No longer exempt following new directive published by SEM, valid as of 01.10.2022:

https://www.sem.admin.ch/dam/sem/de/...ngen-aug-d.pdf

Point 0.2.1.3.2

Basically, the SEM is taking advantage of a jurisprudence case of a German national in Kt. Zurich who was denied C permit for being heavily in debt (2C_881/2021 from 09.05.2022) to start applying full integration criteria to ALL foreigners (including language certificates), even to citizens of countries which were previously exempt to produce a language certificate.

A2 oral A1 written certificate is now required for all 'ordinary' (not early) C permit applicants (except those whose mother tongue is the official language of their domicile).

Still several exemptions at a first glance.

Too late on a Sunday to read the document. So basically this is irrelevant to Germans in Deutschschweiz, French in Romandie and Italians in Ticino?

Exactly, at least with regards to language requirement.

However in the cited case the German national was denied C for having unpaid debts oscillating between 20-70K CHF, so the interpretation of the SEM seems to be that all other integration criteria should apply, regardless of the existence of an international treaty giving the supposed 'right' to a C permit.

OK. But wasn't this the case before? Here in SZ the wording on the cantonal website is that C "can" be issued after 5 years to EU and it mentions that a Betreibungsauskunft is part of the required documents.

It's not about EU/non-EU but citizens of IT, BE, NL, FR, AT, DE, DK, ES, PT, GR, FL which have international treaties in place with CH regarding C permits.

The point is that being in debt (for example) has led very recently to a C permit denial even to one of the above nationals, confirmed by the federal court.

The SEM is now taking advantage of this recent jurisprudence case to start interpreting that language certificates for above nationals are to be produced as well (which wasn't the case until now).

The interpretation is that it should be investigated if there is a reason not to grant the permit due to a lack of integration, because by law it should be revoked right away..

This is a bit weaker criteria than you must show that you are integrated.

Note: This new SEM Guideline are fresh from the press and your cantons website might not yet reflect the latest changes.

Something else which has changed is the age limit for students: This was previously a near hard limit of 30 years.

Considering EU and non-EU have the same right regarding permit C. I am pretty sure nothing is said about the EU in particular as that would make no sense.

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

You might want to read that treaty…. Neither the EU directive nor the agreement with the EEA/CH requires a state to grant citizens of another member state permanent resident status if they have failed to establish economic viability. Both Germany and Ireland have sent EU citizens home in the past on this basis.

OK, not EU then but:

"If they meet the required conditions, nationals of Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain and Sweden as well as EFTA nationals (Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway) are granted settlement permits pursuant to settlement treaties or reciprocal agreements after five years’ regular and uninterrupted residence in Switzerland. No such treaties exist for nationals of the other EU member states."

Do you got a sauce for that?

These treaties have nothing to do with the EU, some were signed in the 1930s even before the existence of the EU. They are treaties between Switzerland and the individual countries mentioned above which superseed national law.

The change is that the treaties continue to superseed national law as in the past, however the recent federal court decision confirms national law criteria (AIG) are to be looked at as a supplement to the respective international treaty when making a decision to grant a C permit.

Sauce? Brown, white or Bolognese?
New SEM Weisungen 5.1.1
This was previously handled differently, see threads on EF on this topic which you can easily find, or federal court ruling which I linked for your convenience.

Treaties. Here all of them, if you are interested:

https://www.sem.admin.ch/dam/sem/de/...barungen-d.pdf

The oldest, with Italy, traces back to 1868 !

Dear LimegrassZwei,

Thank you for bringing this to our attention! As far as I can tell, this is a pretty significant change to the established interpretation of the settlement agreements that CH has signed with IT, NL, BE, FR, AT, DE, DK, ES, PT, GK, and FL.

I happened to have an older copy of the same document downloaded, and the section 0.2.3.1.2 has been completely rewritten (as footnote 14 indicates), and even the tone of the section is very different.

The pre-01.10.2022 version of the section was quite short and included the following: 'Citizens of these treaty-states receive a settlement permit after a regular and unbroken residence of five years (instead of ten years). With regard to the issuing of a settlement permit, the integration criteria are only taken into account if they would justify the revocation of a settlement permit. Insufficient language competence alone does not justify a revocation.' (Please excuse my rough translation from German!)

In contrast, the 01.10.2022 version of this same section now includes the following statements:

• The settlement agreements 'give an claim to the issuing of a settlement permit after a regular and unbroken period of five years'.
• These agreements 'deviate solely in terms of the period of residence of ten years contained in article 34 line 2 letter a of the Foreign Nationals and Integration Act (FNIA); in other respects, the provisions of the FNIA are fully applicable'.
• And 'A settlement permit according to article 34 line 2 of the FNIA can thus only be issued based on a settlement agreement when no grounds for revocation [of the settlement permit] or demotion [from a C permit to a B permit] exist, and when the foreigner is integrated and, in particular, possesses the necessary language competence.'

(Again, please excuse my very rough translations of these sections from German!)

As you can see, the tone of the older version of this section of the document was almost friendly and very matter-of-fact: After five years, citizens of these countries get a C permit (unless there's some sort of huge integration problem) without needing to satisfy the language requirements. The tone of the new version of the section is much more restrictive: The only thing the settlement agreements between CH and the relevant countries change is reducing the period required from 10 years to 5 years, and all integration requirements, especially the language requirements, remain applicable.

I'm very interested in seeing how these changes will be applied in practice, and I also wonder what further changes might be on the horizon.

Again, thank you, LimegrassZwei!

Sincerely,
NederlandseAmerikaan

Genuine bolognese is brown, actually.

Tom

Post brexit, is it possible for uk citizens to obtain a C permit? (If they moved here after brexit, so no pre settled status)

Of course it’s possible. They can obtain a C permit just the same as anybody else if they fulfil the criteria for getting one.

Thank you LimegrassZwei for the heads up and NederlandseAmerikaan for the further interpretation.


What about those who received C-permits from one of the treaty countries IT, BE, NL, FR, AT, DE, DK, ES, PT, GR, FL already, prior to this new directive?


Would those individuals be grandfathered with a C-permit without language requirement or would there be an expected language certification upon next renewal of the C-permit?

Renewals are exempt from the language requirements so anybody who o trained their C permit before this new rule came into force won’t need to do anything.

That's great - thanks - can you or anyone point to the guidance on this? just curious how it's worded and so I can share with others in a similar situation