I am an EU citizen, I work for a company in the EU but would like to live in Switzerland for a couple (6-9) of months for family reasons.

My employer said it's fine as long as I have a "right to work" by which they mean residence permit I believe.

I went to the immigration office and they told me they'll issue me a permit just fine and gave me a confirmation for that. I had a similar situation last year where issuance of the permit took months though (as someone somewhere lost my docs :/).

I wonder: does the confirmation itself give normally "right to work" or should I technically be waiting for the permit before I start to work here?

Equivalently: as an EU citizen whose 90/180 days is about to expire and have applied for the permit, am I allowed to stay while the permit is being issued?

Did they confirm it would include permission to work? Did you show them your employment contract?

"Gainful employment of more than 3 months:

Within 14 days of their arrival and before actually taking up work, nationals of EU/EFTA states have to register with the local authorities of the commune in which they are residing and apply for a residence permit. A valid ID or passport and a written confirmation of employment (e.g. the contract of employment containing details of the duration of employment and the number of working hours) have to be presented. A residence permit will be issued depending on the duration of employment: a short-term residence permit (type L permit) for employment of up to 364 days or a residence permit (type B permit) for employment of at least one year or for an unlimited period.

https://www.sem.admin.ch/sem/en/home...ml#-1597848978

It should be okay assuming the above applies for non-Swiss employment as well.

And yes, if you have a permit application pending then you can stay until a decision is made.

Yes, the permit is for the reason of exercise of gainful activity.

Any reference to the law about that (so that I can try to convince my employer)?

But NOT work before you receive the permit.

Tom

Whenever I applied for a work permit (with a Swiss work contract) I was allowed to start work immediately after handing in the application form

Indeed and it's pretty clear in the link I posted.

"Within 14 days of their arrival and before actually taking up work, nationals of EU/EFTA states have to register with the local authorities of the commune in which they are residing and apply for a residence permit."

So long as you register before starting work you're fine.

I would hardly call that clear.

Tom

If you have an inherent right to live and work in Switzerland then I believe the 'permit' is a formality and you can work before you physically receive one. I'm sure I got something like a 'certificate of permit in principle'. It will depend on your circumstances and which country you come from.

A Romanian friend of mine came to Switzerland. He registered at the community. He applied for jobs. When he got a contract, he took it the community offices and they began to process his work permit. He could work as soon as he got the contract.

He had three months to find a job.

I'm sure it depends on the gemeinde as always, but when I applied for mine they just photocopied the application form, stamped and dated it, and that was my proof until the permit came through.

Non-officially or officially or whatever, everyone works before getting the physical permit once they signed a work agreement. I mean it was like that even when we came here and weren't processed as EU, so theoretically there were still chances to get our work permits rejected.
So yeah, I think you can start to work.

From what I've gathered so far, if you're Croatian national, then you are not allowed to start work before you have the real permit in the hand.
However, for other EU citizens the paper that they applied for permit is enough, as Medea found as well.