How is continued residency determined for a C permit holder?
Is the 183 day rule all there is to it, or are there other considerations like centre of family life employment health insurance taxes other
Thanks.
Hi all,
What is it you want to accomplish?
Any of these can be a factor as far as I know. Number of days is the most obvious but if your center of life is elsewhere that might matter. If you're on an active C permit then you're registered here and will be paying health insurance here. As a resident, you pay taxes here on your worldwide income and assets.
If you need to go abroad for some time, there are a few reasons why you could ask to put the permit on hold.
Answering your second question first : there seems to be some confusion about coming into Switzerland as a visitor while the C permit is on hold, as you saw on the other thread.
Basically, I am trying for an assignment which may require me to stay in India for extended periods of time. My center of Life (family), taxes, and health insurance will continue to be in Switzerland. the problem is that I may need to stay outside Switzerland for more than 182 days, but I obviously will want to be here for the rest of the time, and do not want to lose my C permit.
is there a way out?
Is there no way to time it a bit more carefully with remote working, etc. so that you don't need to put the permit on hold or ride the line around 180 days? Prior to Covid I would have suggested flying back regularly so you're easily within the rules but now...it's really uncertain how things will go as we get into winter.
its a construction site assignment - difficult to do online. i know it will be best to stay within 180 days, but better to be prepared, also flexible for the client.
As far as I know, if you're out of the country for a (continuous) period of more than 6 months then you can lose your C permit. I don't know whether a quick weekend back in Switzerland breaks this period.
The other things are for determining tax residency, which it sounds like you would retain as you'd be deemed to have a tax domicile here.
That is the crux of the matter. It would be more than a weekend in my case
Fly back for a few days before you have been away 6 months, I would want to show local Bank transactions such as ATM/POS for as many months as possible.
I would recommend that you talk to your commune and ask them how they interpret the rules.
so... am i misunderstanging the rule to mean 'six months in a year' whil it is actually once in six months (just like the US Green Card)?
Are you planning to be away 11 months or 6 months & a few days.
If you go on 1 September you will have been in ch for 8 months this year. If you return for a week then you can do 9 months next year in CH
I will make maybe 5-6 trips, between 30-45 days each..
So, my maximum abscence from CH will not be more than 60 days (to be on the safe side), but the TOTAL abscence in a calendar year could be more than 6 months.
Can someone link the relevant law, please (DE/FR)?
The law is not specific on this topic and it is up to interpretation.
From the FNIA
Art. 63 Revocation of the permanent residence permit
Art. 90 Obligation to cooperate or assist the authorities in obtaining these documents.)
From the corresponding Ordonnance relative à l’admission, au séjour et à l’exercice d’une activité lucrative OASA (not available in English, used deepl.com fro translation) Note: LEI is French for FNIA.
Art. 79 Extinction de l’autorisation (art. 61 LEI )
Accordingly more information and how it is applied in practice can be found in the SEM guidelines,
See Chapter 3.5.3.2.3 and Chapter 8
https://www.sem.admin.ch/dam/sem/fr/...ngen-aug-f.pdf
and
many many thanks, aSwissintheUS for your detailed reply.
I dont think any of the reasons in Art 62 wil apply to me.. (hopefully )
However, quoting from Art 61 (2) - Expiry of permits
"If a foreign national leaves Switzerland without giving notice of departure, a short stay permit expires after three months, and a residence or permanent residence permit after six months . On request, a permanent residence permit may remain valid for a further four years."
So, if I re-enter CH before the expiry of six months, its all good?
See Art. 79 OASA above.
Which brings us back to your initial post. Centre of family life can be very important. A single person, or person whose family resides outside of Switzerland has it harder to proof that the short stays in Switzerland are not just visits, tourism, or business.
My business will be registered here, taxes & insurances will be paid here, i will continue to live in the apartment that I own here - most importantly - both my kids will continue to stay with me in my apartment. That should be enough i guess...
Is this a GmbH/Sarl or sole proprietorship? If you intend to become Swiss you might also consider if the year counts toward residency or not. In case you are send abroad by your employer you can be away for up to one year and it still counts.Not sure if this rule applies to sole proprietorships.
See SEM Handbook on naturalization
https://www.sem.admin.ch/dam/sem/fr/...g20-kap3-f.pdf
and
probably a sole propreitorship.
as long as i'm 'registered' in my commune for the year, the year should count, right?
becoming swiss is a process too long & complicated for me at the moment
There's no clear federal law about this (except the vague notion of "center of life" which is to be determined case by case, with a sizable amount of precedent-setting cases already decided by the Federal Court), and unfortunately your canton (FR) doesn't publish their guidelines on how they interpret the law. I think it's best to ask them (Migrationsamt FR) directly about the particularities of your situation.
As an example, there are the published [guidelines](file:///Users/skywalker/Downloads/Erlo%CC%88schen%20der%20Bewilligung%20IW%20.pdf) of canton Zürich which say:
So it looks like your C permit would be relatively safe in Zürich because your family keeps living here and you could probably make a case that your job should be counted as one requiring much travel even if it's not listed under the most frequent examples. (point 4.3).
Of course it could be different in FR which is why I recommend informing the FR immigration office about your plans and hopefully you'll get official assurance that all shall be well from them. Especially if you are going to carry out international contracts in the name of your Swiss business entity.
I definitely wouldn't just rely on never spending more than 6 months outside Switzerland at a time.
Another thing to consider - I assume the entire family is dependent upon your permit? If so then of course you don't want to hand it back or put it on hold or lose it by not being here enough days - because then the family would have to leave Switzerland too.
You're going to have to find a way to schedule the work such that you are A) not out of Switzerland for more than 6 months in one stretch and B) in Switzerland at least the minimum number of days per year.
Since you're going to India, it will be noted when you leave Shengen and when you return because your passport is scanned.