2025 Permit quotas

Daily Life, Swiss News and General Topics
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From: Quotas For Third Country Nationals And UK Citizens Will Remain Unchanged In 2025 - General Immigration - Immigration - Switzerland

The Federal Council decided at its meeting on 27 November 2024, to leave the quotas for third country nationals and for service providers from the EU/EFTA area unchanged for the coming year 2025. The special quota for British nationals will also continue but with the intention of integrating it into the regular quota in the medium term. In addition, the safeguard clause for Croatian nationals will be lifted. The changes will enter into force on 1 January 2025 and should enable the Swiss economy to continue to recruit the workers it needs despite the shortage of qualified employees.

Quotas for third country nationals and EU/EFTA service providers

Next year, the cantons and the State Secretariat for Migration (SEM) will again be able to admit up to 8,500 qualified specialists from third countries. Of these, a maximum of 4,500 can be granted a B residence permit (long-term work permit, usually for five years with the possibility of renewal) and a maximum of 4,000 a L residence permit (short-term work permit for up to one year with the possibility of renewal for a further year in exceptional cases). The quotas for service providers from EU/EFTA countries remain unchanged: 3,000 L permits and 500 B permits for longer-term assignments. These quotas will be allocated to the cantons on a quarterly basis.

Special rules apply to British citizens

Since the end of the free movement of persons between Switzerland and the UK in 2021, quotas have applied to British citizens in the same way as to third country nationals. Up to 3,500 British workers can still be recruited; in 2025 (2,100 B permits and 1,400 L permits). In the medium term, the Federal Council plans to integrate this separate quota into the regular third country quota but does not give a specific schedule.

Full freedom of movement for Croatian citizens from 2025

From next year, Croatian citizens entering Switzerland for the purpose of employment will once again enjoy full freedom of movement. After a temporary restricted quota due to the high number of Croatian workers entering Switzerland in 2022, the safeguard clause (Ventilklausel) will be lifted again granting Croatian nationals full access to the Swiss labour market. If future immigration exceeds a threshold set by the Federal Council, Switzerland could reactivate the safeguard clause – but only for the year 2026 as this will mark the end of the ten-year transition period that started when Croatia signed the Agreement on the Free Movement of Persons on 1 January 2017.

Quota usage 2023/2024

In recent years, third country quotas have only been partially utilised: in 2023, 78% of the available places (B and L permits combined) were used, and in 2024, only 63% of the quotas were used by the end of October.

Quotas for service providers from the EU/EFTA area and the UK were much less in demand, with a utilisation rate of 52% and 24% respectively in 2023. In the current year, by the end of October 2024, the quotas were at even lower levels: service providers from the EU/EFTA area at 44% and British citizens at 18%.

Amendments to the AREO

In addition to the quotas, the Ordinance on Admission, Residence and Employment (AREO) will be further amended. Based on an agreement with the USA, an annual quota of 300 permits for trainees and young professionals will be introduced. These stays are for the purpose of vocational training and are not part of the regular admission to the labour market.

Outlook

With these measures, the Federal Council is sending a signal about the continued stability of the Swiss labour market and the need to ensure that the necessary qualified employees are available from abroad.

Don’t shoot the messenger.

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When we moved here we had to go through the same bureaucracy with quotas etc so nothing new. I bet the more established immigrants hated us the newcomers, lol.
Meantime the Brits need quotas… :rofl:

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So… the quotas are practically meaningless?

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My OH had to renew his permit last week and he wondered what he’d get, given his retirement deferral situation (he’s got another year from 2025 - 26 but doesn’t have the official paperwork yet). His boss gave him a letter to submit with the official form for the Migration Department and they told him at the appointment he was automatically being given another 5 year B Permit, he received it 4 days later.

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Well, just compare an unmet quota of 8.5k permits for 3rd country nationals with 41.2k acquisitions of Swiss citizenship on 2023. 25.3k or 61% are for UE/EFTA citizens.

https://www.bfs.admin.ch/bfs/en/home/statistics/population/migration-integration/citizenship/acquisition-citizenship.html

Immigration numbers are driven by the movement of EU/EFTA citizens, but the quota for 3rd country nationals sounds very serious and makes people happy :slight_smile:

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So the Swiss tried and tried to resist and fight the tendency and eventually succumbed to the need of workers. I think it’s ironic and quite amusing, indeed.

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I think it’s a little unfortunate that they don’t roll-over unused permits to the following year. Switzerland needs people like us to come and support their economy. And not just from the EU.

At least the unused B permits when people are being that because they don’t have enough so they get an L.

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I find it strange that highly qualified Ukrainians with stable employment and income, such as software developers, are not permitted to convert their S to B.

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Whats the difference between S & B? Other than a B leads to a C and, possibly, nationality?

As temporary refugees I don’t see why they would need a B.

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Afaik in this exemplary case it does happen that employers help with such a conversion.

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One of differences is that employers are less keen on hiring such persons due to unclear planned duration of stay, if I am not mistaken the govt has recently tried to mitigate it by promising an extra year of work authorisation once the status is terminated.

Another difference is that, many of such refugees, either from the beginning or even more so after having lived 3 years in Switzerland do want this option to be able to settle down. I don’t judge whether it’s bad or good to have this intent, it is what it is.

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What does this mean? “Not permitted” as in employer needs to follow the procedure of hiring a citizen of a 3rd country?

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It’s a lot already. And people have some more obstacles in everyday life in their interaction with banks, some service providers etc.

And why is it good for Switzerland to keep highly qualified specialists in the status of temporary refugees?

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But they are already working on this position. They are not being hired.

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Which is a catch-22 anyway, if they follow the procedure for the non-EU and some grumpy bureaucrat decides to reject their permit, they would simultaneously lose their refugee status too. (probably?)

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But, what is the issue?

  1. Do some refugees with S permit have applied to convert it to B by themselves and got their application rejected?

  2. Or has an employer applied for a B permit for a refugee with a S permit and the application was rejected?

B permits for salaried workers are initiated by employers. People may be already working under another permit, but those are the procedures.

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Converting S to B is the most discussed topic in the Ukrainian groups since about mid 2022. Of course, many employers tried to do this. There are rumours that some friend of a friend managed to do this, but most of people reported that their employers were told it’s not possible.

The only way to covert S to B at the moment is marriage.

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The S Permit in Switzerland is designated for individuals in need of protection who cannot return to their country of origin, often due to conflicts or disasters. This provisional residence permit allows them to stay temporarily while their situation is assessed. Holders of the S Permit can access certain rights similar to those with B or C permits, including the possibility of employment. There is no requirement that employers prove they cannot find CH/EU workers for that job.

Whereas B permits for non-EU nationals, are intended for individuals coming to work whose employers have justified that no Swiss or EU national can do the job. Often these permits are tied to the job. There also used for family reunification purposes.

They are not the same thing and both have benefits the other doesn’t have.

Edited to add. Migration laws is a political hot potato. Any push to losen the rules simply are not going to be successful . It is what it is.

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The government is pretty much stuck between a rock and a hard place on this one. Change the rules for the Ukrainians and they’d be opening the flood gates for everyone else to demand the same thing. They don’t want to set a precedent.

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The government will want to play it very safe now that we are finally seem to get closer to the much needed Bilaterals III with the EU. I assume the Croatia decision plays into that. Everything that does not directly contribute to a good outcome with the EU needs to wait.