Hello everybody,

I'm Italian and my boyfriend is Croatian. I've got a B-Permit and have been working in Switzerland since the beginning of January.

My boyfriend works abroad and he would like to start looking for employment in Switzerland.
Being aware of the specific conditions applying to Croatian citizens, I have been exploring various options for us.

An option would be to get married in Croatia so that he could join me in Switzerland via the Family Reunification Programme. This option has always been on the table and it would include traveling to Croatia and back which we would like to avoid, if possible, due to the current circumstances (pandemic, lockdowns, etc.).

Another option which I find interesting is concubinage.

Does anybody have experience with this sort of relationship?
Would us concluding a concubinage agreement make it possible for him to get the B-Permit and hence make it possible for him to get a job regardless of all the rules applying to Croatian citizens?

Many thanks!

If you earn enough it's possible for him to get a residence permit, but it's not a work permit and won't allow him to work. From experience, the easiest alternative is probably to get married if he wants to work here.

Many years. It just means that two person in love live together w/o being married.

But as dsne says, this will not give any facilitated access to the Swiss job market. All the restrictions for 3rd-nationals/Croatians will still apply.

Instead of getting married in Croatia you can also get married in Switzerland.

Thank you for the great input!

Before posting the question here, I also dropped a line at the Migrationsamt as on the ch.ch website, there is no mention of how concubinage reflects on the actual ability to pursue employment in Switzerland. Additionally, the notion of concubinage is completely new to me.

Getting married in Switzerland would be a tiny bit tedious as tons of documents are required the gathering of which would take much more time than simply driving/flying over to Croatia and getting married there.
Interestingly, all we would need is our birth certificates, ID and/or passport, and two witnesses.

It is indeed difficult to find reliable information about the concubine permit online. Wish you all the best and hope it will work out

I'm in a very similar situation, but both of us are from EU. Can my girlfriend get the same work permit I get? I'm about to get B.

Yes, if you're both EU - assuming you meet all the requirements for the concubinage permit, including having sufficient income to support both of you and signing to be financially responsible for her for 5 years even if the relationship breaks down.

Thank you, that's what I read as well. Any idea what exactly sufficient means? I'm talking here about Zurich.

Are you sure about that?

"Family reunification: Conditions for taking up employment

The spouses and children of a Croatian citizen, who have been admitted to Switzerland under the terms of family reunification, are legally entitled to seek employment on the Swiss labour market irrespective of their citizenship. This applies even in cases where the Croatian citizen in question has not been authorised to take up employment (Art. 3 para. 5 Annex I AFMP). No additional work permit is needed.

Croatian citizens enjoy this legal right without having to submit a notification or obtain authorisation, provided that a long-term permit has already been issued. If the spouse and children of a Croatian citizen hold a short-stay permit, then they are entitled to take up employment, subject to compliance with salary and working conditions for the given location and branch of activity. However, the underlying permit must have already been issued before the spouse or son/daughter has taken up employment."

https://www.sem.admin.ch/sem/en/home...actsheets.html

Seems to me Croatian dependents are treated the same as any other EU national's dependents. And we've had reports here that EU main/EU concubine pairings have been able to work with no problems. I can't see a Croatian concubine dependent being treated any differently in that respect.

First, we are talking about an dependent of an Italian citizen. OP which is Italian want's to "sponsor" the permit. Second, as far as I understand a concubine permit and will not give an automatic right to employment as is not a proper and full family reunification permit according Annex I Art. 3 of the FMOP Agreement between the EU and Switzerland. The agreement only says:
Accordingly Art. 21 FNIA, which still applies for Croatian nationals, is not overruled by a concubine residence permit. To take advantage of Annex I Art. 3 and not be subject to Art. 21 FNIA they must thus be married.

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On Strike - ChatGPT knows more than I, so use it (or doesn't it?)

Exactly, the dependent permit is not the same as a family reunification permit. I have one and it explicitly states that I'm not allowed to work on it.