I study in Paris, but I am not Swiss/EU nationality. I live with a long-term resident card.
When I was Master1 student in Paris I spent 2 months in Zurich university as an intern.
Now I applied to make my Master2 internship in Basel and the officials said that according to the law I cannot do internship in Switzerland for 2 times because I am not Swiss/EU nationality.
The question is: does it change anything if my first internship was not remunerated (I lived completely for my own money) and I had no special contract with the Zurich university for my first internship (I was considered as a scientific guest, not properly an intern).
I cannot find the text of the law, that's why I ask here.
If you got the permit for an internship then that’s what it was, although unpaid internships aren’t supposed to be allowed. So no, I don’t think it will make any difference. Still you can try looking through the Foreign Nationals Act to see if there’s anything on it.
a) unpaid internships are not allowed. Too late to fix that now of course
b) one internship per degree is 'allowed' as that is usually what is required to obtain the degree. In theory (and pre-EU), universities always had to confirm for every non-Swiss student that the internship was a mandatory requirement for finishing the degree. These days, only non-EU students still need to prove that.
If you've already done an internship and received a permit based on the assumption or some form of confirmation that it was an actual internship and that 'internship' was required for your degree, you will not get a second one. The authorities will assume either of the two was/is not an acutal internship, making you ineligible for a respective permit. And obviously they're right, as you were not really an intern the first time around. That is too bad now in the case this second internship is indeed a real one, but nothing you can do.
I lived in Zurich on the basis of my French residence permit that allows me to stay in Switzerland for <3 months. The Zurich university secretary said that while I was an unpayed "scientific guest", I did not have to apply for any special kind of residence permit.
Thus, if I understand you correctly, it cannot be considered by the officials as a real internship. They knew about it only because I mentioned it in my CV that I gave them.
I ́m a bit surprised? You can stay in Switzerland as a tourist or job seeker for 3 months (if you have an EU nationality) but your French permit is irrelevant in Switzerland.
Your French residence permit is of no relevance in Switzerland. Your nationality aka what's in your passport is what counts. Non-EU citizens may be allowed to come here as tourists for three months even without a visa (US citizens for example), but certainly never to work.
"Unpaid scientific guest" is not a thing... Certainly not for Masters students (there are some options comparable to this for PhD students, but they still require a permit). Did you get a salary from elsewhere? Were you employed at that Paris university? Employed, not a student.
The authorities MUST have seen either your CV or have received some form of documentation or application for a permit for you at some point. Otherwise it would obviously be impossible to know that you even exist.
If you sat around for a couple of months and only looked over the shoulders of the workers then you were an unpaid guest. If you did any work at all, then you should have had a Swiss permit - if you didn’t you were working illegally. Your French permit means nothing here, all it allows you to do is enter Switzerland as a tourist without needing to get a visa.
No, at that period I was not employed anywhere, I was only a Parisian Master1 student.
At some point Zurich officials contacted me to pay a tax and the university secretary had to call them and explain that I was not employed for my internship.
According to your first post, Swiss law has already determined. You just didn't like the answer. Considering they are the ones to make the decision, it's not likely they agree that you were a tourist.