a concubine permit for unmarried opposite sex couples - you'd need to check if your canton has this type of permit because not all cantons offer it. Your gf would have to agree to be financially responsible for you for 5 years and as she's an EU national you should be able to work with that permit. Once you have that you could always then get married here since you would both be Swiss residents.

This is not true. I know of tourists who have organised destination weddings. I myself wanted to get married before I was resident... it was possible (but more documents were needed), but I got stuck over getting a certain document needed, so waited until I was officially resident.

OP, sorting out the marriage docs & getting married would probably take a few months. Family reunification can then take several months too. It’s not a quick fix for that particular job.

(FYI, if you get stuck over documents and residency for marriage, Gibraltar is the place to go (COVID allowing))

Tourists yes. If his gf was also a tourist they could probably do it, but she's not.

Well it was possible for me to marry my Swiss resident husband here when I was not resident (if I could get a certificate of no-impediment). This was about 10 years ago.

Thank you all for your answers! I don't think documentation will take months (in Croatia I can get every needed document and translate it in 2 days). Also I can come to Switzerland as tourist without a problem.


We would get married anyway, so this just speeded up the whole process..My boss told me that he will wait a couple months to get this done so that is not problem at all.



Other possibility is to marry in Croatia in a month. Then, we need to translate our marriage document and go to visa reunification process, am I right?